Life Cycle Assessment as a basis for Sustainability Thinking · 2019-03-11 · Bessemer Masterclass 2014 Tata Steel Slide 11 The Process Set out the Goals/ Define the System Clearly

Cleveland Institution of Engineers

March 6th 2019

Louis Brimacombe

Chairman,IOM3 Sustainable Development Group

Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Engineering, University of Sheffield

Life Cycle Assessment as a basis for Sustainability Thinking

2

Sustainability ?

Circular economy ?

How to make things better, not worse?

( but for who, and in what respect ?)

Life Cycle Thinking ?

The high level challenges for a better society …..

UN Sustainable Development Goals – Launched September 2015

Tata Steel Slide

4

Materials will be a major contributor to the goal of 9 Bn people ‘living well’

Tata Steel Slide

5

How to make things better without making things worse…..

• (2010 forecast) The number of middle class consumers will increase from 1 to 4 Bn in next 20 years

• More recent estimates at 3 to 6 Bn in next 10 yrs

• WBCSD aspiration is for 9 bn people ‘living well’ by 2050, without compromise for future generations

Conventional pathways to 9bn people ‘living well’ will put a strain on Resource Consumption and Climate Change so will require innovation and excellence in materials developments, and a rethink about material and product life cycles.

………The Circular Economy …….

Successful Businesses will position themselves to address this opportunity/threat

Usage / Share

Refurbish / Remanufacture / Recondition

Closed Loop Recycling

Open Loop Recycling / Cascading

Minimal resource loss / waste

Minimal & responsible virgin resource inputs

Direct & indirect value creation

through process & product / service

efficiency

Life extension/ Service Support

Reuse / Redistribute /

Making the Economy More Circular with Value Optimisation

7

Life Cycle Thinking

…. Is increasingly important to consider the wider

consequences of strategies aimed at making

improvements, but it requires a methodological

approach ……

8

Life Cycle Assessment

Indicates the scale of environmental and resource

impacts associated with an activity or function

from the extraction of raw materials, through to

‘end use’ impacts.

LCA has a Role in Understanding the Benefits of a Circular Economy

Is it better to build more robust products (higher LCI), for extended service life ?

Is it better to use more energy intensive materials (higher LCI), to gain the fuel efficiency benefit from use phase light-weighting ?

Should we compromise functional efficiency to make products more recyclable ?

All recycling processes (and transport) have impacts, so what is the value of recycling ? What does recycling/reuse actually offset/avoid ?

Is it better to design for end-of-life recycling and/or to source material from recycled sources.

20

Tata Steel Slide 10Bessemer Masterclass 2014

How do we carry out an LCA ?


The Process

Set out the Goals/ Define the System

Clearly describe system function/ set out what is ‘in scope’ and define boundary

Data Collection

New data using questionnaires and the rest access existing LCA datasets.

Modelling

Linking system datasets, make methodological choices. E.g. allocation for co-products.

Run the Model, analyse outputs, check and revise

Generate the Life Cycle Inventory of the system,

Impact Assessment

Take Inventory Data and group information to generate Impact datasets, such as ‘Global Warming Potential’

Interpretation

Understand sensitivity of results to data and methods. Check data, report conclusion.

Tata Steel Slide 12

Life Cycle Inventory : Lists mass inputs/outputs from Earth, and to the Earth

LCA begins with generating so called ‘Inventories’ or LCI’s

This LCI lists all inputs and outputs from earth associated with a defined system

The LCI list here is for ‘Global production of 1 kg steel product (at factory gate) via BF Route’

The highlights here included confirmation that 2.128 Kg of CO2 are emitted for 1 kg of steel product.

Major Articles* Units Average

11 sites

Inputs: (r) Coal (in ground) kg 0.643398982

(r) Dolomite (CaCO3.MgCO3, in ground) kg 0.01626926

(r) Iron (Fe) kg 1.748361164

(r) Limestone (CaCO3, in ground) kg 0.011457251

(r) Natural Gas (in ground) kg 0.030582934

(r) Oil (in ground) kg 0.047137374

(r) Zinc (Zn) kg 2.15E-09

Ferrous Scrap (net) kg 1.45E-01

Water Used (total) litre 17.92589455

Outputs: (a) Cadmium (Cd) g 6.33E-05

(a) Carbon Dioxide (CO2) g 2128.117309

(a) Carbon Monoxide (CO) g 33.00088145

(a) Dioxins (unspecified, as TEq) g 3.60E-08

(a) Hydrogen Chloride (HCl) g 0.044157425

(a) Hydrogen Sulphide (H2S) g 0.068293481

(a) Lead (Pb) g 3.69E-03

(a) Methane (CH4) g 0.527704385

(a) Nitrogen Oxides (NOx as NO2) g 2.973955418

(a) Nitrous Oxide (N2O) g 0.112232902

(a) Particulates (Total) g 1.74E+00

(a) Sulphur Oxides (SOx as SO2) g 2.582408291

(w) Chromium (Total) g 9.36E-05

(w) COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) g 0.331073716

(w) Iron (Fe++, Fe3+) g 0.030940552

(w) Lead (Pb++, Pb4+) g -4.88E-04

(w) Nickel (Ni++, Ni3+) g 2.16E-04

(w) Nitrogenous Matter (unspecified, as N) g 0.015650293

Non-allocated byproducts (See Table Below) kg 5.22E-02

Waste (total) kg 1.564155491

Bessemer Masterclass 2014 13

LCA and Impact Assessment

Inventory

GWPCO2

CF4

CH4

N2O

NOx

APSO2

NOx

HCl

HF

H2S

PCOPCH4

Styrene

NMVOC

Classification

GWPCO2

CF4

CH4

N2O

NOx

APSO2

NOx

HCl

HF

H2S

PCOPCH4

Styrene

NMVOC

Classification

Airborne EmissionsCarbon Dioxide, CO2

Carbon Tetrafluoride, CF4

Methane, CH4

Nitrous Oxide, N2O

Other Nitrogen Oxides, NOx

Sulphur Dioxide, SO2

Hydrogen Chloride, HCl

Hydrogen Fluoride, HF

Hydrogen Sulphide, H2S

Styrene

Non-methane VOCs

…

Waterborne Emissions

…

Waste…

Characterisation

x 1

x 6300

x 21

x 310

x 7

x 1

x 0.7

x 0.88

x 1.6

x 1.88

x 0.466

x 0.007

x 0.766

Characterisation

x 1

x 6300

x 21

x 310

x 7

x 1

x 0.7

x 0.88

x 1.6

x 1.88

x 0.466

x 0.007

x 0.766

Acidification PotentialPhoto-chemical Oxidation Potential

Global Warming Potential

CategoryDefinition

Acidification PotentialAcidification PotentialPhoto-chemical Oxidation Potential

Photo-chemical Oxidation Potential

Global Warming Potential

CategoryDefinition


14

2050 Scenarios for Global Steel Manufacture

2010

Low Carbon

Process routes:

ULCOS, higher

recycling and

operational

efficiency

….and focus on the product benefits

2050

Reduce,

Reuse/Remanufacture

1 BtCO2

Post Kyoto

aspiration

50-80%

reduction

Global Steel

CO2 emissions

2 BtCO2

4 BtCO2

BAU 2050

2.4 Bt Steel

1.2 Bt Steel

Tata Steel Slide 15

Life Cycle Assessment Profile for Steel Products

15

Use Phase Dominates

Vehicles / Buildings / Engineering

Raw material

extraction

Material

Production

Assembly &

Distribution

Use End of life

En

vir

on

me

nta

l Im

pa

ct

Change footer via View menu/Header & Footer

9


Life Cycle Assessment of Railway Sleepers

• Wood – renewable resource

• Concrete – low energy material (per kg)

• Steel – recyclable

• Which is the more

sustainable of these

systems?

….and the importance of System

Definition in LCA

19

Sleeper Systems

Steel

Concrete

Timber


Model

Railway system

Installation End of lifeProduction


System Definition and Project Scope

• Product system:

• Steel/concrete/timber intensive rail systems

• BS113 rail

• Type 436 steel sleepers/F41 concrete sleepers

• Ballast

• Function: straight, mainline track for passenger/freight use

• Functional unit: 1 km of track over 45 year time period

• System boundary: cradle to grave

• Allocation procedure: system expansion

• Impact assessment: global warming, Waste


GGWWP

Sleeper

Material

Transport

(Sleepers)

Installation EOL Total

Steel 1926 25 122 -777 1296

Concrete 1015 83 563 -476 1216

Wood* 817 72 474 -397 966

GWP (t of CO2 equivalent)

• Did not include creosote production/treatment but data acquired later

showed high impacts of creosote, so eliminating wood as an option.


The Product System – Ballast

• Hi-spec quarried granite


Waste

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

Steel Concrete Wood

Wa

ste

(t)

Total

Production

Transprt

Installation

EOL

Tata Steel Slide 25

Life Cycle Assessment Profile for Steel Products

25

Use Phase Dominates

Vehicles / Buildings / Engineering

Raw material

extraction

Material

Production

Assembly &

Distribution

Use End of life

En

vir

on

me

nta

l Im

pa

ct


9

Realisation: To use LCA to demonstrate the Role of Steel

Steel

LCI’s

Case Studies

EPD’s

PEF’s

Labelling

Benchmarking

ResultsMarket ModelsData

Aluminium

CFRP

Concrete

Timber

….Materials

26

Tata Steel Slide 27

Carbon Emissions Reduction Policies - Automotive

• Today most vehicle carbon emissions occur during the “use” phase.

• Regulations & targets are used to reduce ‘tailpipe’ emissions.

• Car makers respond with Energy Efficiency, Electric Vehicles and light weighting.

• How will this effect the LCA ? 27

Tail–pipe regulations

Source: International Council on Clean Transportation, 2013


Tata Steel Slide 28

Primary production of low-density automotive materials is GHG intensive

Mild Steel

Aluminium

Magnesium

Carbon FRP

‘Material’ GHG (in kg CO2e for the equivalent component vs. 100 kg mild steel)

AHSSteel

1575

880

811

173

230

Mid-Range

kgCO2e per kg

Potential Weight

Saving (%)

2.3 -

2.3 25

12.1 33

31.5 50

22.0 60

kg CO2e

Source: WorldAutoSteel

Automotive light weighting and material impacts

28


Tata Steel Slide 29

Vehicle emissions and Life Cycle Assessment

At what point is the carbon impact of producing materials compensated for by use phase savings due to light-weighting.

material production

& recycling

vehicle use

Carbon Footprint

Distance travelledTotal distance car travels

during life – e.g.150,000 km

Crossover distance

Steel (AHSS)Al


13

http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldautosteel825/7018736863/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldautosteel825/7018736863/


Construction Alternatives : Glulam (Glued laminated timber) vs Steel Frame

Produced by laminating smaller pieces of timber into a large structural member by bonding with adhesives.

Functionally equivalent to steel beams and columns

92 kg/m 51 kg/m

16m span

130 kg/m 92 kg/m

18m span


Understanding Alternatives : Methodology and EOL scenarios

Variation in Embodied CO2e for Different End-of-Life Options

Fo

ssil O

nly

Fo

ssil +

Bio

ma

ss

80

% r

eu

se

Fo

ssil O

nly

Fo

ssil +

Bio

ma

ss

Fo

ssil O

nly

Fo

ssil +

Bio

ma

ss

Fo

ssil O

nly

Fo

ssil +

Bio

ma

ss

Fo

ssil O

nly

Fo

ssil

+ B

iom

ass

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

Steel

Frame

Timber Frame Steel

Frame

With Energy

Recovery

Without Energy

Recovery

With methane

recovery

Without methane

recovery

Current Practice Reuse Timber Frame 100% Incineration Timber Frame 100% Landfill

No

rma

lis

ed

tC

O2e

Steel

now

Timber now

(2 Methods)Steel best

practice

Timber alternative end-of-life options

best worst


Defining Sustainability ?

Classic definition (Brundtland):

“Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

UK Government definition:

“Sustainable development is about ensuring a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come.”

British Standard 8900 series :

An enduring, balanced approach to economic activity, environmental responsibility and social progress

34

3

4

Safety / Comfort /

Aesthetics/Functionality

Viability / Affordability / LCC/ WLC

LCA/Carbon footprint

Resources use

Along with environmental considerations, the social and economic performance of

a material is crucial for making sustainable decisions. A life cycle approach helps to

identify and develop holistic and robust solutions.

Material choice

Now described in

BS8905 Framework

Standard,

‘Sustainable Use of

Materials’

Making the Sustainable Choice: Triple Bottom Line Life Cycle Thinking


Social Value : Across the Life Cycle

Supplier ResponsibilitySocial Value in Supply Chain

Product PerformanceSocial Value to the User

Length of Service/Legacy Future Potential Value

Communities Welfare

Training

+ve H&S

Responsible Sourcing Stds

Education welfare

GDP Contribution

Slave Labour

Child Labour

Toxicology

-ve H&S

+ve Visual Appeal

Tactility

Time Efficiency

Newness

Reliability

% availability

Affordability

Safe Operation

Noise

Unsafe

Inconvenient

-ve Visual Appeal

Incineration

Quality of life

Enabling services

Recycling (closed loop)

Recycling (open loop)

Repairable

Retained Value

Reusable

Durability

Toxicology

Oceanic Impact

Landfill

Conflict Minerals

+ve Good

-ve Poor

Job creation

Comfort Level

Space

Deal Breakers

ResponsibleSourcing schemes

LCA deficits

LCA benefits

Tata Steel Slide 36

36

Design for Sustainability

Provides highest social value across the product

life cycle for the longest duration.

Although difficult to quantify, social value is

perhaps the most important element of truly

sustainable design

Needs to be balanced wrt Affordability/Profitability

Tata Steel Slide

2018 IPCC Report (October 8th,) has recommend

mechanisms to achieve 1.5 0c including:

Accelerating current CO2 reduction strategies by

Huge increases in efforts towards:

Renewables & Low C Energy Sources (and Storage)

Energy (and Materials) Efficiency

Carbon Capture Storage/Usage and Sequestration

Atmospheric carbon removal ?

Support for financial measures/incentives

….and more

Busines

s as

usualPledges

Goal

+3.5°C

+2°C

90

60

30

0

2000 2030 2100

120

150

+4.5°C

Gig

ato

ns

of C

O2

eq

uiv

ale

nt p

er y

ea

r

Business as Usual, Paris Pledges, and 2°C Path

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/23/world/car

bon-pledges.html?_r=1

Note: 2°C = 3.6°F; 3.5°C = 6.3°F; 2 4.5°C = 8.1°F.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/23/world/carbon-pledges.html?_r=1

Life Cycle Assessment – Trends and Potential effect on materials impact

41

With 'Zero Use Phase' , the impacts will shift to

make material impacts more important

Raw material

extraction

Material

Production

Assembly &

Distribution

Use End of life

En

vir

on

men

tal Im

pact

‘Existing policies, which focus on energy efficiency, need to be widened to include

resources use and environmental impacts across the life-cycle of buildings’

Source: EU2020 strategy, Sustainable Buildings (consultation Oct 2013)

Tata Steel Slide

A Vision for Steel : 2050

Reuse warehouse on site

Renewables on site/and LC via grid

Flexed Scrap/Primary Manufacture

Low carbon manufacturing(CCS/U)

Eliminate Yield losses in SC

Alloy Processing/Management

Additive manufacturing/3DP

Near final shape products

Closer Customer/SC collaborations

(NS products /Recovery/Reuse)

Leasing/Lifetime Product tracking

(Internet of things)

Stronger/lighter products ( HSS)

Functional/Durable Coatings

Re

manu

factu

rin

g

& R

e-u

se

Ware

house

STEEL

PLANT

2050

OEMs Construction CUSTOMERS

Commodities

Steel

Additiv

e

Ma

nufa

ctu

ring

Powder

products

Powders

Allo

y

Pro

ce

ssin

g

Prim

ary

Pro

duction

(HIs

arn

a,

ULC

OS

)

EA

F (

Scra

p

Rem

eltin

g)

Scrap/quality

sorting returnsRenting,

leasing,

selling

Ore

Scrap

Scrap & Alloy

management Mn, Bo, V

OEMs

partners in

supply chain

Downstream

Processing

(rolling, coating,

shaping, 3D

printing)

Secondary

products,

same function

Near shape products

Shapes nearer

customer needs,

customisation

End of Life(value optimisation by separation to maintain residual value)

PhotoVoltaics

Low carbon

ENERGY

Added

value by-

products

Information management

Product tracking & ownership

Internet of Things

Use phase

CCS

Tata Steel Slide 43Worldsteel PSCO Sept 2015Meeting the UN SDGs will require a life cycle approach

to attain high levels of Social Value but with affordable

and less resource intensive materials/energy solutions

Thank you

Life Cycle Assessment as a basis for Sustainability Thinking · 2019-03-11 · Bessemer Masterclass 2014 Tata Steel Slide 11 The Process Set out the Goals/ Define the System Clearly

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