Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment (CEENE): a comprehensive Life Cycle Impact Assessment method for resource accounting

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to establish a comprehensive resource-based life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method which is scientifically sound and that enables to assess all kinds of resources that are deprived from the natural ecosystem, all quantified on one single scale, free of weighting factors. The method is based on the exergy concept. Consistent exergy data on fossils, nuclear and metal ores, minerals, air, water, land occupation, and renewable energy sources were elaborated, with well defined system boundaries. Based on these data, the method quantifies the exergy "taken away" from natural ecosystems, and is thus called the cumulative exergy extraction from the natural environment (CEENE). The acquired data set was coupled with a state-of-the art life cycle inventory database, ecoinvent. In this way, the method is able to quantitatively distinguish eight categories of resources withdrawn from the natural environment: renewable resources, fossil fuels, nuclear energy, metal ores, minerals, water resources, land resources, and atmospheric resources. Third, the CEENE method is illustrated for a number of products that are available in ecoinvent, and results are compared with common resource oriented LCIA methods. The application to the materials in the ecoinvent database showed that fossil resources and land use are of particular importance with regard to the total CEENE score, although the other resource categories may also be significant.

Toward a Framework for Resource Efficiency Evaluation in Industry: Recommendations for Research and Innovation Projects

“…Moreover, water is a key resource in the process industry [17], and this definition explicitly considers it as a resource. Atmospheric resources and elements present in water bodies are also considered as resources in the scientific literature [18]. However, they are abundant in their media and do not necessarily represent a major challenge for the industry today.…”

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Light-Weight Eco-composites

“…After the applicability of exergy in LCIA studied by Finnveden and Ostlund (1997) a range of models based on evaluation of cumulative exergy extraction from natural environment were developed, e.g. indicator cumulative exergy demand introduced by Bosch et al(2007) and LCIA approaches proposed by Dewulf et al (2007) which aggregated the exergy data on fossil resources, nuclear and metal ores, minerals, air, water, land occupation, and renewable energy sources. This exergy consumption based LCIA approach was also applied to Eco-invent datasets (Frischknecht et al, 2007a).…”

Potential of life cycle assessment for supporting the management of critical raw materials

“…These include material flow analysis (Adriaanse et al 1997;Matthews et al 2000;OECD 2008), energy analysis (Haberl 2001), exergy analysis (Dewulf et al 2007), environmentally extended input-output tables (EEIOT) (Leontief 1970;Tukker et al 2006;Eurostat 2008;Miller and Blair 2009), and life cycle assessment (LCA) (ISO 14044 2006). This paper focuses on LCA; LCA being a tool that helps to systematically analyze the use of raw materials in relation to the supply chain, use phase, and end-of-life waste management of specific goods and services.…”