Proposal of a method for allocation in building-related environmental LCA based on economic parameters

Borg, Mathias; Paulsen, Jacob; Trinius, Wolfram

doi:10.1007/bf02979378

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The factor V s /V ev represents the market value of the stationary battery system with respect to the market value of multiple LIBs that constituted the EV battery system. Similar LCA allocation methodology based on economic value or quality reduction parameters has been suggested in prior studies (Werner et al 2007;Borg et al 2001;Karlsson 1994, etc.). In this approach, I bs would be…”

Section: Allocationmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…(a) Quality-based allocation: This approach is usually based on physical qualities such as material mass, purity, and energy content or economic attributes of the virgin and recycled material in the case of open-loop recycling (Knoepfel 1994;Ekvall and Tillman 1997;Kim et al 1997;Nicholson et al 2009;Borg et al 2001;Guinée et al 2004, etc.). In the case of EV LIB reuse, the cogent properties are associated with the battery's chemical and physical attributes (e.g., energy storage capacity), which determine the extent to which the used LIB can meet the functional demands of secondary energy storage.…”

Section: Allocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Environmental trade-offs across cascading lithium-ion battery life cycles

Richa

Babbitt

Nenadic

et al. 2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

151

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose The purpose of this study was to analyze the environmental trade-offs of cascading reuse of electric vehicle (EV) lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in stationary energy storage at automotive end-of-life. Methods Two systems were jointly analyzed to address the consideration of stakeholder groups corresponding to both first (EV) and second life (stationary energy storage) battery applications. The environmental feasibility criterion was defined by an equivalent-functionality lead-acid (PbA) battery. A critical methodological challenge addressed was the allocation of environmental impacts associated with producing LIBs across the EV and stationary use systems. The model also tested sensitivity to parameters such as the fraction of battery cells viable for reuse, service life of refurbished cells, and PbA battery efficiency. Results and discussion From the perspective of EV applications, cascading reuse of an LIB in stationary energy storage can reduce net cumulative energy demand and global warming potential by 15 % under conservative estimates and by as much as 70 % in ideal refurbishment and reuse conditions. When post-EV LIB cells were compared directly to a new PbA system for stationary energy storage, the reused cells generally had lower environmental impacts, except in scenarios where very few of the initial battery cells and modules could be reused and where reliability was low (e.g., life span of 1 year or less) in the secondary application. Conclusions These findings demonstrate that EV LIB reuse in stationary application has the potential for dual benefit-both from the perspective of offsetting initial manufacturing impacts by extending battery life span as well as avoiding production and use of a less-efficient PbA system. It is concluded that reuse decisions and diversion of EV LIBs toward suitable stationary applications can be based on life cycle centric studies. However, technical feasibility of these systems must still be evaluated, particularly with respect to the ability to rapidly analyze the reliability of EV LIB cells, modules, or packs for refurbishment and reuse in secondary applications.

show abstract

Section: Allocationmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Allocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental trade-offs across cascading lithium-ion battery life cycles

Richa

Babbitt

Nenadic

et al. 2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

151

121

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…One methodology for handling economic allocation in the building sector is proposed by Borg and colleagues (2001). They introduce the concept of a “virtual parallel time perspective,” which basically substitutes historical and future processes and values with current data.…”

Section: Analysis Of Economic Allocation In Lca: Methodological Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Allocation in Life Cycle Assessment

Ardente¹,

Cellura²

2012

J of Industrial Ecology

150

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines methods for analyzing allocation in life cycle assessment (LCA); it focuses on comparisons of economic allocation with other feasible alternatives. The International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) guideline 14044 indicates that economic allocation should only be used as a last resort, when other methods are not suitable. However, the LCA literature reports several examples of the use of economic allocation. This is due partly to its simplicity and partly to its ability to illustrate the properties of complex systems. Sometimes a price summarizes complex attributes of product or service quality that cannot be easily measured by physical criteria. On the other hand, economic allocation does have limitations arising, for example, from the variability of prices and the low correlation between prices and physical flows. This article presents the state of the debate on the topic and some hypothetical examples for illustration. A general conclusion is that it is not possible to determine one "best" allocation method. The allocation procedure has to be selected on a case-by-case basis and no single approach is suitable for every situation. Despite its limitations, economic allocation has certain qualities that make it flexible and potentially suitable for different contexts. In some situations, economic allocation should not be the last methodological resort. The option of economic allocation should be considered, for example, whenever the prices of coproducts and coservices differ widely.

show abstract

“…In life cycle assessment (LCA), the presence of multiple cycles amplifies instances of multifunctionality and hence, application of end‐of‐life (EoL) allocation. There are currently multiple approaches to handle EoL allocation (Allacker et al., 2017; Borg et al., 2001; Schrijvers et al., 2016b). For example, the issue is sometimes solved using a strict definition of system boundaries, such as the cut‐off and 50/50 approaches (Ekvall & Tillman, 1997).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attributional and consequential life cycle assessments in a circular economy with integration of a quality indicator: A case study of cascading wood products

Tanguay

Essoua

Amor

2021

J of Industrial Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The growing popularity of the concepts of circular economy and resource cascade has intensified the need for consistent handling of multifunctionality‐related challenges when modeling multiple cycles in life cycle assessment (LCA). In LCA, end‐of‐life upcycling and downcycling effects (also known as quality changes), triggered by the presence of multiple life cycles, have only recently begun to be studied from a consequential perspective, and no studies exist investigating attributional aspects. In this paper, a novel approach that considers quality in attributional LCA is proposed. The attributional, cut‐off, open loop, and proposed approaches are compared in the form of a cascading case study. The implications of integrating quality in both perspectives are contrasted by modeling the same case study under a consequential perspective. By performing sensitivity analysis on the quality parameters in attributional LCA, we found that the integration of quality influences the results of the proposed approach by up to 15%. In the case of consequential LCA, the implementation of quality yields an influence between 97% and 138% of the results for each unit variation of quality. Comparison between the two perspectives of quality shows the same trend of supporting high‐quality cascades. However, the attributional perspective of quality accomplishes this by redistributing impacts, while the consequential perspective affects the external benefits generated by the cascade. Considering the influence of quality on the results of both perspectives, future work should focus on establishing the technical or economic properties that would allow for practical use of quality in various circular economy and resource cascade applications.

show abstract

Proposal of a method for allocation in building-related environmental LCA based on economic parameters

Cited by 15 publications

References 2 publications

Environmental trade-offs across cascading lithium-ion battery life cycles

Environmental trade-offs across cascading lithium-ion battery life cycles

Economic Allocation in Life Cycle Assessment

Attributional and consequential life cycle assessments in a circular economy with integration of a quality indicator: A case study of cascading wood products

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About