Life Cycle Assessment

A product-oriented method
for sustainability analysis

UNEP LCA Training Kit

Module h – The mathematics of LCI
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Contents • Representation of processes
• Representation of goal
definition
• Balancing
• Environmental interventions
• Overall LCI structure
• Advantages
• New concepts
 Representation of processes (1)

• Production of electricity:
– in flow diagram terms:
2 liter of fuel 10 kWh of electricity
1 kg of CO2

0.1 kg of SO2
– in mathematical terms:
  2
 
 10 
 1 
 
 0 .1 
 0 
 
 Representation of processes (2)

• Production of fuel:
– in flow diagram terms:
100 liter of fuel
10 kg of CO2
50 liter of crude oil
2 kg of SO2
– in mathematical terms:
 100 
 
 0 
 10 
 
 2 
  50 
 
 Representation of goal definition

• Functional unit/reference flow:

– in flow diagram terms:
1000 kWh of electricity
? kg of CO2
? liter of crude oil
? kg of SO2
– in mathematical terms:
 0 
  (? liter of fuel)
1000 
 ? 
 
 ? 
 ? 
 
 Balancing (1)

• Need to match supply and demand:

100 liter 200

200 liter
2 liter 1000 kWh 1000 kWh
10 kWh

2  100

10 kg CO2
20 100
1 kgkg
COCO
2 2

?
120
100
kg kg
COCO
2 2

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 Balancing (1)

• Need to scale processes:

– production of electricity by a factor of 100
– production of fuel by a factor of 2
• More formally: balance equations:
  2  s1  100  s2  0

10  s1  0  s2  1000
• Or in matrix terms:

  2 100  s1   0 
     
 10 0  s2  1000 

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 Balancing (2)

• From concrete equations with matrix coefficients

  2 100  s1   0 
     
 10 0  s2  1000 
• … to abstract equations with symbols

•
As f
… that can be solved by standard techniques

• A becoming
s…and 1f
concrete again

 s1  100 
    
 s2   2 

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 Environmental interventions (1)

• Apply same scaling factors to environmental flows:

 1 s1  10  s2  ?

 0.1 s1  2  s2  ?
0  s  50  s  ?
 1 2
• In matrix terms

 1 10   ?
  s1   
 0.1 2     ? 
 0  50  s2   ? 
   

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 Environmental interventions (2)

• From concrete equations with matrix coefficients

 1 10   ?
  s1   
 0.1 2     ? 
 0  50  s2   ? 
   
• … to abstract equations with symbols

Bs  g
• … in which we can insert the previous result

g BA 1
f concrete again
• … and becoming

 g1   120 
   
 g 2    14 
 g    100 
 3  

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 Overall LCI structure

• Combining balancing and interventions:

g  BA1f  Λf
• with the intensity matrix

Λ  BA 1

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 Advantages of mathematical treatment

• Explicit treatment, transparent

• Guidance for software implementation
• New insight in LCA
– e.g., allocation
• Advanced theoretical concepts:
– perturbation theory
– covariance structure
– stochastic theory

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 New concepts

• Terms:
– technology matrix, scaling vector, intervention matrix, final
demand vector, intensity matrix, …
• Techniques:
– matrix conditioning, principal components analysis, …

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