Quality assessment of life cycle inventory data for composites

Abstract

Environmental sustainability over the life cycle of a product is rising as a key driver in the selection of materials and manufacturing processes. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly used as a standardised, science-based decision-making support tool to quantify and identify potential environmental impacts through all phases of the product life.

A major step involved in completing a Life Cycle Inventory (LCI), and so an LCA study, is the collection, analysis, and quality check of data on the investigated processes, data to quantify the inputs and output (e.g., elementary flow of raw materials, energy, waste, and co-products) of the product system that crosses the LCA study system boundary.

The goal of this study is to provide LCA practitioners in the composites industry with an approach to assess the overall quality of LCI results by integrating the qualitative and quantitative information of input data, uncertainty, and sensitivity analysis of results.