TITLE:
Life Cycle Assessment of Household Water Tanks—A Study of LLDPE, Mild Steel and RCC Tanks
AUTHORS:
Kunal N. Shah, Nanik S. Varandani, Monika Panchani
KEYWORDS:
Life Cycle Assessment, Water Tanks, Linear Low-Density Polyethylene (LLDPE), RCC, Mild Steel, Recipe Endpoint Method
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.7 No.5,
April
25,
2016
ABSTRACT:
A case of
household water tanks, 1000 L capacity, made of RCC, LLDPE and mild steel
(stainless steel) was evaluated for life cycle analysis. The scope of the
research comprised of the raw materials, energy inputs and corresponding
emissions during all phases of product making such as extraction of raw
material, it’s processing, followed by manufacturing and transport, as well as
use and reuse of the product. Simapro 8 (System for Integrated environMental
Assessment of PROducts), a modelling software, from Dutch PRé Consultants was
used to conduct the life cycle analysis. Simapro 8 enables systematic and
transparent modelling and analysis of complex life cycles based on the
recommendations of the ISO 14040 series of standards. In the present study the
most common method which is acceptable worldwide “Recipe Endpoint method”
(ReCiPe) was employed. ReCiPe computes the impact categories and classifies
them into two classes based on relevant arrays of characterization factors.
Simapro addresses impact categories viz. ozone depletion, human toxicity,
ionizing radiation, photochemical oxidant formation, particulate matter
formation, terrestrial acidification, climate change, terrestrial ecotoxicity,
agricultural land occupation, urban land occupation, natural land
transformation, marine ecotoxicity, marine eutrophication, fresh water
eutrophication, fresh water ecotoxicity, fossil fuel depletion, minerals
depletion, fresh water depletion at the midpoint level. While at the Endpoint
level, the impact categories are multiplied by corresponding damage factors and
integrated to be represented as three Endpoint level categories, viz. human
health, ecosystems and resource depletion. The three endpoint categories are
normalized, weighted, and aggregated into a single score. LCA studies indicate
that household water tanks of LLDPE have least environmental implications
considering impacts on human health, ecosystems and resource depletion as
compared to its counterparts viz. Household water tanks made up of mild steel
and RCC. The sequence of the material with decreasing impacts is concrete tanks
> mild steel tank > LLDPE tanks. The overall assessment is centred on the
elements such as material inputs, energy inputs and environmental emissions.