What Is Life Cycle Analysis?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method to evaluate the overall environmental impact of a product or a type of facility from the "cradle to the grave". It is observed from the breadth of regional, national and global and its sustainable development problem. Therefore, using LCA to evaluate various alternatives for different products or facilities, an optimal solution can be selected. ^[1]

Among the many definitions of LCA, the definitions of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), and the European Union are the most authoritative. ISO is defined as: a method for summarizing and assessing all the inputs and outputs of a product (or service) system during the life cycle of the environment and potential impacts; SETAC is defined as: through the identification of energy, raw material consumption and pollution emissions and Quantitative objective method for assessing the environmental load of a product's processes or activities; the European Union defines it as a method for quantitatively assessing the environmental load of a product based on a survey of the production process activities from the acquisition of raw materials to its final disposal. The above definitions collectively reflect a core of LCA: a comprehensive analysis and assessment of all environmental impacts caused by the entire life process of products, production and services from the cradle to the grave. ^[2]

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), sometimes called "

The life cycle analysis shows that in addition to constructing wastewater and sludge disposal facilities with good treatment effects as important environmental protection measures to control water pollution, it is also necessary to consider other important environmental impacts in the entire life cycle of the wastewater treatment plant. Involving the whole process of facility design, material and energy acquisition, construction process, operation management and scrapping and demolition, linking technical, economic, social and psychological factors with environmental protection. Therefore, in addition to evaluating the environmental pollution and ecological impacts of wastewater treatment facilities, LCA considers the resource and energy consumption levels of the facilities, and also links resource consumption and pollution emissions to global environmental issues to fully reveal a process facility plan Advantages and disadvantages. ^[1]