Life cycle assessment LCA

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely used methodology to assess the environmental impact of various goods and services. The methodology has a framework that enables consistent comparisons of various system solutions and alternative technologies with respect to environmental properties. Such an assessment can take into account many different environmental impact categories, such as global warming, acidification, toxicity, etc.

Such a broad perspective is important in order to avoid that measures to reduce global warming cause other significant environmental problems. An LCA requires system boundaries to be properly set out and designed to meet this type of challenge.

The course gives a practical introduction to LCA that can be applied in product development.

The first part of the course consists of an introduction to the theoretical methodology and will be teached in parallel with the use of SimaPro software.

In the second part, students will develop a project on a selected product system.

Knowledge: The course will give the student knowledge about:

• Life cycle assessments (LCA) for the assessment of the environmental impacts of various systems, technologies and products.
• Use of this methodology on various energy systems and technologies. The course will give the student insight into:
• How to carry out robust environmental assessments

Skills: The course will enable the student to:

• Conduct a simplified LCA as independent work, as well as more complex assessments under supervision.
• To use the software Simapro 9 (faculty version).
• To write an LCA report.

General competence: The course will give the student an understanding of:

• How to evaluate the environmental properties of different product systems

The course is taught using different learning methods (lectures, exercises, project work).

The first part will be a welcome seminar (digitally). Lectures will conducted as recorded video lectures.

There will be 3 additional seminars where there will be lectures and exercises in the use of SimaPro and how to do a LCA for the project work (exam)

Independent project work is an important part of the learning, and guidance will be offered throughout the semester