Integrating life cycle inventory and process design techniques for the early estimate of energy and material consumption data

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful tool to identify direct and indirect environmental burdens associated with products, processes and services. A critical phase of the LCA methodology is the collection of representative inventory data for the energy and material streams related to the production process. In the evaluation of new and emerging chemical processes, measured data are known only at laboratory scale and may have limited connection to the environmental footprint of the same process implemented at industrial scale. On the other hand, in the evaluation of processes already established at commercial scale, the availability of process data might be hampered by industrial confidentiality. In both cases, the integration of simple process design techniques in the LCA can contribute to overcome the lack of primary data, allowing a more correct quantification of the life cycle inventory. The present paper shows, through the review of case study examples, how simplified process design, modeling and simulation can support the LCA framework to provide a preliminary estimate of energy and material consumption data suitable for environmental assessment purposes. The discussed case studies illustrate the implementation of process design considerations to tackle availability issues of inventory data in different contexts. By evidencing the case-specific nature of the problem of preliminary conceptual process design, the study calls for a closer collaboration of process design experts and life cycle analysts in the green development of new products and processes.