LCA ยท Work package E
Nowadays, assessing the potential environmental impacts of an innovative technology has become an obvious choice. The most widely used tool for quantifying them is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology, which makes it possible to identify the environmental hot spots in the life cycle of a product, in order to prioritise improvements. LCA is also used to compare products and processes. According to ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006 standards, the four main phases of an LCA are:
- Goal and scope definition. The goal definition states the intended application, the reasons for carrying out the study, the intended audience, and whether the results are intended to be used in publicly disclosed comparative assertions. The scope definition includes: the product system to be studied; the function(s) of the product system(s); the functional unit; the system boundary; allocation procedures; impact categories and impact assessment methodology; data requirements; assumptions; limitations; and the type and format of the report.
- Life cycle inventory analysis. A model of the product life cycle is built, with all the environmental inputs and outputs. Consideration should be given to the need for allocation procedures when dealing with systems involving multiple products.
- Life cycle impact assessment. The results of the life cycle inventory are assigned to impact categories and, for each of them, an indicator is selected and its result is calculated.
- Interpretation. A systematic procedure to identify, quantify, check, evaluate and present the conclusions.
In the AURIGA project, the functional unit is 1 kg of captured carbon dioxide; this reference, to which the inputs and outputs will be related, ensures the comparability of LCA results when comparing the AURIGA technology to other carbon capture systems.
The AURIGA technology will be tested in different modes suited to different applications (e.g. flue gas from cement plants, steel plants, refineries, etc.). Two ionic liquids will be used, i.e. [BMIM][BF4] and [EMIM][OAc], at different molarities. Moreover, several geographical contexts will be explored.
Through LCA, it will be possible to assess the pros and cons of the AURIGA absorption process and its environmental performance compared to conventional capture systems.