Reference no: EM132497259

PRRE6005 Life Cycle Management - Curtin University

1. Select a factory or a refinery or a chemical processing plant producing a certain product. Once you have selected this case study, then perform the following tasks:

Mass balance
• Draw a detailed process flow chart showing how the main feedstock is converted to a product through a number of chemical processes. The flow chart will show a schematic diagram consisting of all components in symbolic forms (e.g. reactor, separator, generator, heat exchanger, distiller, precipitator etc.) which are required for the production of a product.

• Estimate the amount of chemicals, energy and water associated with the production of a certain amount of product. This certain amount of product is known as functional unit, which is required for conducting the mass balance. For example, one million dollar equivalent amount of iron ore transported to China is a functional unit. Accordingly you need to work out the amount of inputs in the form of chemicals, energy and water associated with the production of one million dollar equivalent of iron ore transported China.

• In addition to inputs, estimate the amount of outputs in the form of waste and emissions generated in different processes due to conversion of feedstock into a product.
• You will be provoided a similar type of flowchart in the module session to help you undersanding. Please provide units for all inputs and outputs correctly.
Identification of environmental improvement opportunities

• Once the flow diagram showing detailed inputs and outputs has been drawn, then find out the processes causing the significant amount of wastes and emissions, known as hotspot(s). Select top two hotspots from the flow chart.

• Generate cleaner production options for reducing waste and emissions for each of these two selected hotspots. The cleaner production (CP) options are product modification, input substitution, technology modification, good housekeeping and on-site recycling.

Cost-effective mitigation strategies
• Once these options have been generated, then estimate the amount of waste and emissions that can be mitigated due to use of these options. You need to develop a table consisting of five columns with one column for processes causing the most waste or emission, one column for writing down the name of the relevant cleaner production option, one column for technical characteristics/details of the option, one column for justification for choosing these CP options and the final column for estimating the mitigation potential (e.g. 10 tonne of residue avoided per tonne of alumina production).
• Estimate the costs, including capital and operation, for mitigating wastes/emissions by cleaner production options and also estimate the operational cost saving (e.g. energy, chemicals and water), if any, associated with the application of cleaner production options. Consider $50/tonne for any type of solid waste disposed to landfill and $25 per tonne for any type of gaseous emissions. Use a discounted cash flow analysis to carry out an economic analysis, where the capital cost of CP option, operational costs (maintenance), replacement costs (if any) and benefits (savings in operational cost and environmental cost) have been utilized.
• Conduct a benefit cost analysis to find out economically feasible CP options.
• Calculate the amount of wastes and emissions that can be mitigated due to use of CP options cost- effectively.

2. PART A OF ASSIGNMENT 2
The following articles are based on the life cycle assessment of wheat production in Western Australia. Based on the results of the first article published in 2008, the Grain Research & Development Corporation (GRDC) funded another project. The results of this second project were published in 2014 (i.e. 2nd article).
• Biswas, W. K., L. Barton, and D. Carter. 2008. "Global warming potential of wheat production in Western Australia: a life cycle assessment." Water and Environment Journal 22: 206-216.

PART B OF ASSIGNMENT 2

Increasingly, industries are currently required to assess their carbon footprint[1] to participate in the future carbon trading scheme. As a result, Jim & Bim Vegetable Oil Co. has decided to determine the carbon footprints of their product. This company not only produces vegetable oil, but also produces biodiesel from canola oil. They approached Cleaner Production Consulting Pty Ltd. (CPCP) to determine the carbon footprint of their product.

CPCP appointed you to carry out this LCA analysis. Upon which, you contacted Jim & Bim Vegetable Co enquiring about the preferred functional objective (FU). This is because the FU determines the purpose of this LCA work. They replied saying that they want to know the life cycle global warming emissions of the production and combustion of 1 GJ of biodiesel. Accordingly, you have determined the following three

stages:
• Pre-farm: emissions from the production and transportation of inputs.
• e.g. fertiliser, pesticides and diesel
• On-farm: farm machinery operations, N2O emissions from N-fertiliser application
• Post-farm: emissions from conversion of canola seed to canola oil, canola oil to biodiesel, combustion of biodiesel
Please note that transportation is involved for carrying inputs to the paddock for canola seed production and also for carrying canola seeds to Jim and Bim Vegetable Co.
Once you have added up the GHG emissions generated from the pre-farm, on-farm and post-farm stages, you will be able to determine the total GHG emissions.

You are collaborating with the University of Sustainable Farming Practices (USFP) in order to get the field information on inputs for canola seeds production, N2O emissions from paddock and yield of canola seeds. After one year of their experimental research, USFP provided you with the following information to carry out their life cycle analysis. Table 1 shows the inputs required to produce 1.5 tonne of canola seeds in a hectare of land. USFP used gas chromatography to measure N2O emissions due to the application of urea from the canola paddock. The lorry which they used to bring inputs to paddock consumes 15 litres of diesel to bring inputs to paddock. GHGs emissions from the production of farm machinery will not be considered as it has been found previously to be insignificant. Please note that the calorific value of diesel is 45 MJ/kg, which means that 1 kg of diesel has 45 MJ or 45 x 10-3 GJ of energy. The information in Table 1 would enable you to calculate GHG emission from pre-farm and on farm stages.

Part 1: Define a functional unit for this abridged LCA, goal and scope.
Part 2: Conduct the Life Cycle Inventory Analysis for the production and combustion of 1 GJ of biodiesel, resulting in a listing of all inputs over the different stages of the product life cycle.[please note that you need to draw a flow diagram consisting of 3 stages as stated above. For each stage, you need to calculate the inputs, which are required to produce the main output (e.g. canola oil) of this stage. Inputs are in the form of energy (e.g. electricity) and material (e.g. chemicals). The main output from the previous stage is an input for the following stage. The last stage is the stage that produces and combust biodiesel and so the final output is biodiesel. [Please include transportation in between stages, where appropriate.]

Part 3: Calculate the life cycle global warming impact of 1 GJ of biodiesel combustion. [Firstly, you need to multiply the amount of inputs in the inventory by the emission factors. There are three types of greenhouse gases, including CO2, CH4 and N2O. Therefore you will have up to three emission factors for each input. Table 2 shows the emission factors for all inputs mentioned in this problem. Once you have calculated CO2, CH4 and N2O for all inputs, then convert CH4 and N2O to the equivalent amount of CO2 (i.e. kg CO2 e-) by multiplying the amount of CH4 by 28 and N2O by 265. For example, 2 kg of CH4 means 42 kg CO2 e- and 1.5 kg of N2O means 465 kg CO2 e-. Finally, you calculate all CO2s to find the life cycle GHG emissions due to production and combustion of 1GJ of biodiesel.]

Part 4: Determine GHG emissions separately for the three stages and draw a bar diagram showing which stage is the hotspot (causing the most GHG emissions). Thereafter, draw a pie diagram, showing the percentage contribution of inputs and outputs to GHG emissions during the life cycle of 1 GJ of diesel combustion.

Part 5 Rank the inputs and outputs in terms of their contribution to GHG emissions. The inputs and outputs causing the most significant emissions are considered as ‘hotspots'. Review the literature to highlight some mitigation strategies that can potentially be applied to these hotspots to further reduce the overall GHG emissions from biodiesel production. The emission factors for the mitigation strategies need to be obtained from currently available literature in order to do a follow up LCA to estimate the revised GHG emissions.

Assignment

Part 1: Initial Environmental Review
Perform an initial environmental review for this hardware retailer. Concentrate on the following five areas and identify important environmental issues for the operation and management of this hardware retailer. What are the [types of] environmental management tasks that result from these environmental issues?
• Processes: What are the main processes operated by the hardware retailer? Where is the main environmental impact - actual or potential. Past, present or future? Are processes implemented by the hardware retailer to minimise environmental impacts and reduce energy and waste? Are employees trained in environmental best practice?
• Marketplace: Do the suppliers know the business's supply standards and policy? How do they respond? How are relationships managed? Is awareness raising/training part of the supplier relationships?
• Paper and Packaging: Where is the most paper/packaging used? What opportunities exist to reduce packaging and paper use? What relationships with customers and suppliers exist with respect to packaging?
• Energy and Fuels: What parts of the business require large amounts of energy? What energy sources/fuels are used by each part of the production processes? What opportunities exist for energy conservation, or switch to other energy sources/fuels? How does the energy consumption of the retail company relate to the total amount of energy used over the lifetime of the products it trades?
• Stakeholders: What are the needs of the customers themselves? What issues have been pursued by environmental and consumer organisations? What are the demands and expectations from company staff, government, banks and shareholders?
Summarise the important issues and resulting environmental management tasks in a tabular format as in Table V.3.2. Then select three different environmental management tasks that the environmental management programme of the hardware retailer should address. Make sure you include at least one Part related to the products traded and one Part related to distribution and shop management. Justify your selection briefly.

Part 2: Environmental Policy
Propose an environmental policy for this hardware retailer, limited to the three key issues and environmental management tasks identified in the initial environmental review.
• Scope the environmental policy statement for this hardware retailer. Include at least a broad statement of intent, a list of 3 to 5 specific issues that need to be covered in the environmental policy and the expectations regarding key external parties. Summarise the results of this environmental policy scoping in Table V.3.3.

Part 3: Environmental Scoping and Prioritisation
The marketing department has stressed the point that environmental management communication to customers should be focused, preferably under one or a few generic headers (or environmentally sound product features) that apply to a number of product groups.
Can you suggest three alternative environmental improvement messages (‘headers') that can shape the environmental assortment policy, and list at least three large product categories that would fit under each of these headings? Which one would you recommend?

Part 4: Environmental Objectives and Targets

Propose a set of environmental objectives and targets for the two key business processes of this hardware retailer (i.e. product merchandising and store operations).
• For each business process, include an improvement (reducing environmental impacts), maintenance (keeping environmental impacts at current levels) and research (commitments to research project or program) objective.
• Specify - for each objective - the targets for the first 2 years of the environmental management program. Detail how performance against the targets will be measured/monitored.
Summarise your set of objectives and targets in a tabular format, for example Table V.3.4.

Part 5: Environmental Management Program

Provide an outline for the environmental management program by specifying actions that are needed to achieve the targets set in the previous task.
• Work backwards from each target and identify the key actions that need to be undertaken and completed to achieve the respective target.
• Suggest milestones for each of the key actions you have included.

Summarise the outline of your environmental management program in an appropriate format, for instance in a tabular format as suggested in table V.3.5.

Attachment:- Life Cycle Management.rar