Structural Analysis of LCA for Chemical Products

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A quantitative method to evaluate the total amount of CO_2 which is emitted to atmosphere over the life cycle of petrochemicals was proposed based on the concept of cumulative CO_2 emission unit. In the LCA methods developed in this project, the following two problems remain to be solved. The first is the socalled allocation or partitioning problem which determines how to allocate the emission to each product in the unit where more than two products are present. The second is the problem that how much CO_2 emission unit should be specified to the materials to be recycled.In the LCA computer program designed in this project, a parametric procedure is designed so as to be applicable to any allocation policy, while zero CO_2 emission unit is specified to the materials to be recycled. By using this computer program, the cumulative CO_2 emission units of petrochemicals and its recycled products are caluculated automatically reading the date on the inventory table which is designated directly corresponding to material and energy flows of petrochemical manufacuring process.Based on the cumulative CO_2 emission unit, the life cycle assessment was achieved for the following two cases ; recycling of used PET bottles to carpet (material recycling) and energy recovery by incineration of used EPS trays (thermal recycling). Both recycles have been concluded to be recommendable in view of LCA.