Page 99 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

80 Life Cycle Assessment of Wastewater Treatment

2. Inventory analysis (or eco-inventory; in English, life cycle inventory [LCI]):
at this stage, the flows of matter and energy input and output from the vari-
ous phases of the life cycle are quantified.
3. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA): the potential environmental impacts
associated with certain flows in the previous inventory phase are estimated.
4. Interpretation of results: an evaluation of the output of the previous two
phases is run and tested for correspondence with the study objectives
defined in the first phase.

5.2.1 Software uSed
The software used for the study was SimaPro 8.2, produced by the Dutch company
Pré Consultant, which is among the most popular software for conducting LCA stud-
ies. Implemented for the first time in 1990, the software is used by customers in over
60 countries worldwide, especially by big industries, consulting firms, and univer-
sities, to conduct relevant assessments on the environmental performance of vari-
ous products, processes, and services. It offers great flexibility by providing various
modeling parameters, allows interactive analysis of results, and comes with a large
database. The latest version of this professional tool, SimaPro 8.2, allows the user
to collect, monitor, and interpret the environmental performance of products and
services by analyzing even complex life cycles in a systematic and transparent way
following the recommendations of the series standards ISO 14040.
The SimaPro software is inclusive of various databases for the inventory analysis
that include thousands of processes and materials. The databases that have mainly
been used are described in the following subsections.
5.2.1.1 Ecoinvent v2
The Ecoinvent database, of Swiss origin, covers nearly 4000 processes in the fol-
lowing industries, related mainly to activities in Switzerland and Western Europe:

• Energy
• Transport
• Building materials
• Chemical products
• Washing products
• Paper and cardboard
• Agriculture
• Treatment of pollutants

All processes are provided with extensive documentation including a description
of the data (name, unit of measure, derived from the data, category and sub-category
of membership) and information on uncertainty.
5.2.1.2 Industry Data v.2.0
This contains inventory data provided by industry associations. Most of this data is
provided following a “cradle to grave” approach, that is, considering the product or
process from source to disposal.