Page 256 - Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future

Life-cycle costing: Analysis of biofuel production systems 231

Table 8.1 Technology matrix for chair life cycle (A p )
Chair
Electricity Wood Production Use of disposal
Units generation production of chair chair service
Electricity MJ 1 0 2 0 0
Wood kg 0 1 5 0 0
Chair Piece 0 0 1 5 0
Broken Piece 0 0 0 5 1
chair
Sitting Years 0 0 0 10 0
service

Table 8.2 The price vector or the market value per unit of product or service (α)
Product Market price
Electricity 5 €/MJ
Wood 1 €/kg
Chair 25 €/piece
Broken chair 2 €/piece
Sitting service 13.5 €/year

for the identified products and services is presented in Table 8.2 and is equiv-
alent to the price vector α. It is important to note that the negative market
value for the broken chair is for the associated cost needed for its disposal.
Also, note that, following the reinterpretation of Moreau and Weidema
(2015), there is a market value assigned for sitting in the chair. While the
user does not pay or get taxed for sitting, there is a value for the use of
the chair and may be computed as the price of the chair (12.5 €) plus its
disposal (1 €).
To calculate for the life-cycle cost associated with 1 year of sitting, the
functional unit vector can be represented by Eq. (8.6). The scaling vector
can then be obtained using Eq. (8.2) but for this example, the values are indi-
cated in Eq. (8.7). This indicates that 1 MJ of electricity and 2.5 kg of wood
are needed to produce 0.5 pieces of chairs to provide 1 year of sitting service.
0
0 1
B 0 C
f p ¼ B 0 C (8.6)
0
@ A
1