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Life-cycle costing: Analysis of biofuel production systems 233
0 1
5 0 5 0 0
0 2:5 2:5
B C
B 0 0 C
B C
A m,scaled ¼ B 0 0 12:5 12:5 0 C (8.9b)
B C
0 0 0
B C
@ 1 1 A
0 0 0 13:5 0
The life-cycle cost is then obtained using Eq. (8.5) while the results for
our example are shown in Eq. (8.10). The corresponding life-cycle cost of
1 year of sitting is the sum of the elements of vector, v. The total life-cycle
cost of € 13.50 accounts for the cost associated with the purchase of 0.5
pieces of chair (€ 12.50) and its disposal (€ 1.00). Note that the costs asso-
ciated with electricity and wood use have already been integrated in the cost
of the chair. Note that the value added for sitting in the chair, element v 4 ,is
reflected as zero, which is more intuitively satisfying.
0 1 T 0 1 0 1
5 0 5 0 0 1 5
0 2:5 2:5 1
B C B C B C
B 0 0 C B C B 2:5 C
B C B C B C
1
v ¼ B 0 0 12:5 12:5 0 C B C ¼ B 5 C (8.10)
B C B C B C
0 0 0 1
B C B C B C
@ 1 1 A @ A @ 0 A
0 0 0 13:5 0 1 1
This example of the application of eLCC shows how eLCC can expand
beyond the fLCC and account for costs that may not necessarily be borne by
the user or the producer. In the case of the chair, the eLCC is the value added
by the individual providers of the electricity, wood chair, and disposal ser-
vices. Thus all actors along the supply and use chain are accounted for.
Finally, the third type of LCC, sLCC extends the LCC concept to con-
sider all social costs and benefits (Hoogmartens et al., 2014). Computation-
ally, the sLCC would follow the same structure as the one for the eLCC
described earlier. The sLCC would thus have to identify and monetize such
issues as the equitable distribution of wealth, protection of vulnerable groups
like migrants, indigenous groups, children and the elderly, and many others.
Since these are not tied to any physical entities, it can easily be seen that even
merely identifying the important impacts to be considered is extremely dif-
ficult, much less obtaining determining the appropriate characterizations and
the required data. Fig. 8.2, adapted from UNEP 2011, shows how the
boundaries of each of the three different LCCs may overlap each other.
Inevitably, for a full LCSA, there would be some processes that cannot
be monetized.