Page 167 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

164 8. Framework of life cycle sustainability assessment

FIG. 8.8 Life cycle assessment framework.

6.3 Recent studies of LCSA

The LCSA has become popular in recent years. The peer-reviewed articles conducted with
LCA, LCC, SLCA, or LCSA as the main purpose were reviewed and summarized according to
the year, as shown in Fig. 8.9. The articles were searched and selected from Web of Science.
The search keywords were set as “life cycle assessment,” “life cycle costing,” “social life cycle
assessment,” and “life cycle sustainability assessment” for title searching, respectively. In this
chapter, only published articles were reviewed, since published articles provide more reliable
information as they are reviewed by peers.
From Fig. 8.9, the increasing number of sustainability assessment researches can be ob-
served. Sustainability assessment remains a popular topic for study and application. Al-
though the number of articles conducting LCC, SLCA, and LCSA is small compared with
that of LCA, the increasing trend of research of LCC, SLCA, and LCSA indicates the great
potential for development and improvement in this area.
As LCA has the longest history among the three assessments in LCSA, its application
range can, to some extent, reflect the research focuses for past years and the potential
trend for LCSA in the future. The research categories of LCA for 2000 to 2018 are
summarized in Fig. 8.10. The data was collected from Web of Science by title searching
“life cycle assessment” for articles. The information has been categorized into nine
categories that including mathematics and computing, physics and material, chemistry,
sociology, marine engineering, biology and medicine, electricity, geology and civil engi-
neering, and agriculture.
Observed from Fig. 8.10, the analysis related to electricity generation technologies,
chemistry, and materials were the most popular ones for sustainability assessment. It is
understandable that more studies were related to those three categories, since those
three categories represent the major consumptions of our daily lives. The research trend
of LCA indicates the major industries that were trying to improve their environmental