Life Cycle Inventory. The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) phase consists of two main steps: i) collection of data for all the process units included in the system boundaries, and ii) calculation procedures to quantify relevant inputs and outputs of the product system. The LCI result is a list of quantified elementary flows2 and represents the input for the next phase . It is recommended to collect primary data only for the foreground system; whilst secondary data can be used for the background system and for those processes of the foreground system for which primary data is not available. Secondary data can be obtained from commercial databases like Ecoinvent (Xxxxxx et al., 2016) and Gabi (PE International, 2012). 2 Elementary flows are defined as those flows that cross the system boundaries either as input or output; emissions to atmosphere and water bodies, water and virgin materials are notable examples. One of the most debated issues in LCA concerns the allocation of environmental impacts to processes delivering multiple functions. A heat and power cogeneration unit is a notable example of a multifunctional process. How can the total environmental impacts of producing specific amounts of electricity and heat be allocated only to electricity? (For instance, this could be useful if electricity for pumping drilling fluid is supplied by a cogeneration unit.) The ISO standards (ISO, 2006a, 2006b) include a hierarchical approach to deal with multifunctional processes: first, the process should be subdivided into sub— processes, each linked to only one function; if subdivision is not possible, system expansion or crediting should be used. The former is used for comparative studies where the product system is compared with other systems that provide the same functions. The latter is used for standalone studies: the product system is credited for the secondary functions by subtracting the environmental impacts associated with an alternative process that delivers such function. Finally, if neither subdivision nor system expansion/crediting can be used, the environmental impacts should be partitioned between the functions using physical or economic relations. Multifunctionality is unlikely to represent a major issue in LCA studies concerning shale gas. As noted above, shale gas can act as a source of heat or electricity. In a standalone study where shale gas is burnt in heat and power cogeneration unit, the environmental impacts of either electricity or heat can be quantified by crediting...
Life Cycle Inventory data sources In this section, the inventory built for the XXX and ICEV models is presented. The inventory was based on a mix of data sources from recently published studies on BEVs and plug-in vehicles, existing dataset [19], [21], as well as reports and presentation from private companies [22]. The vehicle’s models chosen as the basis for the analysis were based on commercial vehicles currently sold on the market. For the XXX, a Nissan leaf was assumed as a reference model while for the ICE a Toyota Yaris was assumed as commercial vehicle because it shows similar characteristics, in terms of size, function and style to the Nissan Leaf. Figure 3 shows the two commercial cars used as reference vehicle for the LCA model.
Life Cycle Inventory. The material and energy flows related to processes and products, wastes and emissions were modelled using the data provided by the project partners (Table 1 and Table 2) and/or were derived from the literature (Table 3) and FHNW’s own data collection. The basic data (e.g. chemicals, electricity, etc.) and the LCI of the benchmark technologies were taken directly from the ecoinvent 3.5 database [21]. The inventory for the recycling process (Table 4) was developed within the FHNW but does only present an initial protocol. Table 3: Some of the material compositions of the layers were adapted from literature. The composition of the materials from Table 1 and Table 2 that are not listed here were either directly taken from ecoinvent or stemmed from FHNW’s own datasets. Literature reference Material Xxxxxxxx-Xxxxxx et al. 2018a [22] TiO2 Xxxxxxxx-Xxxxxx et al. 2018b [23] Xxxxxxxxxx (CSEM, EPFL, OXFORD PV) Xxxxxx‐Xxxxxxxx et al. 2010 [24] ITO sputtering Xxxx et al. 2015 [25] Perovskite (VTT), Spiro-OMeTAD, Silver paste (Ag) Xxxxx and Xxxxxx 2017 [26] NiOx (Nickel oxide) sputtering Xxxxx et al. 2015 [19] FTO sputtering Deposition method Xxxxxxxx-Xxxxxx et al. 2018c [27] Spray coating or thermal evaporation Xxxxxxxx et al. 2011 [28] Lamination Xxxxxx‐Xxxxxxxx et al. 2010 [24] ITO sputtering Xxxxx and Xxxxxx 2017 [26] NiOx (Nickel oxide) sputtering Xxxxx et al. 2015 [19] FTO sputtering
