National University of Science and

Technology
Faculty of Industrial Technology

Department of Chemical engineering

ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESS ENGINEERING

TCE 5204
ASSIGNMENT 2
Part 5 (Chemical engineering Parallel)

PRINCESS NCUBE N01518841Q

Lecturer: Dr Tshuma
What is the importance of Environmental Impact Assessment when a project is to be
established in a given area? [10]

SOLUTION

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is being used worldwide as an important tool for
ensuring that environmental considerations are included in decisions regarding projects that
may impact the environment. The impacts can either be positive or beneficial though every
project should optimize on positively benefiting. The positive impacts usually counteract the
negative effects.

EIA is a planning tool which is designed to incorporate environmental and social factors into
the decision making process. Environmental considerations are in all steps during project
planning in conjunction with economic, financial and technical factors. The EIA process
results in the application of a set of values that place a high priority on the conservation of the
natural environment. It provides a focus for the application of many years of collective
experience in the design of approaches and measures that have allowed similar types of
development to proceed in an environmentally safe manner.

The EIA document itself is a technical tool that identifies, predicts, and analyzes impacts on
the physical environment, as well as social, cultural, and health impacts. If the EIA process is
successful, it identifies alternatives and mitigation measures to reduce the environmental
impact of a proposed project. The EIA process also serves an important procedural role in
the overall decision-making process by promoting transparency and public involvement.

The EIA is important because it aims at resource conservation, waste minimization,

recovering by-product, efficient use of equipment, sustainable development and ensures that
all these are met. The process evaluates and assess project environment interactions and
identifies the potentially unwanted effects before they occur. The EIA process also ensures
the development of mitigative measures so as to reduce or eliminate environmental effects.

The EIA process has importance as it ensures conduction of the entire environmental impact
process in a way that allows ample opportunities for public input and review. EIA is of
importance as it benefits both environmental and economic aspects, these include reduced
cost and time of implantation of the project.

The following components make EIA in projects an important aspect:

  Screening-so as to determine which projects require assessment
 Scoping-to identify other solutions that avoid impacts
 Assessment and evaluation-to predict likelihood of impacts
 Reporting-putting all the information acquired into report form
 Reviewing
 Decision making-to whether approve the project or not

State and explain how a life cycle assessment for a given project can be conducted [14]

SOLUTION

Life Cycle Assessment is one of the tools used in evaluating environmental concerns of the
whole life cycle of a particular project.[ CITATION Son03 \l 12297 ] It encompasses the
extraction and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, transportation and distribution;
reuse, use, maintenance, recycling and final disposal.[ CITATION Con93 \l 12297 ] The LCA
methodology is based on ISO 14040. Used at its full capacity it examines the environmental
inputs and outputs related to a product.[ CITATION ISO06 \l 12297 ]

ISO 14040 defines LCA as a method for assessing the environmental aspects and potential
impacts associated with a product, by: compiling an inventory of relevant inputs and outputs
of a product system; evaluating the potential environment impacts; and interpreting the result
of inventory analysis and impact assessment phases. The life cycle assessment method is
usually used as a decision support tool.[ CITATION Fav93 \l 12297 ]

The figure below illustrates the possible life cycle stages that can be considered in a LCA and
the typical inputs and outputs measured.
 System bounderies output
Raw material
Atmpspheric
acquisition
emission
Input
Waterborne
Raw materials wastes
manufacturing

Solid wastes

Energy Use/Resuse/
maintanance Co products

Recycle/waste Other releases

management

The goal of LCA is to compare the environmental performance of products in order to be able
to choose the least burdensome. The LCA is used in the following ways to aid in decision
making on environmental issues by the public as well as businesses:

1. Product development and improvement

2. Strategic planning
3. Marketing
4. Learning
5. Enhancement of environmental management systems[ CITATION Deb16 \l 12297 ]

A life cycle assessment is conducted according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. The
LCA process is a phase approach and consists of four components[ CITATION Ala04 \l 12297 ]:

1. Goal and scope definition

2. Inventory analysis
3. Impact assessment
4. Interpretation

These four steps are described in detail below:

GOAL AND SCOPE DEFINITION

According to the above mentioned ISO standards the first phase is to define the goal and
scope. These should be defined clearly

Goal

In defining the goal the following points need to be determined:

 The intended application of an LCA study-of which an LCA can be used for different
applications such as marketing and some of the uses are mentioned above.
 The purpose intended-this can also affect the scope of the project. If the project is to
be published therefore the scope will be more comprehensive and includes a greater
data collection effort.
 The audience of the LCA report-The audience could be the shareholders, engineers or
consumers.
 The use of the analysis-If the LCA results are to be published therefore a review is
mandatory

SCOPE

When defining the scope the product is characterized as well as the methodology used to set
up the product is defined. The following are first defined before an LCA is conducted:

 Function of the product-an example can be when comparing environmental impacts of

mobile phones, therefore there is need to define which functions they should have and
the differences when comparing to the other.
 Functional unit – this is a quantified definition of a product for example the functional
unit of aluminium beverage is defined as packaging 440ml of beverage, protecting it
from uv light or oxidation.
 Allocation and system expansion-Allocation is the partitioning and relating of inputs
and outputs of a process to the relevant products.

INVENTORY ANALYSIS
This process involves the compilation and quantification of inputs and outputs for a given
product system throughout its life cycle. It includes data collection and compiling that
particular data.

DATA COLLECTION

It involves collecting quantitative and qualitative data for every unit process in the system.
The data for each unit can be classified as shown below:

 Energy inputs
 Raw material inputs
 Wastes
 Products
 Co-products
 Emissions

IMPACT ASSESSMENT

This is evaluating the potential human health and environmental impacts of the
environmental resources and releases identified. It attempts to give a link between the product
and its potential environmental impacts.[ CITATION Sha11 \l 12297 ] The following steps are
involved in the life cycle impact assessment:

 Selecting and defining of impact categories-for example global warming or

acidification
 Classification-assigning the different life cycle inventory (LCI) results to impact
categories such as assigning carbon monoxide emission to global warming
 Characterization-It involves modelling the LCI impacts within the science based
categories using science-based conversion factors
 Grouping-it involves sorting the indicators
 Weighing-thus emphasizing the most important potential impacts.

INTERPRETATION
During this stage the results obtained are checked and evaluated to see if they are consistent
with the goal and scope definition and that the carried out study is completed. Interpretation
involves two primary steps

1. Identification of significant issues-the issues include inventory elements such as

energy consumption, waste and emissions. The results can be presented in the form of
data lists ,tables or bar graphs
2. Evaluation-The main goal of evaluation is to enhance the reliability of the study. Tree
methods are used in the evaluation process and these are:
 Completeness check-in this process analysis is made to see if the missing
information is necessary for the goal and scope of the project or not. The missing
information is recalculated and added to fill in the gap. If the information is found
to be unnecessary hence reasons are stated.
 Sensitivity check-this determines how the results obtained are affected by
uncertainties in the data such as assumptions made.
 Consistency check-The consistency of the used methods and the goal and scope of
the study is checked.

REPORTING THE RESULTS

After the LCA process the materials need to be assembled in report form. This helps in
sharing of the results obtained with interested individuals. The report presents the data,
methods, assumption and limitations helping the reader to understand fully the process
carried out.[ CITATION Dak11 \l 12297 ]

Explain the objectives of a life cycle assessment (6)

SOLUTION

 To provide a complete overview as possible of the interactions of an activity with the

environment

 To contribute to the understanding of the overall and independent nature of the

environmental consequences of human activities
  To provide decision makers with information which defines the environmental effects
of these activities and identifies opportunities for environmental improvements

 to analyse the entire lifecycle of your products or services with regard to their
environmental, social and financial impacts and to display these analyses in a
transparent way

 To provide guidance in long-term strategic planning concerning trends in product

design and materials

 To compare different options within a particular process with the objective of

minimizing environmental impacts,

 To identify processes, ingredients, and systems that are major contributors to

environmental impacts

References
Alan, D., 2004. Cradle to gate life cycle inventory and assessment of pharmaceutical
compounds. 9(2), pp. 114-121.

al, D. e., 2011. Iproving environmental perfomanvce of building through increased energy
efficiency. sustanaible cities and society, pp. 211-18.

Anon., 2006. ISO 14040 environmental management life cycle assessment principles and
framework. Belgium: s.n.

Consoli, A. e. a., 1993. Guidelines for life cycle Assessment:A code of practice. USA: s.n.

Fava, C. e. a., 1993. A conceptual framework for life cycle impact assessment. FL,USA: s.n.

khanda, D., 2016. Application of life cycle assessment in coal mining. pp. 358-561.

Sharma A, S. e. a., 2011. Life cycle assessment of buildings review. pp. 871-5.

Sonnemann, C., 2003. Intergrated life cycle and risk assessment for industrial processes.
USA: Lewis publishers.