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1

Coffee Maker Example

2 Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/coffee-maker.htm

Define step by step the overall activity to carry out a Life Cycle

Assessment of a Coffee Maker

1. WHAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF MY ANALYSIS?

2. WHERE DO YOU STOP DRAWING THE BOUNDS?

3. WHAT DATA DO I HAVE TO INCLUDE IN THE ANALYSIS?

WHERE CAN I FIND THEM?

3 Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/coffee-maker.htm

Step 1 – Goal definition and scope

Goal Definition: Establish how to improve the environmental performance

of the Coffee Maker

Functional unit: 3650 filters (5 cups twice a day)

System boundaries: from cradle to grave (all the life cycle stages)

1. Draw up a schematic overview of the product life cycle, paying

equal attention to production, use and waste processing

Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

PR

OD

UC

TIO

N

DIS

TR

IBU

TIO

N

2. Establish (correct) material and energy balance(s) for each

stage and event

Unit Process

Product Material Input

EnergyProcess Materials, Reagents

Primary Product and co-product

Emissions

Waste

3. Establish (correct) material and energy balance(s) for each

stage and event

Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

The functional unit (10

cups for day using the

Coffee Maker twice a day)

is important to quantify

the amount of electricity

and filters

White blocks have

been omitted

Finding data is hard and usually very time-consuming:

• The production manager does not have information about the external phase (i.e. usage, distribution, disposal)

• The shift and the production manager sometimes have information about the complete production line and do not have specific information about a single product

• CEOs don’t want to share their know-how

• Published data on material loads exist, but they are often inconsistent and/or not directly applicable

During a Life Cycle Inventory the assumption and the hypothesis that have been done should be indicated

In the Coffee Maker example it has been decided to exclude:

• Coffee bean production and transportation

• Water consumption of use phase

• Coffee and filters disposal

Mistakes are easily made in quantification

Mass and energy balances may not be correct

1. Define the impact categories

2. Determine which loads affect the impact categories

3. Assign indicators to the impact categories

4. Weigh the importance of each category Environmental Impact Environmental Load

greenhouse effect

ozone layer depletion

eutrophication

depletion of abiotic resources

(summer) smog

acidification

Copper

CO2

CFC

SO2

NOx

Phosphorous

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Heavy metals

PCB

Pesticides

Styrene eco-toxicity

depletion of biotic resources

human toxicity

odor Source: ISO 14044:2006

Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

Ecoindicator 99

Different from the

game indicator

Subjective, subjective, subjective

Impact categories chosen

Indicators chosen for the impact categories

How metrics / load affect impact indicators

Weights used for the impact categories

Where are the impacts occurring?

U.S., Europe, Brazil? The indicators shall distinguish the regional effects Emissions made in Asia have different impact from those made in Europe

Is there already damage in the area being impacted?

How are managers and engineers supposed to know the effects of every load on the different impacts?

1. During this phase the results related to the goal of the analysis should be evaluated

E.G. In coffee machine example:

• Higher impacts are caused by use phase Electricity consumption

2. Identify areas & opportunities for improvement

• Assign greater priority to lower energy consumption

How to improve the coffee maker? Where should we focus?

Source: http://www.pre.nl/download/EI99_Manual.pdf

It is a fair representative of appliances - main impact is the use phase

The size of each block is a

measure of the relative

contribution to the total

• Compare results with published analysis

• If you find many big differences Check the completeness of your inventory

• Sensible analysis to improve the results and carry out details to make modifications on the Coffee Maker production

© Politecnico di Milano 2014

This work is subject to copyright. Duplication of this document or parts thereof is permitted only

under the explicit consent of Politecnico di Milano.

The authors can’t accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made.