Life Cycle Assessment Project
Full course description
In the projects, typically (inter)personal skills are trained. In this project, teams of students are challenged to analyse the sustainability of products and production processes introduced by staff members from research groups or company representatives.
The LCA theory for this project was provided in course CEN1001, Engineering in a Circular Economy. In order to be able to execute the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) project, students are introduced in instruction sessions to the project topic and what is expected from the LCA project. Teams of students will perform a (simplified) LCA study and will report their results at the end of the project.
The completion and success depend on working, thinking, acting, and learning as a team and sharing tasks and responsibilities with peers. The results are orally presented, documented in a report; individual and peer reflections are given on (inter)personal skills development.
Course objectives
At the end of this course, you are able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of the environmental implications of the project topic and feasible engineering solutions by searching and studying additional literature;
2. Describe the four stages of life cycle assessment (LCA) and explain the important aspects in performing an LCA in each stage;
3. Apply the knowledge of the four stages of LCA on a circular engineering topic by performing a basic or partial LCA study and explaining the meaning of the results obtained from the LCA study performed;
4. Communicate on the project process and results by written text, illustrations, and oral presentation;
5. Reflect on your share and that of peers in team performance, your personal development including leadership, and the results of the project.
Prerequisites
None
Recommended reading
Mandatory
- Handbook on Environmental Assessment of Products, by Kirsten Pommer and Pernille Bech (Danish Technological Institute), Henrik Wenzel and Nina Caspersen and Stig Irving Olsen (Technical Knowledge Center of Denmark), 2000, Danish Environmental Protection Agency
- Book: Life Cycle Assessment: Quantitative Approaches for Decisions that Matter (2014), H. Scott Matthews, Chris Hendrickson, Deanna H. Matthews; available at https://www.lcatextbook.com/
- As part of the project, students will get information on the project topic. Students are expected to search for additional information. All information sources that are used (literature, books, patents, interviews) should be properly referred by a bibliography (see Library of Maastricht University for help and guidelines to cite).
Recommended
The following handbooks and resources are recommended if you are interested in Life Cycle Assessment and desire to have more in-depth information. They are by no means obligatory for the course.
- Handbook - General guide for Life Cycle Assessment. European Commission - Joint Research Centre - Institute for Environment and Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook - General guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. First edition March 2010. EUR 24708 EN. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010. The pdf file is available at: http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/ILCD-Handbook-General-guide-for-LCA-DETAILED-GUIDANCE-12March2010-ISBN-fin-v1.0-EN.pdf
- Information available at the website of the European platform on Life Cycle Assessment : http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?page_id=86
- Book - Jolliet, O., Saade-Sbeih, M., Shaked, S., Jolliet, A., Crettaz, P. (2016). Environmental Life Cycle Assessment. Boca Raton: CRC Press, https://doi.org/10.1201/b19138
Software
- MS Word
- MS Excel
- MS PowerPoint
- LCA calculation tools (internet & MS Excel)