DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1065/lca2000.04.025 --- In an LCA case study, the three most frequent industrial
metal cleaning technologies were assessed: Cleaning based
on aqueous cleaning agents, non-halogenated hydrocarbon solvents
and halogenated hydrocarbon solvents. Beside optimisation
analysis, the comparison of the cleaning processes was a main
goal of the study. The function of metal cleaning processes can
be described with a set of parameters called functional parameters.
In order to compare different cleaning processes within
LCA, it is a precondition that all relevant functional parameters
be equivalent. However, metal cleaning processes from different
companies normally differ in most of the functional parameters
and, thus, are not functionally equivalent. Therefore, it is
necessary to calculate the material and energy flows of the processes
corresponding to a reference function as a basis for comparison.
This can be achieved by simulating the processes according
to the functional parameters with the help of a process
model. For a general comparison of the technologies, it is also
necessary to consider the assessed machines having the same
level of optimisation and the same scale. |
