LCA Methodology

Abstract

Request for single articles

92 KB  Full paper 98 downloads since July 2001

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1065/lca2001.06.052.2 --- Preamble. This series made up of two articles is devoted to a new method for the spatially differentiated assessment of the impacts of primary airborne pollutants on human health within Life Cycle Assessments. The first part describes the method and provides exemplary results for site-dependent exposure efficiencies. The second part deals with the application of the method within a Life Cycle Assessment of natural gas vehicles. --- Abstract. Within a Life Cycle Assessment of the fuel supply and the operation of cars fueled by natural gas, diesel and gasoline, the impacts of airborne pollutants on human health were assessed in a spatially differentiated way. Country average impacts were used for secondary sulfate and nitrate aerosols. The use of country average impacts also turned out to be sufficient for the primary pollutants emitted from most processes of the fuel supply. For emissions of primary pollutants from the vehicles and from some processes of the fuel supply, the low to moderate emission height and the high local population density in urban areas needed to be taken into account. In these cases, the method of generic spatial classes presented in Part I was applied. The spatially differentiated impacts were compared with the results of a generic impact assessment based on average European damage factors. The generic impact assessment overestimates the human health impact of the fuel supply by about a factor of 2, since many of the upstream processes take place in very sparsely populated countries, and underestimates the impact of the primary particles emitted by the diesel cars in large cities by about a factor of 2.