Alyssa Anne P.

Tadeo
5ChE-C

Life cycle assessment is a method for evaluating the environmental aspect associated
with a product over its life cycle. As stated by Muralikrishna et. Al, in Environmental
Management, 2017, “Its goal and scope aims to define how big a part of product life cycle will
be taken in assessment and to what end will assessment be serving.”

Reading the journals made me realize that there are a lot of factors and aspects in an
industry, or a process that can affect the environment. It is interesting to know that there are
cradle-to-grave analyses of environmental aspects of a product. In the journals, the measure of
the environmental impacts in the life cycle of a product, including steps regarding raw materials,
the energy needed for manufacturing, transportation or distribution of the product, the use of the
product by the consumer, and the waste disposal of the product are assessed. The journal’s topics
are also interesting, and this kind of assessment may be a big help when we start working as
chemical engineers.

In Application of a life cycle assessment to compare environmental performance in coal

mine tailings management by AdiansyahI et al., one of the journal’s limitation is that the data
presented are only limited since they are not readily available publicly. Life cycle assessment for
environmental product declaration of concrete in the Gulf States by Biswas et al., however, the
values and results presented do not show if it exceeded thresholds, safety margins or risks.
Lastly, in Greenhouse gas emissions from a Western Australian finfish supply chain by Denham
et al., the study is only limited to one ton of processed fish sold in retail.

To understand this assessment better, I had to look up on Life Cycle Assessment. There
were some terms in the journals that I also had to look up. I also searched on the importance of
having a life cycle assessment in the industry. While browsing the internet, I realized that a lot of
life cycle assessment are being done on different products.
References:
1. Felicity C. Denham, Wahidul K. Biswas, Vicky A. Solah, Janet R. Howieson (2016).
Greenhouse gas emissions from a Western Australian finfish supply chain in Journal
of Cleaner Production. Retrieved on: October 23, 2018
2. Joni Safaat Adiansyah, Nawshad Haque, Michele Rosano, Wahidul Biswas (2017).
Application of a life cycle assessment to compare environmental performance in coal
mine tailings management in Journal of Environmental Management. Retrieved on:
October 23, 2018
3. Wahidul K. Biswasa, Yousef Alhorrb, Krishna K. Lawaniaa, Prabir K. Sarkerc, Esam
Elsarrag (2017). Life cycle assessment for environmental product declaration of
concrete in the Gulf States in Sustainable Cities and Society. Retrieved on: October
23, 2018
4. Life Cycle Assessment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-
sciences/life-cycle-assessment Retrieved on: October 23, 2018