Research Output
Hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) will likely yield more accurate results than process-based LCA
  We analyse the comparative investigation into truncation vs. aggregation errors of process-based and hybrid LCA by Yang et al. 2017. We analyse the validity of their findings when the hypothetical five-sector economy is altered to account for realistic technological and sectoral interdependencies. We show that in such cases the truncation error of process-based LCA outweighs the aggregation error of hybrid LCA. To this end, we compare the dominant eigenvalue of our alternative economy with that of real economies, showing good agreement. The same validity check does not hold for the system used by Yang and colleagues. Additionally, we demonstrate that even simple process systems can have higher dominant eigenvalues, provided they are based on realistic data.

  • Type:

    Article

  • Date:

    17 December 2017

  • Publication Status:

    Published

  • Publisher

    Elsevier BV

  • DOI:

    10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.119

  • Cross Ref:

    S0959652617330780

  • ISSN:

    0959-6526

  • Library of Congress:

    TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering

  • Dewey Decimal Classification:

    363.7 Environmental pollution

  • Funders:

    Australian Research Council; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project (NeCTAR)

Citation

Pomponi, F., & Lenzen, M. (2017). Hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA) will likely yield more accurate results than process-based LCA. Journal of Cleaner Production, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.119

Authors

Keywords

carbon emissions, LCA, hybrid, process analysis, input-output, eigenvalues

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