23rd European Symposium on Computer Aided Process Engineering

An Uncertainty Assessment Framework for LCA-based Environmental Process Design

Johannes Jung^a, Niklas von der Assen^a and André Bardow^a,    ^aRWTH Aachen University, Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, Schinkelstr. 8, 52062 Aachen, Germany

Abstract

Environmental process design methods often incorporate life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a deterministic black-box methodology. However, LCA suffers from several sources of ambiguity and uncertainty. These limitations are particularly severe for the multi-functional processes typical for the chemical industry. This work introduces a rigorous uncertainty assessment framework. The framework quantifies data uncertainties and also uncertainties that result from fixing multi-functionality in LCA by allocation. ...