Sustainable Energy Harvesting and Storage Materials and Systems (SEHSMS)
LCA Homework, winter quarter 2014
PROBLEM 1
PART A: Use the EIOLCA purchaser price model (at http://www.eiolca.net/cgi-bin/dft/use.pl) to
estimate the life cycle contribution to climate change in metric tons CO2e for the construction of a
hydroelectric power plant and a coal-fired power plant, each intended to generate 1TWh of
electricity per year. Aside from data to be gathered from the EIOLCA model, all data needed are as
follows:
Construction
item
Excavation
Hydro plant
construction
cost ($2002)
$25,000,000
Coal plant
construction
cost ($2002)
0
Concrete
$65,000,000
$1,000,000
Steel
$2,700,000
$5,000,000
Copper
$47,000
0
Aluminum
$18,000
$160,000
Turbines and
turbine gen sets
Power
distribution &
transformers
$15,000,000
0
$3,100,000
0
EIOLCA Broad Sector Group
Construction
Plastic, Rubber, Nonmetalic
Mineral Products
Ferrous and Nonferrous Metal
Production
Ferrous and Nonferrous Metal
Production
Ferrous and Nonferrous Metal
Production
Machinery and Engines
Lighting, Electrical
Components, and Batteries
EIOLCA Detailed Sector
Nonresidential maintenance and
repair
Ready-mix concrete
manufacturing
Iron, steel pipe and tube
manufacturing from purchased
steel
Copper rolling, drawing, extruding
& alloying
Aluminum product manufacturing
from purchased aluminum
Turbine and turbine generator set
units manufacturing
Electric power and specialty
transformer manufacturing
PART B: For a 20-year time horizon, estimate the life cycle contribution to climate change in
metric tons CO2e for construction and operation of the hydroelectric and coal-fired power plants
assuming:
 The life of the hydroelectric plant is 100 years and the life of the coal-fired power plant is 50
years. (HINT: 20 years of operation is what fraction of the life of each power plant?)
 For the generation of 1 TWh/year, the coal-fired power plant emits 1,100,000 metric tons
CO2e/year from the combustion of coal.
 For the generation of 1 TWh/year, the hydroelectric plant emits 24,000 metric tons
CO2e/year from biomass decay in the dam reservoirs. Also, foregone carbon uptake (for
plants that no longer grow due to reservoir cover) is estimated to be 3,600 metric tons
CO2e/year.
PROBLEM 2
Electrochromatic windows (ECW) offer an alternative to the generation options above: their
installation reduces electricity use. For each 1ft2 of ECW, it is estimated that the inorganic
chemicals used to coat the ECW cost $13 (in $2002) and that de minimis heat and electricity are
consumed to deposit the coatings. The ECW are to be installed in a Seattle 3-story office building
with 7,026 ft2 of windows. The anticipated electricity savings for the building is 16,000 kWh/year.
Using EIOLCA 2002 purchaser price model, the life cycle contribution to climate change for the
production of inorganic chemicals is estimated to be 2,060 metric tons CO2e per million $2002. Given
this, estimate the metric tons CO2e conserved over a 20-year life for ECWs in Seattle based on
hydroelectric generation and on coal-fired generation. Then, comment on the results assuming
average electricity in Seattle is provided by hydroelectric power and marginal by coal-fire power.
1
PROBLEM 3
If it is assumed that chemicals that have any NFPA rating greater than 2 and/or have a “Special
Hazard Rating” should be considered for substitution or precautious handling, which of the
following chemicals used in the fabrication of the ECWs should be considered for substitution or
precautious handling.
Note that the NFPA ratings can be found on the MSDS sheets available at
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/united-states.html by searching the Aldrich chemID number in the
table.
ECW chemicals
ProDoT-Me2 (Poly (3,3-dimethyl-3,4-dihydro2H-thieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxepine)
Acetonitrile
TBAP (tetra-n-butylammonium perchlorate)
Vanadium(V) oxide
30% Hydrogen peroxide
Glacial acetic acid
Ti(IV) isopropoxide
Poly(ethylene glycol)methacrylate(PEGMA)
Lithium perchlorate
Propylene carbonate
Photo-curing agent: 2,2-Dimethoxy-2phenylacetophenone(DMPA)
Indium tin oxide
CAS
255901-50-9
Formula
C9H12O2S
Aldrich
chemID for
MSDS link
660523
75-05-8
1923-70-2
1314-62-1
7722-84-1
64-19-7
546-68-9
868-77-9
7791-03-9
108-32-7
10124-62-6
CH3CN
(CH3CH2CH2CH2)4N(ClO4)
V2O5
H2O2
CH3CO2H
Ti[OCH(CH3)2]4
CH2=C(CH3)COOCH2CH2OH
LiClO4
C4H6O3
((CH3O)Si(CH3)2)2
675415
86885
204854
316989
320099
377996
128635
634565
82227
678163
50926-11-9
In2O3/ SnO2
494682
2