The Development and
Implementation of Life Cycle
Assessment courses in Brazilian
Universities
Scott O. Shrake, Amy E. Landis, Melissa M. Bilec, & Maristela Gomes Da Silva!
LCA XI 10/4/2011!
Collaboration
+!
Brasil & LCA
Construction Materials!
Biofuels
!
BR Universities & LCA
Construction Materials"
Biofuels
"
Course Development Ideas
!   Introductory - lay the foundation!
!   Civil and environmental engineer focus!
!   Easily replicable !
!   Keep it interesting!
!   National focus!
Course Timing
Course Objectives
!   Challenges to sustainable development!
!   Evaluate from LCA perspective!
!   Understand Different approaches & their +/-!
!   Software familiarity!
!   Understand impact categories and midpoint vs. endpoint!
!   Conduct LCA on product or process from concurrent mechanics
of materials course!
!   Present results as to class as if for high profile client.!
Course Design
Location
Topic
In-class Activity / Exercise
Lecture
LCA overview
Discuss history of LCA, stages of LCA, LCA governing bodies, importance of LCA as a sustinability tool
Lecture
Goal and Scope
Discuss Goal and Scope stage
Create a flowchart from your product in your Material Science course
Lecture
Goal and Scope
Review goal and scope
Revisit your flowchart, prepare a text describing material flows, and the different stages of production
Lecture
LCA Example
Guest Lecture: Marcella Ruschi Mendes Saade presenting LCA of Brazilian Steel Fabrication (Saade and SILVA 2010)
Read: Relative Merits of Polystyrene Foam and Paper in Hot Drink Cups and write a summary (Hocking 1991).
Lecture
Constructing Flowcharts
Final review of flowcharts. Discuss Hocking article.
Lecture
Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
Discuss LCI stage: Read and review the M.S. Thesis Análise do Ciclo de vida da Tijolus Prensados de Escória se Alto-Forno
(Silva 2005).
Lab
SimaPro Introduction
Introduction to Simapro
Lab(optional)
SimaPro
Review SimaPro tutorials
Lab
LCIA
Discuss and demonstrate LCIA tools and methods
Read: technical report on brazilain cement manufacturing (Carvalho, Kihara et al. 2010).
Lecture
LCIA
Classification, normailzation, and weighting activities
Disccuss the technical report on Brazilian cement manufacturing, activity comparing US and Brazilian production.
Lab(optional)
LCA SimaPro
Begin to create your LCA in SimaPro for your final project
Lecture
LCA of Buildings
Guest lecture: Cassie Theil presenting research about the Phipps Conservatory Living Building Challenge LCA.
Lab(optional)
LCA Project
Continue to work on final project, instructors available for assistance.
Lecture
LCA by Hand
LCA of a factory process
Lab(optional)
LCA Project
Prepare your LCA results in a professional presentation
Lecture
Final Project
Final student presentations
Example of Class Activity
Electricity Mix!
Pittsburgh!
Vitoria!
Electricity mix data from EIA!
Challenges and Solutions
!   Data & database availability!
!   Software access!
!   Instructor!
!   Collaboration!
Student Response
!   Experience:!
I decided to do this course because I awoke an interest in learning more about LCA, which, un;l then, was totally unknown to me. In my view, it was a very interes;ng and important course in my academic life. The ini;a;ve, to send a teacher for another country was incredible. We could learn about a different place and see that we have different Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Database between other countries... the teacher was very a@en;ve to us. !   Improvement:!
I think one could learn more about the support pla4orm used (SimaPro)Learn how to insert our own data, specify all the inputs and outputs of a product would actually be very produc;ve. The course load should also be slightly higher. We should have a li@le more ;me to study Results & Improvements
!   Lengthen duration of
the course !
!   More interaction with
software!
!   More applications of
LCA!
FUTURE WORK
• Continually update class materials as Brazilian LCI data improves
• Disseminate the first course to additional Brazilian Universities!
• Proceed with the development of the advanced LCA course!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
NSF IGERT GRANT
NSF DUE 0942172 GRANT
MCSI @ PITT
PITT SGD GROUP.
Universidade Federal De Espirito Santo
Sources
Allen, D. T., C. F. Murphy, et al. (2007). "Sustainable Engineering: A Model for Engineering Educa;on in the Twenty-­‐First Century?" Engineering Management Review, IEEE 35(3): 67-­‐67. Carnegie Mellon University Green Design Institute (2008). Economic Input-­‐Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-­‐LCA), US 1997 Industry Benchmark model. Carvalho, J. O., Y. Kihara, et al. (2010). EMISSÕES DE GASES DE EFEITO ESTUFA NOS PROCESSOS INDUSTRIAIS-­‐ Produtos Minerais (Parte I) Produção de Cimento, Ministério da Ciência e Tecnologia. Frischknecht, R., N. Jungbluth, et al. (2005). "The ecoinvent Database: Overview and Methodological Framework (7 pp)." The Interna;onal Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 10(1): 3-­‐9. Hocking, M. (1991). "Rela;ve merits of polystyrene foam and paper in hot drink cups: Implica;ons for packaging." Environmental Management 15(6): 731-­‐747. Lave, L. B., E. Cobas-­‐Flores, et al. (1995). "Using input-­‐output analysis to es;mate economy-­‐wide discharges." Environmental Science & Technology 29(9): 420A-­‐426A. NIST (2007). Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES) 4.0, Na;onal Ins;tute of Standards and Technology: Building and Fire Research Laboratory. NREL (2008). US Life Cycle Inventory (USLCI), Na;onal Renewable Energy Laboratory. Portal Brasil. (2010). "World Cup and Olympics will follow environmental sustainability criteria." Retrieved July 25th, 2011, from h@p://www.brasil.gov.br/news/history/2010/05/03/world-­‐cup-­‐and-­‐olympics-­‐will-­‐follow-­‐environmental-­‐sustainability-­‐criteria/newsitem_view?
set_language=en. PRe SimaPro v7.3. Amersfoort, Netherlands, PRé Consultants: LCA somware. Saade, M. and M. G. d. SILVA (2010). APLICAÇÃO DA ANÁLISE DO CICLO DE VIDA NA CONSTRUÇÃO CIVIL: CONSIDERAÇÕES SOBRE ALOCAÇÃO DE IMPACTOS ENTRE O AÇO E AS ESCÓRIAS SIDERÚRGICAS. Sustainable Building 2010 Brazil. Silva, J. G. d. (2005). Análise do Ciclo de Vida de Tijolos Prensados De escória de Alto-­‐forno vitória. M.S., Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo. The Economist (2011). Measuring Brazil's economy. The Economist. 2011. Wang, M. (2005). GREET Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transporta;on. , Argonne Na;onal Laboratory. !