Life Cycle Inventory Availability: Status and Prospects for Leveraging New Technologies
The demand for life cycle assessments (LCA) is growing rapidly, which leads to an increasing demand of life cycle inventory (LCI) data. While the LCA community has made significant progress in developing LCI databases for diverse applications, challenges still need to be addressed. This perspective summarizes the current data gaps, transparency, and uncertainty aspects of existing LCI databases. Additionally, we survey and discuss novel techniques for LCI data generation, dissemination, and validation. We propose key future directions for LCI development efforts to address these challenges, including leveraging scientific and technical advances such as the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and blockchain/cloud platforms. Adopting these advanced technologies can significantly improve the quality and accessibility of LCI data, thereby facilitating more accurate and reliable LCA studies.
Authors
- Yuan Yao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9359-2030)
- Eric C. D. Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9110-2410)
- Abhijeet G. Parvatker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6698-0986)
- Mark Mba Wright (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1468-2391)
- Aydın K. Sunol (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8390-3912)
- Raymond L. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5885-0687)
- Qingshi Tu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7113-0564)
- António A. Martins (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4930-078X)
Institutions
- National Laboratory of the Rockies (US)
- Environmental Protection Agency (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Iowa State University (US)
- Universidade do Porto (PT)
- University of South Florida (US)
- Center for Environmental Health (US)
- Yale University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
- Published
- 2024-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.4c02519
- Citations
- 15
- Primary Topic
- Green IT and Sustainability
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.13
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior
- Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
- Advanced Manufacturing Office
- Bioenergy Technologies Office
- Office of Energy Efficiency