Question

openLCA is a free, professional Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and footprint software with a broad range of features and many available databases.

What are some of the assumptions made in the LCA. Are they reasonable?

Answer 1

If i understood your question properly, we need to find why particularly assumptions are made in openLCA and what are those.

Assumptions are basically made based on the present scenerio and the product characteristics with the current environment.

The points which needs to be cleared and assumed in order to define a life cycle on openLCA.

Goal Definition--

While designing a case study on openLCA one must follow specific guidelines and limitation.One must be very clear of the goal taking into consideration the present environmental scenerio.
Let us take an example of a case study of "The impact of "PET Bottle" vs "Aluminium Bottle" on the environment. "

Scope Definition--

In this case the first assumption is to be made is to take into consider only the core functionality of the object, so we can say that the system boundary of this assessment includes production, consumption and disposal of the bottle.

Limitation--

The database with which we will be designing the openLCA might not have proper exact accurate data but an assumption is to be made that an approxiamate data is avalaible.The exact weight of the can and bottle, the origin of aluminum, current recycling rates, transport and energy needed and some other processes can only be guessed or estimated.

The assumption made on the life cycle will be reasonable to some extent and is purely dependent on the current environment or the situation a life cycle is in. The assumption will fairly change in the time of crysis or some emergency scenerio,the data and environment assumtion will no longer be feasible.

Thanks