NDLI: Accounting for greenhouse gas emissions from the degradation of chemicals in the environment

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Muñoz, Ivan Rigarlsford, Giles Canals, Llorenç Milà King, Henry
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	The degradation of chemicals in the environment is often excluded from life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. This paper describes a method to account for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from degradation, namely carbon dioxide (CO$_{2}$), methane (CH$_{4}$) and nitrous oxide (N$_{2}$O).A multi-media fate model is proposed to estimate the distribution and degradation of chemicals released to the environment. The environmental distribution, along with emission factors and assumptions for each compartment (air, water, soil and sediments), is used to calculate emissions of CO$_{2}$, CH$_{4}$ and N$_{2}$O associated with the initial release of a chemical to either the air, water or soil compartments. These emissions, along with global warming potentials (GWP), are converted to CO$_{2}$ equivalents from degradation (GWP$_{deg}$). The method is described and evaluated with nine organic chemicals.Applying the proposed method to the example chemicals shows that all the end products (CO$_{2}$, CH$_{4}$ and N$_{2}$O) have the potential to significantly contribute to GWP$_{deg}$, depending on the chemicals’ composition and environmental fate. These emissions, taken to represent the end-of-life stage of these nine chemicals, are shown to be significant when compared with the corresponding cradle-to-gate emissions. For three of the nine chemicals, the degradation emissions in the environment exceeded the cradle to gate phase.The method enables the accounting of GHG emissions that are currently neglected in many LCA and carbon footprint studies. The model has been parameterized for a generic environmental scenario, but it can be adapted for more site-specific conditions. Uncertainty in this method is associated to the potential lack of chemical-specific data to use in fate modelling, the generic evaluative environment used in fate models and the uncertainty associated with emission factors. A Monte Carlo analysis on the latter shows that the highest uncertainty is expected for chemicals where N$_{2}$O emissions are the main contributor to GWP$_{deg}$.
Starting Page	252
Ending Page	262
Page Count	11
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09483349
Journal	The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Volume Number	18
Issue Number	1
e-ISSN	16147502
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2012-06-29
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Carbon footprint Degradation End of life Environmental fate Indirect effects Life cycle assessment (LCA) Life cycle impact assessment Environment Environmental Economics Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology Environmental Chemistry
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Environmental Science

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