Università degli Studi di Napoli "Parthenope"

  1. Teaching
  2. BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
  3. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT WITH LABORATORY

Stampa

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT WITH LABORATORY

Teaching schedule

Academic year: 
2018/2019
Belonging course: 
Course of Bachelor's Degree Programme on BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Disciplinary sector: 
CHEMISTRY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE (CHIM/12)
Language: 
Italian
Credits: 
9
Year of study: 
3
Teachers: 
Dott. FRANZESE Pier Paolo
Cycle: 
Second semester
Hours of front activity: 
72

Language

Italian

Course description

The course aims at providing students with concepts, definitions and metodologies to assess through a life cycle perspective the impacts generated by human activities on ecosystems and human health. Students become aware of the interdependency between production chains and environmental impacts generated throughout the chain for obtaining a product or a service.
Through lab activities, students learn to use an LCA software and therefore they are capable of quantifying a set of indicators describing the environmental sustainability of products and services.

Prerequisites

It is necessary to hold basic scientific knowledge for the understanding of environmental problems, human impacts on ecosystems, resources scarcity and related transformation processes (Chemistry, Physics, Ecology) together with basic informatics competences.

Syllabus

Definition and evolution of the concept of sustainable development. Environmental problems. Definition of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. Goal and scope definition. Choice of boundaries: physical, geographical, temporal. Impact categories. Data quality. Inventory of mass and energy flows. Environmental impacts assessment. Interpretation of results.
The allocation problem: partition of environmental impacts to products and co-products: mass allocation, energy allocation, economic allocation. System expansion and avoided allocation.
LCA and circular economy. LCA and agro-food chains. LCA and waste. LCA and energy systems. The 2030 Agenda, SDGs and the role of LCA.
Open source and commercial LCA software. Installation of the OpenLCA software and related database.
Lab exercises: use of the OpenLCA software for assessing the environmental sustainability of products and services.

Introduction to environmental sustainability. Environmental problems and climate change. Environmental accounting. Definition of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The LCA phases. Methodological aspects. Application of the LCA methodology to food chains, waste, energy systems, circular economy. LCA software.

Teaching Methods

Frontal lectures, use of the LCA software, lab exercises.

Textbooks

ILCD, 2010. The International Reference Life Cycle Data System. ILCD Handbook: General guide for Life Cycle Assessment: detailed guidance. Joint Research Center-Institute of Environment and Sustainability, European Commission. European Commission, Ispra, Italy. 414pp. It can be download at: http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC48157/ilcd_....
Publications and teaching material provided during the lectures.
Tutorial of the OpenLCA software.

Learning assessment

Oral examination.

More information

None.