An Uncertainty Assessment Framework for LCA-based Environmental Process Design

Abstract Environmental process design methods often incorporate life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a deterministic black-box methodology. However, LCA suffers from several sources of ambiguity and uncertainty. These limitations are particularly severe for the multi-functional processes typical for the chemical industry. This work introduces a rigorous uncertainty assessment framework. The framework quantifies data uncertainties and also uncertainties that result from fixing multi-functionality in LCA by allocation. The method is derived from a matrix-framework for LCA and applied to a comparison of alternative chlorine electrolysis technologies.