Life Cycle Assessment As A Method For Comparison Of Lighting Sources

Patterns of environmental management have changed from end-of-pipe to clean production and this change has greatly reduced pollution and improved the quality of environment. But with the deepening understanding of environmental issues and environmental awareness,there is a growing recognition that clean production also can no longer fully meet the demand of sustainable development of economy, resources and environment. People are eager to get a thorough, comprehensive and integrated understanding in the resource consumption and environmental impacts of various activities they engage in, in order to seek opportunities to take measures to mitigate environmental impacts.Life Cycle Assessment(LCA) is a new tool for environment management and analysis.It is an effective method used to assess the potential environmental impacts from a product (or a service)from raw material extraction to final disposal.This thesis is a part of a research project carried out at Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. The aim is to develop more comprehensive integrated methods based on LCA for future policy development.This study has evaluated the life cycle environmental impacts of six different light sources;Incandescent general lightning service (GLS),Halogen lamp (Halo),Compact Fluorescent lamp (CFL),Light emitted diode (LED),Linear Fluorescent lamp,and Ceramic Metal Halide lamp (CMH) using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. In this study a'cradle-to-grave'approach has been used with a simplified life cycle including the production phase,the operating phase,and the end of life phase.The time period for this analysis is based on the longest life time of the different light sources,the LED lamp which have a life time of around 25,000 hours.In the study the software system GaBi4 has been used.This program is built in a way where the software is separated from the database.In the study both the GaBi4 database and the EcoInvent life cycle impact assessment database from the Swiss centre for life cycle were used.The LCA structure in the study follow the one described in the ISO standard.The calculations for the primary energy demand and also impacts were based on an electricity mix comparable to the mix used in China. In this study three environmental impact categories have been used. These are Global Warming Potential,Acidification Potential and Human Toxicity Potential.These criteria were calculated from primary energy demand needed for the production of the energy used in the different phases of the lamps.In this study of six different lamps,the impacts have been shown to be highest during the use because of the demand for electricity which causes impact during power production.Since the CFL and the LED have the lowest energy consumption during use, they will contribute to a lower production of harmful emissions during its use phase.These two lighting systems have also the overall lowest energy demand considering all phases which will lead to the result that these two systems are the most appropriate when considering the low energy consumption.Regarding other environmental aspects CFL and the T5 contains mercury.It is actually during the production of electricity through coal combustion we get the highest emissions of mercury, and the emissions of mercury from CFL is much lower than that of GLS even including the mercury in them.But the increase of these lighting systems on the market will require more developed recycling programs and increased awareness of the effects of mercury on human health and the environment.