LCA-Data

Data uncertainty in Life Cycle Assessment

Duration: 2013 - 2014

Project Partners: Ford AG, Ford Research Center (Aachen)

Project:

Life Cycle Assessment of components or even of complex products is a challenging and tedious process. A lot of data is necessary in order to model environmental impacts of all necessary processes along the products’ or components’ life cycles. Nowadays, secondary data for many processes and materials can be gathered from data bases. However, data varies with regard to regional characteristics like energy mix and time horizon. Additionally, level of detail, used allocation methods, and system boundaries might vary.

Against this background, the aim of this research project is to analyze the impact of uncertainty on LCA results. Thereby, data for major materials and automotive production processes of different data bases are gathered. Sensitivity analyses are carried out in order to derive results on the impact of changes in automotive production (material substitution, recycling quota) on total LCA results. Furthermore, regional differences (e.g. with regard to electricity mix) will be analyzed as well.