Life cycle analysis of batteries using economic input-outputanalysis

摘要

In previous work, the authors illustrated the use of economicinput/output models for environmental assessment of industrial sectoroutputs and the use of economic input/output models to expandconventional life cycle assessment to obviate problems with analysisboundary assumptions. The economic input/output model represents all thesupplier relationships in the supply chain for industrial production.This work has used a 519 sector model of the US economy for theinput/output analysis and estimated environmental impacts by specifictoxic chemical releases and energy demands estimated for each suppliersector. Application of the EIO environmental assessment model was shownto be feasible, rapid and inexpensive. In this paper, the economicinput/output model is augmented by a “sector” representingthe inputs and demands for a specific product. In this way, theenvironmental impacts for a specific product rather than an industrialsector can be assessed directly. An application to the assessment ofenvironmental impacts associated with manufacturing storage batteries isfeatured. We discuss methods to estimate the required data for productspecific applications