JLCA NEWS ENGLISH EDITION July. 2008

5

No.

JLCA
NEWS LETTER
Life-Cycle Assessment Society of Japan

Contents

Issues in LCA in the Concrete Industry ............................................................... 1
LCA in Large Pump Production Activities ............................................................ 5- Creation of a Supply Chain LCA Database Life Cycle Inventory Analysis of Domestic Natural Gas ...................................... 9
Reality of LCA Education .................................................................................... 12
Information ......................................................................................................... 14

JLCA News Letter No.5

Case Example
Issues in LCA in the Concrete Industry

Yoshitaka Ishikawa
Senior Researcher
Chigasaki Research InstituteElectric Power Development Co., Ltd.

manufacturingconcrete production → construction of concrete
structures → placing of concrete structures in service →demolition of concrete structures → disposal and recycling).
Concrete consists of cement, aggregates (gravel and sand),additives (blast furnace slag and fly ash), and water. Thesematerials are seemingly simple and readily available. Recently,
however, types of material have been highly diversified. For
example, it has become difficult to collect quality fine aggregatesin western Japan, and also, standards have been developed andimplemented in order to promote use of slag.
During the manufacturing stage, in the case of a large scaleconstruction project, a special concrete manufacturing plant isestablished at the construction site. However, in most cases,
concrete is manufactured at a commercial ready-mixed concrete
plant and is carried to the construction site.
Althoughmanufacturing of ready-mixed concrete at the plant is closely
controlled, product (concrete) quality still varies more than otherindustrial products. Also, because of the nature of "ready-mixed"
concrete, concrete hardens after a certain time period passes after
manufacturing, and therefore, the distance between the
manufacturing plant and the construction site is limited.
Due to the advancement of concrete pumping technology, powerhas been greatly saved in construction work using concrete. Notehowever, that the skill to work with concrete during the construction
stage is still the key that determines concrete quality andperformance.

1. Introduction (lifecycle of concrete)
As a concrete researcher, I am inclined to be defensive of theconcrete industry, but I must admit that efforts to deal withenvironmental problems in this industry are no more advanced
than other industries. The concrete and cement industry is a key
industry, and some streamlining and environmental protection
measures have been implemented so far, but I believe there arestill essential problems.
In this article, characteristics of the concrete industry are first
discussed and then life cycle and material flow will be considered
in order to discuss issues in LCA in the concrete industry.
Concrete surely is a material that we are all familiar with, but why
do we use it so often?
Concrete has high strength and durability. It can be formed into
any shape, and it therefore has high design freedom. It can also
be used together with reinforcing steel or fiber. (A combination of
concrete and reinforcing steel is so-called reinforced concrete.
Concrete has high compression resistance and low tension
resistance. Therefore, it is necessary to reinforce concrete with amaterial having high tension resistance. In general, reinforcing
steel is used for this reason.) Materials used to produce concrete
are easy to obtain and have high economic advantage. For thisreason, a large volume of concrete is used as an importantmaterial in building construction. How is concrete produced,
disposed of, and recycled?
Figure 1 shows the life cycle of concrete (materials andFigure 1 Life cycle of concrete
Additives
CementGravel

Sand

Water

Groundimprovement
material

Aggregates

Subgradematerial
Recycled aggregates
Demolished concrete debris

Concrete production

Construction of concrete structures

Demolition of concrete structures

Placing of concrete structures in service

JLCA News Letter No.5

1

Case Example
After the construction stage is complete, concrete is used as aconcrete structure. Except for the fact that the concrete structure
requires maintenance and repair during its service period, notmuch change occurs in terms of LCA. Although it depends on the
structure, a concrete structure in general serves for 30 to 60 years.
This term is not determined based on life of concrete but instead
seems to be determined based on the socially accepted building
renewal cycle in Japan.
The concrete structure demolition stage requires a large amount ofenergy, and recycling of waste concrete is now a serious issue.

starting from the material stage. The concrete manufacturing
stage ends when a ready-mixed concrete plant ships the products.
Values shown in the figure are based on the statistical figuresobtained in 2004.

(1) Cement
Cement is in general produced by burning limestone(approximately 80%), clay (approximately 20%), slag, siliceousstone, and gypsum at a high temperature. Production of cement
peaked in 1995 and is now decreasing. In 2004, 71.68 million tons
(domestic sales: 56.74 million tons) of cement was produced.
As materials used in cement production, 75.18 million tons oflimestone, and a total of 23.35 million tons of clay, siliceous stone,
and gypsum were used. Also, a total of 28.78 million tons of blast
furnace slag, fly ash, desulfurized gypsum, other waste, andbyproducts were used as cement material or fuel2). Recently,
municipal solid waste has been actively reused as materials or fuelfor cement production, and the ratio of use of alternative fuel is
expected to grow further.

2. Material flow of concrete
Next, the material flow of concrete within its life cycle is examined.
As shown in Table 1, environmental impacts such as CO2 emission
are large in the material and manufacturing as well as demolition
stages1). Here, from the material flow perspective, the material andmanufacturing as well as demolition (disposal and reuse) stages
are examined.

2.1 Material and manufacturing
Figure 2 shows assessment result of concrete manufacturing

Figure 2 Material flow in concrete structure production (unit: 10,000 tons)

From concrete demolition(partially)

Other byproducts 12Material flow in concrete production
Gypsum 257

Fly ash 688

Clay and siliceous stone
1,871
Blast furnace slag 1,006
Limestone 7,518
Additives

Cement 7,168

Concrete production
23,400 (data provided by the National Federation Ready-mixed
Concrete Industrial Association)
Approximately 42,000 (expected by total amount of domestic
cement sales)

Aggregates approximately 59,000(for concrete 39,700)

Gravel19,900Additives

Water

Concrete demolition and recycled cement
Crushed stone
36,900
Various types of slag
2,000

JLCA News Letter No.5

2

In 2004: unit: 10,000 tons

Case Example(2) Additives

concrete. Note however, that these values do not seem to include
data of ready-mixed concrete plants which don't belong to theassociation or secondary product factories. The basic unit ofquantity of cement is said to be about 13% of the weight ofconcrete. Therefore, if 56.74 million tons of cement was solddomestically, approximately 420 million tons of concrete was used.

Additives (blast furnace slag and fly ash) can be used not only to
produce blended cement but also to be mixed with cement as
concrete additives at a ready-mixed concrete plant. For the latter
case, it is estimated that approximately 0.83 million tons of blast
furnace slag and approximately 0.1 million tons of fly ash wereused3) 4).

Table 1 Ratios of environmental burdens accounted
for by each concrete life cycle process(3) Aggregates

Process

A total of 590 million tons of aggregates were used. Of which, 397
million tons were used as concrete aggregates, and 193 million
tons were used as road and ballast aggregates5).

CO2 emission SOx emission NOx emission
(%)
(%)
(%)

Dust emission(%)

Material andmanufacturing

84.9

63.2

40.6

27.9

(4) Chemical admixture

Construction

4.9

9.5

16.0

19.2

Only a small amount of chemical admixture were used; therefore,
shipment result data has not been disclosed.

Demolition

5.3

14.9

28.7

31.4

Disposal andrecycling

1.2

1.9

1.6

2.1

Transportation

3.6

10.5

13.1

19.4

(5) WaterIndustrial water, clean water, or recycled water is used ,and dataon the total amount of use or its breakdown has not been
disclosed.

2.2 Demolition, disposal, and recycling
After being produced, concrete is used to construct a concrete
structure and provided to its user. When the service period of thestructure is finished, the structure is demolished and disposed of.
Figure 3 shows the flow of demolition, disposal, and recycling of aconcrete structure based on statistical values obtained in 2006.
of the age are required.

(6) Concrete
According to the data disclosed by National Federation Readymixed Concrete Industrial Association, 106,280,000 m3 of concrete
was shipped in 20042), which was about 234 million tons of

Figure 3 Material flow in concrete structure demolition and recycling (unit: 10,000 tons)
Demolition of a concrete structure 3,301(on-site use 86)
Material flow in concrete structure
demolition and recycling

Iron scraps

To recycling facilities 3,215(distribution to other construction sites 73)

Disposal and land-filling
60

Recycling
Crushing of recycled concrete
3,082

Recycled concrete sand364

Concrete production
To aggregates

Recycled fine powder

Roadbed material

Concrete production
CementRecycled aggregates for concrete
Coarse aggregates

Concrete production
To aggregates
In 2006: unit: 10,000 tons

JLCA News Letter No. 5

3

Case Example(1) Waste concrete
3) A large volume of waste materials are accepted and used in theconcrete material production stage. These waste materials must
be used in land-filling if not used for concrete material production.
How this waste material use should be incorporated into LCA is
one of the future issues.

According to the latest data of 2006, 33.01 million tons of waste
concrete was produced from demolition of concrete structures. Of
which, approximately 98% was recycled or distributed to otherconstruction sites to be used, and 600,000 tons of waste concrete
was used in land-filling6). This recycling rate of 98% is a national
average; compared to the recycling rate obtained in the previous
survey which was 5 years ago, the recycling rate in both large
cities and suburban cities has not changed much. Values for theelements surrounded by a red dotted line need to be estimated as
there is no statistical data for them, but a large part of waste
concrete was recycled into crushed stones to be used as
roadbeds. Only a small part was recycled into concrete sand orcoarse concrete aggregates or used as cement alternative, andthe amount is considered to be very small.

4) Improvement of concrete material quality (strength anddurability improvement) and extension of concrete structureservice period seem to be effective ways of reducing the overall
environmental burdens of the life cycle. In reality, however, notonly life extension of skeletal structures, but also comprehensive
life extension of facilities and the living environment created bybuilding structures and establishment of renewability of thesefacilities and the living environment in accordance with the needsof the age are required.

(2) Iron scraps

4. Conclusion

The amount of iron scraps generated at the time of concrete
demolition is considered to be proportional to the amount of waste
concrete produced. However, specific statistical value is notavailable. Concrete structures in general are reinforced concrete
structures. As for reinforcing steel, according to the Policy Bureauof the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism(estimates based on the data provided by the Japan Iron and SteelFederation), approximately 10.7 million tons of small steel bars
were produced for construction work in 20037). At the time of
concrete structure demolition and disposal, reinforcing steel inside
the concrete can be collected as scrap and recycled.

This article has discussed the issues related to LCA in the concrete
industry. Simply by looking at the figures, it is easy to recognizethat the concrete and cement industry is a highly influential
industry that involves other industries. As discussed in this article,
the ideal concrete industry is a closed material input-and-output
system wherein input means materials and manufacturing andoutput means demolition, disposal, and recycling; however, in thecurrent state, it is extremely difficult to create a cycle in which theflow goes back to input from output. The basic requirement in
reduction of environmental burdens is a well-balanced object
circulation as is widely known. For this, use of nonrenewable
resources must be minimized and a recyclable system must be
established.
Therefore, development of technologies that can create a material
flow from output to input is sincerely desired. Also, it may bepossible to find the solution to these issues by performing LCA of
the concrete and cement industry in relation to production activitiesof other industries.

3. Characteristics and issues for LCA in theconcrete industry
Based on the statistical data presented above, the characteristics
and issues for LCA in the concrete industry are as follows:
1) Concrete materials (cement and aggregates (gravel and sand)in particular) account for a large part of materials used inconstruction activities (it is said to be approximately 90%). For thisreason, examination of LCA results for the concrete industry ishighly important in examination of LCA results for the constructionindustry. The ideal concrete industry is a closed material inputand-output system wherein input means materials andmanufacturing and output means demolition, disposal, andrecycling; however, in the current state, it is extremely difficult tocreate a cycle in which the flow goes back to input from output.

References
1) Japan Society of Civil Engineers: Environmental burdens ofConcrete (Vol. 2), Concrete Technology Series 62, September,
2004
2) Japan Cement Association: Cement Handbook, 2005
3) Nippon Slag Association: Annual Slag Statistics, 2006
4) Japan Coal Energy Center: National Coal Ash Survey Report,
20065) Estimation by the Housing Industry Ceramics and Construction
Materials Division of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
6) Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: 2005
Construction By-Product Survey, 2006
7) Construction Promotion Division, Policy Bureau of the Ministry ofLand, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism: 2004 Forecast of
Demand for Major Building Materials8) Yoshitaka Ishikawa: LCA of Concrete Materials, Collection ofPapers for the 1st Institute of Life Cycle Assessment of Japan
Presentation Meeting, pp. 145 - 146, 2005
9) Yoshitaka Ishikawa: LCA of Concrete Materials (Part. 2),
Collection of Papers for the 2nd Institute of Life Cycle Assessmentof Japan Presentation Meeting, pp. 200 - 201, 2007

2) As for comparison of CO2 emission basic units among thematerials (cement, aggregates (gravel and sand), and additives)
used in concrete production, as seen in Table 1, although a large
amount such as 400 million tons of gravel and sand are used,since their CO2 emission basic unit is small, they only have a small
impact on the total CO2 emission of concrete compared to othermaterials. Also, though the CO2 emission basic unit associatedwith aggregate collection is small, the environmental impact ofcollection of a large volume of natural aggregates from mountains
and the sea on the surrounding environment has yet to beassessed. Therefore, LCA needs to be performed based on
careful consideration of the abovementioned environmental
impact.

JLCA News Letter No.5

4

Case Example
LCA in Large Pump Production Activities

Hiroshi Kozuka
andYasuko Eto- Creation of a Supply Chain LCA Database 1. Introduction

Environmental Management Group
Haneda District, Ebara Corporation(8)Transportation between the Haneda plant and subcontracted
processors(9) Transportation to customers

Environmental load are the negative result of economic activities.
The level of economic activities is expressed and assessed incurrency, and the level of environmental load is expressed andassessed in environmental potential. Goods receive additional
value through economic activities and are traded at their prices.
Therefore, definition of environmental load in accordance with the
input-output table and calculation of environmental load of goods
are useful activities.
The input-output table however lists
macroscopic values of the entire Japanese economy, and it seems
too macroscopic to be used to calculate environmental load ofgoods manufactured by individual companies.
Now that goods prices are defined based on the internal
manufacturing cost, their environmental load should probably becalculated based on emissions of each company.
For this reason, we decided to create an LCA database in order tounderstand the nature of environmental load of the supply chain
consisting of our company and its suppliers and to calculate
environmental load of products. From the factory LCA point ofview, it is first necessary to define for each company the basic unitof environmental load that are appropriate for productspecifications, and then create a supply chain basic environmentalload unit database for calculating environmental load of goods.
This article reports on the database creation, results of calculationof large pump environmental load using the database,incorporation of the results into environmental management
activities at the factory, and the future issues to be addressed.

Background data was used to obtain environmental load ofmaterials and utilities, such as electricity, fuel, and water, for theformed material manufacturing stage and later stages. Note thatpurchased products were excluded from the analysis because
they accounted only for a very small share of the products.
For the stages where suppliers were involved, suppliers to which alarge number of orders were usually placed were selected. For
each stage, suppliers of different sizes were selected in order to
identify differences between suppliers of different sizes.
Annual environmental data (volume of resource and energy use,emission into the air or water, and the amount of waste materials)
of individual companies was used in the analysis as input andoutput data. Actual measurement values were used as much as
possible, but calculated values, estimated values, and backgrounddata were used for the amount of chemicals and emission into the
air or water.
As a basic unit calculation index, production control data (worktime, weight, surface area, and the number of units) was used.
Types of environmental potential analyzed were: global warming
potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication
potential (EP), primary energy consumption, photochemical ozone
creation potential (POCP), human toxicity potential (HTP), andaquatic eco-toxicity potential (AETP). Annual environmental
potentials for each process were calculated using Gabi4, which issummation method-based LCA software.
Then, the annual environmental potentials obtained were divided
as follows to calculate the basic units of each type ofenvironmental load. Environmental potentials were divided bywork time for the development and design, machining, assembly,
testing (pre-arrangement), and the processing by subcontractor'smachines processes. For the testing (mechanical performance)
process, they were divided by electricity used in testing. For thepainting process, they were divided by surface area. For the
distribution and other processes, they were divided by the numberof units shipped. For the casting, fabrication, forging, and heat
treatment processes, they were divided by weight produced or
shipped by each company. Through the calculations above, thebasic environmental load unit database for the supply chain in
accordance with the product specifications (materials, weight,
surface area, work time, and so on) was created.

2. Creation of a basic unit data base
The major processes listed below were analyzed for large pumps,
which were the leading products manufactured at the Haneda
plant, as follows:(1) Processes at the Haneda plant (machine operation, assembly,
testing, painting, and so on)(2) Casting process(3) Fabrication process (for large and small parts)(4) Forging process (for large and small parts)(5) Heat treatment process(6)Machining process using subcontractor's machines(long parts, medium parts, and small parts)(7) Transportation of formed materials

Outside the scopeof assessment

Within the scope of assessment
Utilities, consumables, and so on

Ore

Steel
Alloy steel

Raw materials

Nonferrous metal

Materials
.
.
.

...

CastingFabrication

Shipment
Customers

Haneda plantForging

Chemical products
Recycled products

Finished items

Processing

Heat
treatment

Emissions Waste material
processing
Landfill

Figure 1 Overview of large pump LCAJLCA News Letter No.5

Based on foreground data
Based on background data
Based on both foreground and background data

5

Recycling

Disposal

Case Example
Haneda plant

POCP(kg-Et/**)HTP(kg-DCB/**)AETP(sea salt water)
Primary energy
consumption

Large Processing
fabrication using subcan manu- contractor's
facturing machines

Machining

404

1,495

499

403

134

497

339

0.58

2.43

0.72

0.74

0.82

0.86

0.51

0.04

0.21

0.06

0.08

0.13

0.25

0.04

0.15

0.70

0.35

17.7

0.28

0.20

0.18

12.3

43.2

13.5

18.0

2.2

17.4

9.5

23.3

79.7

24.6

24.9

0.8

53.5

17.3

9.0

32.6

10.5

9.6

1.8

9.3

7.6

Work
time
(100 h)Work
time(100 h)Assembly Painting

Work
Work Painted Number
Basic unit index Workof units
area
time
time
time
shipped(** = unit)(100 h) (100 h) (100 h) (100 m2) (units)

Environmental load

GMP100(kg-CO2/**)AP(kg-SO2/**)EP(kg-ph/**)Transportation
Distribution

DesignTable 1 Basic unit data (example)

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

Product LCA calculation (1200 VZM)

Material

CastingFabrication

Designing

Machining Assembly

Global warming(t-CO2)

Acidification(5kg-SO2)

Human toxicity(200kg-DCB)

Aquatic eco-toxicity(400t-DCB)

Testing

Painting

Other
processes

Photochemicalozone creation(5kg-Et)

Eutrophication(5kg-Ph)Primary energy
consumption (20GJ)

Figure 2 Environmental load of the product(1200 mm VZM)

3.Environmental load of the product (1200VZM
calculation example)

GWP100(t CO2-Epuiv./t)AP(5kg SO2-Epuiv./t)

POCP(30kg Ethene-Epuiv./t)

Using the supply chain basic environmental load unit data,
environmental load of a 1200 mm vertical mixed flow pump was
calculated based on the product specifications for making
estimates (casing: FC250, impeller: SCS13, and so on). Figure 2
shows the result.
Even for a made-to-order product like a large pump, it is possible
to use data for cost calculation and easily calculate the productprice and environmental load simultaneously by having the basic
unit data created based on the product specifications as indices.
Therefore, it is possible to present to customers data on
environmental load of the product when submitting a quotation tosuggest purchase of products with lower environmental load.
Also, by having a basic environmental load unit ready for eachmaterial, it is possible to calculate environmental load of a wide
variety of products by combining material-specific and processspecific environmental load.
Figure 3 shows environmental load per one ton of shipment of castproducts and fabrication products.
By obtaining the basic units using the product specifications as
indices in advance, it is possible to easily calculate environmentalload of other products that are manufactured within the same
supply chain.

EP(5kg Phosphate-Epuiv./t)

HTP(200kg DCB-Epuiv./t)

Primary energy
consumption(20GJ/t)

AETO (sea)(1200t DCB-Equiv./t)

15
Size of individual potentials
has no meaning

10

5

0

Raw Castingmaterial

Raw
Total material Casting

FO250

SOS14

Raw
Total material Casting

Total

SS440 S350

Raw CastingTotalmaterial

SUS316

Figure 3 Environmental load per one ton ofcast products and Fabrication products

4.Environmental load of each process andprocess improvement
Figure 4 shows environmental load of each large pump
manufacturing process for a specific shipment weight.
Within the manufacturing processes, the casting process causes

GWP100 (t CO2-Epuiv./t)

AP (5kg SO2-Epuiv./t)

EP (5kg Phosphate-Epuiv./t)

POCP (30kg Ethene-Epuiv./t)

HTP (200kg DCB-Epuiv./t)

AETO (sea)(400t DCB-Equiv./t)

Primary energy consumption(20GJ/t)

2.5

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0

Development
MachininganddesignTesting
Testing (preAssembly arrangement) (mechanicalperformance)

Painting

Logistics

Other
processes

Haneda plant

Total

PC

SCS

ForgingLargefabrication

Smallfabrication

Figure 4 Environmental load of each process per one ton of production
JLCA News Letter No.5

6

Large
castingSmallcastingHeat
treatment

Case Example
the GWP and primary energy consumption to be high because of
the level of electricity required to melt steel. The GWP and theprimary energy consumption are also high in the forging and heat
treatment processes because of the amount of fuel required forheating. It is also possible to quantitatively compare environmentalload of other processes with other companies or other processes
to identify issues. The comparison results will then serve as usefuldata to be used in promotion of environmental management
activities.
The following sections provide examples of effective use of LCA
data

Analysis with the input-output table could not produce the same
result, and therefore, this result is the achievement of the analysis
method used in this report. From the green procurement point ofview, it is important to use plants with a size appropriate for thesize of products or parts.

4.1 Comparison of plant size

The GWP and primary energy consumption are high in themachining and testing (mechanical and performance test)
processes due to the use of power. In both processes, CO2 isindirectly emitted through power generation. In the painting
process, VOC contained in paint, solvent, and cleanser results in
the generation of the POCP. Direct emission through paint work
accounts for 62% of the POCP, and indirect emission caused bypaint production and power generation accounts for the rest. The
graph also shows that office work such as designing results in thesame level of environmental load as onsite work such as assembly.
Therefore, analysis of process-specific environmental data allows
quantitative understanding of environmental issues, and LCA iseffective in upgrading of environmental management systems.

4.2 Environmental load of each process at a large pump
manufacturing plant
Figure 6 shows environmental load of each process at the Haneda
plant, which is a large pump manufacturing factory.

Figure 5 shows environmental load per 200 man-hours (working
time by one worker in a month) for the fabrication, forging, andmachining processes.
The figure indicates that environmental impacts associated with theuse of energy are larger for larger plants. This seems to bebecause size of machines and equipment, rate of operation,
available capacity of energy consumption equipment, and size of
fixed equipment such as buildings and lighting are different
between large plants and small plants.
As described above, analysis using environmental and production
data provided by companies allows identification of differences inenvironmental load resulting from differences in company size.

GWP100(t CO2-Equiv./200man-hours)AP(5 kg SO2-Equiv./200man-hours)

POCP(30 kg Ethene-Equiv./200man-hours)EP(5 kg Phosphate-Equiv./200man-hours)

HTP(200 kg DCB-Equiv./200man-hours)

Primary energy
consumption(20 GJ/200man-hours)

AETP (sea)(400 t DCB-Equiv./200man-hours)

15
Size of individual potentials has no meaning.

10

5

0
Large fabrication Small fabrication
Suzuka office
C Company

Large size
forging
A Company

Small size
forging
B Company

Machining
Haneda plant

Long object
machining
Subcontracted
processor
A Company

Medium size object Small size object
machiningmachining
Subcontracted
Subcontracted
processor
processor
B Company
C Company

Figure 5 Environmental load per 200 man-hours for different processes at different companies

JLCA News Letter No.5

7

Case Example
GWP100(t CO2-Equiv./year)AP(5 kg SO2-Equiv./year)

POCP(30 kg Ethene-Equiv./year)EP(5 kg Phosphate-Equiv./year)

HTP(200 kg DCB-Equiv./year)

Primary energy consumption(20 GJ/year)

AETP (sea)(400 t DCB-Equiv./year)

3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0

Development
and design

Machining

Assembly

Testing(pre-arrangement)

Testing(mechanicalperformance)

Painting

Logistics

Other processes

Figure 6 Environmental load of each process at the Haneda plant

5. Summary

6. Conclusion

Our findings from using the LCA basic unit calculation method forour supply chain are as follows:
1) It is easy to calculate product LCA results. Environmental loadand costs can be obtained simultaneously; therefore, it is possible
to quantitatively recommend products with low environmental load
to customers.
2) The calculation method can be applied to other products aslong as they are manufactured within the same supply chain.
3) Environmental management activities can be carried out
quantitatively, and it is possible to express activity achievements
as numerical values.
4) Compared to small factories, environmental load per specificwork hour as well as specific produced weight are higher for large
factories. Therefore, more active eco-friendly activities are
required for larger factories.
5) Environmental load are high for material forming such as casting
and forging. Reduction of product weight can greatly contribute to
reduction of environmental load.
6) Alloy steel such as stainless steel has excellent electrochemical
properties such as corrosion resistance; however, it has highenvironmental load and thus needs to be used properly.
7) Compared to cast products, can products can reduce
environmental load during manufacturing.

In this project, we obtained environmental data and production
control data from our cooperating companies on the processes oflarge pump manufacturing at our Haneda plant, and created a
database of basic environmental load units for the supply chain.
In the automobile, IT, and home appliance industries, a supply
chain has the shape of a pyramid, and a manufacturer thatdevelops and sells finished products sits at the top of the pyramid.
In the industrial machinery industry, formed materials and parts areprocured from a large number of independent manufacturers, andtherefore, a set supply chain is not necessarily formed. For thisreason, information that can be provided by individual companies
is limited and purchased finished items are not included inanalysis. Therefore, it is desirable that industrial machinery
manufacturers cooperate with each other, and publish and share
their achievement data so that a highly accurate database can becreated and LCA techniques can be upgraded. Also, it is ourbelief that using LCA data as one of the tools to promote
environmental management activities is beneficial. We welcome
any comments to this report.

7. Acknowledgment
We would like to express our gratitude to the companies thatprovided data to us and to PE-Asia who analyzed data for thisproject.

JLCA News Letter No.5

8

Case Example
Life Cycle Inventory Analysis ofDomestic Natural Gas
1. Natural gas with low environmental burdens

Hidenori Kaneta
Environmental Safety Department
Teikoku Oil Co., Ltd.

LCI survey on CO2 emission of fossil fuels (coal, oil, liquefied
natural gas (LNG), and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)) conductedby the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, in 1999. In this study,
the LCI analysis of LNG was made based on the assumption that
LNG would be imported from four South-East Asian countries andAlaska. The result showed that much energy was spent on theliquefaction process and LNG transportation by vessels. It wasestimated that the natural gas in Minami-Nagaoka supplied
through the abovementioned pipeline is lower in environmental
burdens because liquefaction and transportation factors are
eliminated. For this reason, in 2002, we conducted LCI analysis of
CO2 emission jointly with the Research Center for Life Cycle
Assessment of the Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
based on the business operation data of the previous year. This
article describes the specific supplies and input energy that wasassessed, the assessment results, and measures to reduce future
CO2 emission.

Natural gas has been attracting attention as a low environmental
burden gas because of its low SOx and NOx emission at the timeof combustion compared to coal or oil. In particular, changeoverfrom heavy oil or kerosene to natural gas can reduce CO2 emission
by approximately 30%; therefore, the use of natural gas can be aneffective environmental protection measure. Also, while more than
99% of oil is imported from overseas, 4% to 5% of natural gas canbe self-supplied domestically. The Minami-Nagaoka Gas Field,
which is our leading gas field located outside Nagaoka City,
supplies natural gas to Niigata-pref, Nagano-pref., and theNorthern Kanto area through pipelines, and the self-sufficiency
ratio of domestic natural gas in these areas is high (Figure 1, as ofMarch of 2008).
Although energy is one of the basic fields for which LCA should be
conducted, there have only been a few LCA case examples sincemost energy resources are imported. One of the examples is an

Niigata City

Nagaoka City
Kashiwazaki City

Minami-Nagaoka Gas Field

Shin-Oumi Line(to be completed in 2009)
Joetsu City

FUKUSHIMANIIGATA

Kubiki Pressure
Adjustment Center

Itoigawa City

Nojiri Valve Station

TOCHIGI

Nagano City
Tokyo LineGUNMA

Figure 1 Natural gas pipelines

Toumi City
Matsumoto City

Gunma Line

Shin Tokyo Line

Ryomo Line

Karuizawa Town
Tomioka City

Matsumoto Line

Kounosu CitySAITAMA

Suwa City

Iruma Line
Hidaka City

NAGANOYAMANASHI

Kofu Line

Oume

Kofu City
Showa Town

Shizuoka Line

Fujiyoshida City
Gotenba City
Second Suruga Trunk Pipeline[Shizuoka Gas]
Fuji City
Sodeshi LNG Base

TOKYO

CHIBA
Minami-Fuji Trunk Pipeline[Teikoku Oil, Shizuoka Gas, and Tokyo Gas]

Shizuoka City

SHIZUOKA

As of March of 2008

JLCA News Letter No.5

9

Case Example
2. Objectives and scope of LCI analysis

facilities and energy elements were divided in the ratio consistent
with the heat quantity ratio between natural gas and oil to obtainthe values associated with natural gas.
The CO2 described above accounted for approximately 6% of thenatural gas volume. This CO2 is separated from the gas andemitted into the air. Since the emitted gas also includes methane,in this analysis, methane emission was also calculated based on
the analysis value for the gas. Although the plants carry out gas
turbine power generation using the natural gas produced at theplants as fuel and use the power generated at the plants, only theCO2 generated when the gas was used as fuel was used in theanalysis to prevent overlapping.

The objectives of the LCI analysis conducted in 2002 were as
follows:(A)Creation of domestic natural gas data as the basic data
essential for examination of energy systems(B)Close examination of the impacts of natural gas search,development, production, and transportation on global warming,
understanding of the reality of emission, and effective use of theinformation obtained in process improvement
The scope of analysis was emission of GHG (greenhouse gases)
such as CO2 and methane, with the amount of natural gas per MJ
as a functional unit. Data obtained from January to December of2001 was used in the analysis.

(D)Transportation stage
Iron, cement, and pipe exterior materials used when constructing
pipelines, truss bridges, valve stations, and supply stations wereanalyzed as the facilities elements. As for the operational aspects
associated with maintenance and management, natural gas
emission in pipe replacement work, gasoline and light oil
consumption in patrolling, electricity used in electrolytic protection,and natural gas emitted into the air at the time of pressure control(called "bleed gas") were calculated. Since gas produced in
Minami-Nagaoka accounted for 88% of the total sales of gas
transported through pipelines, 88% of the input energy andsupplies were registered as an analysis target.

3. Input energy, supplies, and equipment that wereanalyzed in the LCI analysis
To extract natural gas, exploration activities are first carried out
and then, when a potential gas field is found, test drilling is
performed. When a particular gas field is determined as being
economically viable, an online plant appropriate for that gas field isconstructed, pipelines are installed, and natural gas is transported
to destinations. Details of input energy, supplies, and equipmentin each stage are described below.

4. Result of the inventory analysis and measures
to reduce GHG(A)Exploration stage
Dynamite that was used in the Nagaoka Plain seismic exploration
was analyzed. This seismic exploration was a basic geophysicalexploration conducted in 1979 and was also how the MinamiNagaoka Gas Field was found. Fuel used by seismic exploration
vehicles could be the target of analysis, but it was not included in
the analysis since no records on them were kept and the amount offuel used was minimal.

For every 1 MJ of natural gas produced, 5.2 g of CO2 or GHG wasemitted. Of which, emission in the production stage accounted for
83% (4.4 g), the transportation stage accounted for 13% (0.66 g),
and the drilling stage accounted for 4% (0.2 g). Emission in the
exploration stage was extremely low at 0.0001% (0.63 x 10-6 g).
Breakdown of the emission among the stages are as follows. The
production and transportation departments accounted for 70% of
all emissions due to a large amount of emission from gas. Then,emission due to energy consumption in the production stage
accounted for 22%. Non-durable supplies accounted only for
0.28% (see Figure 2).

(B)Drilling stage
In the Minami-Nagaoka area, a total of 36 wells were drilled
including failed and abandoned wells between 1976 and 2001. In
addition to these 36 wells, six wells used in well maintenance work
(such as oil well tubular replacement work) and four wells used in
massive hydraulic fracturing (MHF) work to increase oil availability
were analyzed. As for supplies, light oil as power generator fuel,mud conditioning materials used in mud water for drilling, andcement were analyzed. As for durable equipment, drilling rigs,
bits, pipes (drill pipes and casings), and pumps were analyzed.
The equipment was calculated as iron mass; however, how muchof the individual equipment was used in the Minami-Nagaoka area
was calculated while taking into account the years of durability of
individual equipment. Note also that untreated gas that was burnt
in gas production tests was included in CO2 emission.

( g-CO2/MJ )5
Facilities
4
Discharged Gas
3(C)Production stage

2

The Minami-Nagaoka Gas Field has two gas processing plants. At
these plants, gas and oil are separated, and water and CO2
contained in natural gas are removed. Water and CO2 must be
removed in order to protect pipelines from corrosion and to adjust
the heat quantity of gas. In the LCI analysis, the stainless steel,cement, and asphalt that were used when building the two plants,
the well base, and the administration office were calculated as thefacilities elements to be analyzed. The amount of electricity, gas,and city water used in a year was also calculated. Both the

JLCA News Letter No.5

Materials
Energies

10Drilling

Processing

Transportation

Figure 2 GHG emission in each process(cited from the Journal of the Japan Instituteof Energy 83-4, pp. 285 - 290)

10

Case Example

5. Effects of the LCI analysis

95% of gas emitted from gas in the production stage was CO2
originally contained in the fluid produced, and the remaining 5%
was methane that was discharged with CO2 when it was separated
from the gas. CO2 must be removed from gas at a gas processing
plant since it is a corrosive fluid. A removal technique using acirculating amine solution has been adopted. Since small amountsof methane and VOC components (hydrocarbon over C2) dissolvedin the amine solution are discharged, discharged gas combustion
devices have been operating since 2002. With the operation ofthese devices, the amount of methane emission has been
decreasing.
A large part of emission in the transportation stage occurs during
pipe replacement work and pressure control (bleed gas
generation). Pipe replacement work is usually carried out in
response to pipe relocation requests of local governments, theMinistry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, or
landowners. Every time pipe replacement work is carried out,
natural gas containing 90% methane is inevitably emitted.
Traditionally, natural gas was emitted into the air while its pressure
was still high (2 MPa to 5 MPa) in order to prioritize convenience of
supply destinations. However, in response to the LCI analysis,
attempts have been made to lower the operational pressure as
much as possible prior to replacement work, and the amount ofemission has been reduced by 30% to 40%. As for bleed gas
emission, there are approximately 50 pressure controllers in totalthat use the pressure of the gas itself at pressure controlling
centers. In the LCI analysis, calculations were performed using the
maximum values provided in the equipment specifications, but theactual measurement values were one-third to quarter of the
maximum values. Furthermore, although a few pressure controllers
that do not emit gas have been installed, it has not reached thepoint where all pressure controllers shift to this zero-emission type
due to financial restrictions.

JLCA News Letter No.5

As described above, LCI analysis was conducted with natural gas
in Minami-Nagaoka using the operation data of 2001. The result
indicated as hypothesized earlier that GHG emission throughout
the life cycle of domestic natural gas was lower than that ofimported LNG. In the end, the analysis allowed us to understandthe reality of emissions, implement detailed process improvement
measures in the production and transportation stages, and to
reduce GHG emission.
Furthermore, the LCI analysis helped to expand sales of naturalgas. At the same time, awareness of GHG emission was raised in
the production and transportation-related departments, and theenvironmental protection measures described above were actively
implemented. Afterwards, the Japan Petroleum Development
Association, the industrial group we belong to, established andimplemented a voluntary action plan to reduce GHG emission.
The revised Law Concerning the Promotion of the Measures to
Cope with Global Warming was implemented in April, 2006 torequire relevant companies to calculate and report the amount of
CO2 emission caused by combustion of fossil fuels. The dataobtained from the LCI analysis of fuel is important as the basic
data to be used in that calculation. As a natural gas supplier, we
hope to minimize non-essential GHG emission in our operation.
We extended our natural gas pipelines from Nagano to Shizuoka
through Yamanashi and completed the Shizuoka Line at the end of
2006. With this new line, we are able to secure sources of two
types of gas: domestic natural gas mainly from Minami-Nagaoka
on the Sea of Japan side; and vaporized LNG from the Pacific
Ocean side. This will dramatically improve supply stability to allow
us to sustain a stable supply of gas even when gas demand
increases. The role played by natural gas is increasing inimportance, and it is our goal to further spread the use of natural
gas through city gas providers, and commercial and industrial
customers.

11

ReportReality of LCA Education

Nobuhiko Narita
Professor
Environmental Information Business Department
Nagoya Sangyo University

1. Introduction

understanding of the LCA method.
Meanwhile, LCA education at the university is different from LCA
education at companies. At university, students do not have muchreal world experience, and therefore, they do not know how goods
are manufactured. This fact often makes LCA education difficult.
As described earlier, my university has no engineering-related
departments, and also, students have few opportunities to tour
plants and thus do not have clear ideas about manufacturing. For
this reason, the university encourages the students to learn thebasics and the importance of manufacturing while emphasizing thenecessity of life cycle thinking. For example, since one of the mostcommon environmental issues for the students who have almost nopractical experience at factories would be garbage disposal, theyoften have interest in disposal of general waste materials andrecycling of used PET bottles. The reason why the students
develop their interest in waste disposal is that the disposal flow issomething visible and that they are able to follow what happens togarbage that they dispose of. In particular, there is a shortage infinal disposal sites in Nagoya City and the "declaration of waste
emergency" has been issued. For this reason, Nagoya City has
been implementing one of the most advanced waste sorting
systems in the country, and it is necessary to clearly identify thebenefit of these systems.
Also, types of part-time jobs for students have been diversified,and an increasing number of students are experiencing theworking world by working in the service industry such as at aconvenience store or restaurant. For the students to be able to use
this working experience to develop the LCA point of view, it may beeffective if they learn the concept of a life cycle by learning thematerial chain flow in the food industry. In fact, one of the students
who worked in the food-service industry became stronglyinterested in how tuna fish was caught and that a particular label
could be obtained for tuna fish depending on how it was caught.
This student then started to voluntarily collect information anddeveloped the ability to think from the LCA point of view. As
described above, it is possible to make the students interested in
LCA through their own experience of working in the service
industry.

For the few decades that I worked in private enterprise inproduction activities or as a researcher, improvement of productquality and cost reduction were two of my critical missions, and I
believed that sulfur oxide must be removed (eliminated) for
product quality reasons. However, for the last half of my career, I
was in environment-related business operations.
There, Iparticipated in international dissemination of environmentallyfriendly equipments and LCA studies. Also, I discussed the LCA
methods based on the ISO specifications or interpretation of datawith industry people. I was then transferred to a university two
years ago, and since then, I have been teaching students
environmental improvement through LCA.
Based on theexperience of LCA studies both with companies and students, I
would like to summarize the issues with and improvement of LCA
education at my university.

2. LCA education at companies
Companies have factories, and the products of these factories are
the target of analysis. From the cost and environmental point ofview, what to be improved is always clear. Needless to say,materials procured by their own factories are well known. Even
though there is no knowledge of how particular parts areprocessed in other industries, people at companies still
understand quite well that finished products cannot be completed
unless various industries link with each other. On the other hand,when the objective or motivation is not clear, the necessity of LCA
is questioned and analysis cannot be performed. Therefore, inorder to perform and disseminate LCA at companies, clarificationof the objective must be prioritized. Once the objective is clearlystated and it is determined that LCA will be performed, analysis
can be carried out smoothly. What LCA advisors must do issupport the processes from the very first step to report.

3. LCA education at Nagoya Sangyo University
Nagoya Sangyo University aims to develop comprehensive humanresources who have organically integrated knowledge in theenvironment, information, and business fields. The name of thedepartment that I belong to contains the word "environment," butthe department has no choices of physics or chemistry although
there is a conventional biology elective course in general science.
As clearly indicated above, Nagoya Sangyo University is basicallya small "arts" university. This section describes difficulties inteaching LCA to students and improvements to be made at myuniversity.

(2) Building of the basic academic skills
Recently, senior high school students can decide not to takephysics or chemistry. Therefore, many of the students who takethe environmental assessment course or the LCA course, which isan undergraduate course specialized in the environment, have nottaken senior high school chemistry. As a result, some students
have difficulty calculating emissions, which is the minimum
calculation requirement for understanding of environmental issues.
For example, students often do not understand the basic chemical
formulas for obtaining the amount of CO2 emission due to gasoline
combustion or the amount of sulfur oxidized during the
combustion, and this has created a situation where I must teachbasic chemistry in the specialized course. I finally consulted with
the instructors in the instruction department and created achemistry course to teach the basics of senior high school
chemistry and environmental chemistry. From this April, it is myhope that the students will learn the basics of LCA and also(1) Interest in LCA
When conducting LCA, it is necessary to investigate the validity ofthe technology under review and to clarify the positioning of thattechnology within the target product or service. At the same time,
discussion of whether or not the features of the technology can beadvertised based only on its impact on global warming can serve
as material for learning environmental issues in general through

JLCA News Letter No.5

12

Report

4. Conclusionmaterial balance and energy balance, which are the basic
concepts of manufacturing, in this chemistry course targeting
students of all school years.

Since I never specialized in environmental studies, I was not very
environmentally friendly when I was a student or a young
researcher. Now, it has been almost two years since I started
teaching environmental studies through teaching the LCA method.
LCA is an important area of study for seeing the whole picture
while specializations are increasingly diversified. Since LCA isonly a methodology, in discussions with the students, I am hoping
to suggest environmental improvement measures using the LCA
method. My university has many issues that are unique to an "arts"
university specialized in environmental studies. Although solutions
for these issues are now being explored, I have introduced in thisarticle some of the possible ways to solve these issues.
I hope to continue teaching in this field to develop young humanresources who can use the knowledge they acquired in LCA
education to contribute to development of future environmentallyfriendly corporate management.

(3) Internship programs
I use environmental reports to let my students understand theconcept of manufacturing at their imaginary, virtual factories.
Environmental reports summarize material and energy balances of
the company and show whether or not the manufactured products
can be beneficial to society. However, as the saying "seeing isbelieving" goes, visits to production sites or experiencing
production processes will surely help the students understandwhat manufacturing is. Internship programs allow students toexperience not only service activities but also manufacturing, andare also a very effective way for students to learn how goods areproduced. I would like to ask manufacturing companies forcooperation, even though having students present may generate
extra work for them.

JLCA News Letter No.5

13

Information
2008 IEEE International Symposium on Industrial Electronics
June 30-July 2,2008
Cambridge, UK

ISIE
http://www.fastconf.com/isie2008/

2008 Design Engineering Technical Conferences & Computers and Information in Engineering Conference (IDETC/CIE)
August 3-6,2008
New York City, USA

ASME
http://asmeconferences.org/idetc08/

8th Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production
September 18-20,2008
Cebu, PHILIPPINESAPRSCP
http://www.aprscp.org/roundtables/8th.htm

Life Cycle Assessment VIII
September 30-Octber 2,2008
Seattle, USA

American Center for Life Cycle Assessment
http://www.lcacenter.org/

Sustainable Innovation 08
Octber 27-28,2008
Malmo, SWEDEN

The Centre for Sustainable Design
http://www.cfsd.org.uk/

SETAC North America 29th Annual Meeting
November 16-20,2008
Tampa, Florida, USA

SETAC
http://tampa.setac.org/default.asp

JSWME 19th Annual Conference
November 19-21, 2008
Kyoto University Clock Tower Centennial Hall, JAPANJSWME
http://www.jswme.gr.jp/international/

8th International Conference EcoBalance
December 10-12,2008
Tokyo, JAPANJLCAJ
http://www.sntt.or.jp/ecobalance8/

The 10th Eco Products 2008 - Eco Style Fair
December 11-13,2008
Tokyo, JAPANhttp://www.eco-pro.info/eco2008/english/index.html

2008 International Conference on Environment (ICENV 2008)
December 15-17, 2008
Penang, MALAYSIA

ICENV
http://chemical.eng.usm.my/ICENV2008/

Eco-products International Fair 2009
March 19-22, 2009
Manila, PHILIPPINES

APO
http://www.apo-tokyo.org/index.htm

Planning & Information Sub-Committee:
Dr. Norihiro Itsubo
Musashi Institute of Technology
Mr. Kiyoshi Ueno
United Nations University
Mr. Yasuhiko Morita
The Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association
Dr. Kiyoshi Shibata
Chiba Institute of Technology
Mr. Junichi Nakahashi Plastic Waste Management InstituteEditor's AddressLife Cycle Assessment Society of Japan (JLCA)LCA Development Office, JEMAI(Japan Environmental Management Association for Industry)
2-1, Kajicho 2-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 101-0044
tel: +81-3-5209-7708
fax: +81-3-5209-7716
E-mail: jlca@jemai.or.jp
http://www.jemai.or.jp/english/

JLCA News Letter No.4