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Sensitivity of Pumping Energy on the Life Cycle Impacts of a Commercial Rainwater Harvesting System
Citation:
Ghimire, S., JohnM Johnston, W. Ingwersen, AND S. Sojka. Sensitivity of Pumping Energy on the Life Cycle Impacts of a Commercial Rainwater Harvesting System. LCA XVI, Charleston, SC, September 27 - 29, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment (ACLCA) conference, September 27-29, 2016, Charleston, SC www.lcacenter.org/
Description:
assessed using a functional unit of 1 m3 of rainwater and municipal water delivery for flushing toilets and urinals in a four story-commercial building in DC. We collect primary data on CRWH including designs and amount of materials from the ARCSA partners and compile the life cycle inventory (LCI) of the bench mark systems using the Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES), Ecoinvent v2.2, US LCI database, and Cincinnati drinking water treatment and distribution systems collected during a previous study by EPA. A LCA software, openLCA version 1.4.2, is used for all calculations in conjunction with the U.S. EPA’s life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methods. LCIA results are normalized with respect to maximum impact values. Our approach of LCIA normalization adds a new dimension to the understanding of LCA results, confirming that trends in impact scores are linear in LCA. Sensitivity analyses reveals pumping energy as the key dominant component to majority of LCA impacts. Because pumping energy varies with systems, we further discuss the LCA impacts as a function of pumping energy intensities (kWh/m3). Current LCA models are transferrable in recreating future models of other CRWH configurations at different locations.
