Abstract
To estimate environmental impacts through the entire life cycle of any industrial activity like co-generation system (CGS) operation, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been found to be a powerful tool. Therefore the authors have first proposed a standardized method called the LCA-NETS scheme (NETS : Numerical Eco-load Total Standard) based on objective data, in which a new unit of [NETS] is used for the standardized numerical value of eco-load, and second developed a new version software of the LCA-NETS scheme for analyzing numerically the eco-loads from a specified CGS and then minimizing the impacts due to the CGS operation. As a result, the LCA-NETS eco-load evaluation scheme constructed here is found to be an attractive and powerful tool to analyze the quantitative LCA environmental loads for any type of co-generation system and to predict its most ecologically and economically optimized operation scheme, resulting in compromising compatibility between eco and cost performance.
