A STUDY OF PARTITIONING PROBLEM IN LIFE-C YCLE ASSESSMENT

The so-called allocation or partitioning problem which is still indete rminable in life cycle assessment (LCA) has been studied. The phi bala nce defined in this study is used to describe the relations of inputs and outputs in each subsystem consisting of the whole environment syst em. In doing so, the mass balance of pollutant materials in environmen t system under consideration is expressed in much smaller dimension co mpared to the case where the conventional mass balance is employed and thus the mathematical procedure is highly simplified in establishing a computer program for calculating the cumulative CO2 emission unit wh ich is equivalent to the total quantity of CO2 emitted to the atmosphe re to produce the present material or energy from raw fossil resources . The cumulative CO2 emission unit which is an indicative value of CO2 pollution used in this study of LCA are calculated for some petrochem ical materials for plastics depending on several kinds of partitioning s.