Assessing the environmental impact of materials processing techniques using an analytical hierarchy process method

Abstract

Although many life cycle assessment (LCA) software tools are available, most tools can either address the needs of a specific product or a general industry range, but not both. This calls for the development of an easy-to-use and interactive Pre-LCA tool that would allow users to customise and improve flexibility and efficiency. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method uses established procedures to capture the best rank from judgements, through the weighting and synthesising of the decision process, into a hierarchy which is compatible with a network synthesised with various dependencies. It compares alternatives, one at a time, in the context of priorities. For this research, the AHP method is used to derive a single environmental score based on process emissions for each of the products or alternatives evaluated. Based on these environmental scores, these products can be ranked with respect to their environmental merits. The AHP method is incorporated into the Pre-LCA tool to assign accurate environmental scores to products. This paper discusses this AHP model in the Pre-LCA system developed. The developed AHP model has been applied to a case study, which is a comparative study on polystyrene and porcelain plates. The results show that the developed system is able to provide sound evaluation. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V.