Integrating life cycle analysis (LCA) with process modelling

One of the main obstacles of directing process design/optimization with LCA is the disconnect between the two despite significant overlapping of information needed for both analyses. To bridge this gap, an integrated system with a process modelling environment, an LCA model, an uncertainty analysis tool, and chemical databases are proposed. The process modelling environment allows easy accumulation of process models that can be used across the academia and the industry. A case study of the chamber cleaning process using existing commercial software illustrated the system. The global warming potentials (GWP) induced by different etch rate requirements were compared. The physical and chemical databases that are part of the commercial program Aspen Plus (R) ease the data collection effort in process modelling. These databases and the LCA database need to be connected by sharing the same primary key.