Life-cycle assessment and embodied energy: a review

In this paper life-cycle assessment (LCA) is studied and a brief review and classification of databases and inventories is given. The factors affecting the dissimilar results in various databases are examined and discussed. The main obstacles to LCA and life-cycle energy studies, and their sources, are discussed, together with the role of data in inventory analysis. Embodied energy results are reviewed and compared, and the causes of dissimilarities and variations in these studies are presented. This paper focuses on methodologies developed and adopted for data processing, and inventory analysis for building materials. The data-LCA relationship is investigated, and the importance and role of data in LCA is reviewed. A case study of steel as a building material is introduced and a number of life cycle energy assessment studies are evaluated. The paper concludes by outlining a number of issues which need to be handled with care when performing a life-cycle study, and which warrant further qualitative and quantitative analysis.