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Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment: A Review

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  • Martin N. Nwodo

    (College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA)

  • Chimay J. Anumba

    (College of Design, Construction and Planning, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA)

Abstract

Exergy is important and relevant in many areas of study such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), sustainability, energy systems, and the built environment. With the growing interest in the study of LCA due to the awareness of global environmental impacts, studies have been conducted on exergetic life cycle assessment for resource accounting. The aim of this paper is to review existing studies on exergetic life cycle assessment to investigate the state-of-the-art and identify the benefits and opportunity for improvement. The methodology used entailed an in-depth literature review, which involved an analysis of journal articles collected through a search of databases such as Web of Science Core Collection, Scopus, and Google Scholar. The selected articles were reviewed and analyzed, and the findings are presented in this paper. The following key conclusions were reached: (a) exergy-based methods provide an improved measure of sustainability, (b) there is an opportunity for a more comprehensive approach to exergetic life cycle assessment that includes life cycle emission, (c) a new terminology is required to describe the combination of exergy of life cycle resource use and exergy of life cycle emissions, and (d) improved exergetic life cycle assessment has the potential to solve characterization and valuation problems in the LCA methodology.

Suggested Citation

  • Martin N. Nwodo & Chimay J. Anumba, 2020. "Exergetic Life Cycle Assessment: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2684-:d:363116
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    Cited by:

    1. Luca Ciacci & Fabrizio Passarini, 2020. "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Environmental and Energy Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-8, November.
    2. Martin Nwodo & Chimay J. Anumba, 2021. "Exergy-Based Life Cycle Assessment of Buildings: Case Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-15, October.
    3. Colarossi, Daniele & Tagliolini, Eleonora & Amato, Alessia & Principi, Paolo, 2022. "Life cycle assessment and circularity evaluation of a PV panel integrated with phase change material," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(P2), pages 150-156.

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