LCA for Site Remediation: A Literature Review

Authors: Pascal Suèr; Sören Nilsson-Påledal; Jenny Norrman

Source: Soil and Sediment Contamination (formerly Journal of Soil Contamination), Volume 13, Number 4, 2004 , pp. 415-425(11)

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd

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Abstract:

Remediation of contaminated sites provides a cleaner local environment, but may also have negative environmental impacts on the local, regional, and global scales. Methods based on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) are designed to take the negative effects into consideration when deciding how to treat a site, and to improve the environmental efficiency of remediation techniques. This paper reviews nine case studies that use LCA tools to evaluate alternative remediation techniques to summarize the findings of methodologies and results. The methodologies were found to differ in the limitation of the LCA for space, time and secondary processes. This strongly influenced the results. Bioremediation was the worst when the secondary process of producing electron acceptors was included; otherwise it was the best. The choice of impact categories heavily affected the results. Inclusion of land use was especially important in site remediation studies. In general, the negative impact of site remediation was due to energy consumption. For excavation combined with ex-situ treatment, the transport of contaminated soil to the treatment facility or landfill required the most energy. For in-situ treatment of soil and groundwater, pumping consumed the most energy. It is proposed that different methods be applied to the same site.

Keywords: Life cycle assessment (LCA); in-situ reclamation; ex-situ treatment; contaminated sites

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10588330490471304

Affiliations: 1: Swedish Geotechnical Institute Linköping Sweden

Publication date: 2004-01-01