72839 - Industry and Markenting

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will be aware of the problems of industrial organic and inorganic chemistry. The student will also know the importance of global economy in the production and commerce of chemical products and of the promotion and marketing of chemical products; will be able to perform market research for introducing new products.

Course contents

General information:  The Course is part of the Erasmus Mundus Master Course in "Chemical Innovation and Regulation" (ChIR). In the Academic Year 2013/14 lessons will be held at the University of Algarve. All the information can be found  on the web site: http://www.emmcchir.org/index.html .

Contents of the Module: "Life Cycle Assessment"

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) belongs to the set of methodological tools set up in the last years, able to test the eco-sustainability of processes and used as operative approach to develop preventive actions.

Also for chemical companies, it is more and more important to match economical results with a strict management of their environmental performances, because it represents a decisive factor for the determination of its competitiveness.

The use of this tool, which is inserted in the framework of the more general life cycle thinking approach, can be usefully used to perform comparison among different products or processes, considering the same functional unit.

The module will provide an introduction to LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) approach: definition and approach steps.

Furthermore, guidelines for the attainment of an eco-balance of a production system, evaluation of direct and indirect environmental impacts, definition of possible actions will be provided.

Finally, case-studies will be presented, concerning life cycle assessment of products, systems and processes.

Readings/Bibliography

G. Sonnemann, F. Castells, M. Schuhmacher, "Integrated Life-cycle and Risk Assessment for Industrial Processes", 2004, Lewis Publishers

EEA ( European Environmental Agency), 1998 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - A guide to approaches , experiences and information sources , Environmental Issues Series no. 6 (http://reports.eea.europa.eu/GH-07-97-595-EN-C/en/)

ISO Standards 14040:2006, 14044: 2006

Teaching methods

The course will be held with theoretical lectures, exercises and presentation of case studies.

Assessment methods

The final examination will be based on a written, multiple-choice test, assessing the knowledge of the expected learning outcomes.
Assessment Criteria:

Treshold:

To give a clear definition of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. To correctly describe the phases of a LCA study. To understand the possible environmental impacts which can be described by a LCA study. Exercises

Good:

To define the possible outcomes of the analysis of particular environmental issues (positive and avoided impacts). To suppose possible improvement in a system to improve environmental performances. To understand possible integration between LCA approach and other environmental assessment related to chemical industry (e.g. REACh).

Excellent:

To identify a functional unit to perform a specific LCA study. To recognize the importance of a specific environmental issue in a global assessment of products/processes/systems. To understand the application of a sensitivity control in LCA.

Teaching tools

The course will be held with the aid of computer support for the projection of text and images. The slides will be left available to the students. ICT tools will be used for bibliographic researches and to show examples of calculation software.