Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology that calculates the environmental impacts arising from the various stages of a product’s life cycle, from raw materials acquisition to disposal and recycling.
While many early LCAs focused on answering simple questions—such as whether glass or plastic bottles are “better for the environment”—the methodology has evolved over the previous decades and is now widely applicable and customizable.
LCAs are particularly important for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies as they help identify net climate impacts and potential environmental trade-offs during implementation along with opportunities for improvement.
Explore the following pages to learn more about LCA for CCUS.