Comparative study of heat pump system and biomass boiler system to a tertiary building using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Abstract

The high emissions of substances harmful to the environment associated with the activity of people, has become a point of extreme importance, since it depends on the subsistence of life on the planet [1]. Manufacturing processes and the application of new technologies improve substantially the life, but some processes contribute more to the damage to the environment. These manufacturing processes require a high consumption of energy and resources, which entail environmental impacts, some of them not quantified. For this reason, the reduction of emissions has become the battlefield in the fight for the preservation of planet. To determine and quantify the impacts that occur in a product, process or system, it is necessary to perform an analysis of the flows of energy and resources that occur throughout its life cycle. That is why the LCA has become a very important tool in the process of transition to a low-emission production economy [2]. There are systems that, although considered renewable, also produce impacts on the environment. That is why, the present work, and through the LCA, determines the impacts produced by two heat generation systems, to later be able to compare them with each other.