Phytoremediation of industrial pollutants and life cycle assessment

Life cycle assessment (LCA) for assessing all environmental impacts associated with any product, process, or activity by identifying and evaluating all the resources consumed and all emission and wastes released into the environment. LCA broadly consists of four stages: (1) Goal, scope, and definition of LCA; (2) life cycle inventory analysis; (3) life cycle impact assessment; and (4) results interpretation. Goal, scope, and definition of LCA mainly constitute the objective and importance of study. This compares the full range of environmental effects assigned to the product and services by identifying all input and output material flows and effects in the environment. It describes the depth of the study and purpose. The inventory analysis is the phase of LCA that involves the compilation and quantification of input and output for any specific production of system, including rare materials. It requires listing of all the steps and processes required for study. This is a type of data checklist for the LCA study. The life cycle impact assessment includes the remediation/phytoremediation as well as the effect of any pollutants or products on the assessment of product impact. The environmental impact may be at the primary, secondary, or tertiary level. The primary impacts are related to local toxic impacts associated with waste contaminated sites. Secondary impacts consider the local, regional, and global impacts arising from the extraction, materials use, and end-of-life stages of all consumables, equipment, and energy used for the remediation. The tertiary impacts deal with environmental impacts associated with the future use of the site. The last step is result and interpretation. This includes a technique to identify, quantify, check, and evaluate information from the result of the life cycle inventory and impact assessment. Interpretation framework is only used to analyze the result, reach a conclusion, explain limitations, and provide recommendations based on the finding of the study.