LCA of existing operations

A good starting point for assessing the impacts of oil sands operations is to conduct an LCA of current operating facilities in Alberta. 

Industry interaction is essential to providing decision support tools that are relevant and timely for the industry.  We will work with our research partners to understand the technologies that are used today and those that are being developed for future deployment.  The data collected from companies in Alberta will be used to supplement the output from the models discussed in previous sections.

Ongoing work

Development of a generic process-based life cycle model that assesses the energy use and GHG emissions of current oil sands operations.

Hybrid LCA case study of a generic oil sands project. Details on the Canadian 2002 EIO-LCA module, its strengths and limitations. Results comparison with conventional process-based LCA models.