Date of Graduation

5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Biological Engineering (MSBE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Matlock, Marty D.

Committee Member

Thoma, Gregory J.

Second Committee Member

Costello, Thomas A.

Keywords

Automation; Life cycle assessment; Life cycle inventory; Programming; SimaPro; Sustainability; Bioengineering; Information technology; Sustainability

Abstract

An automation program, named Jacob LCA, was created to help perform life cycle assessment (LCA). The program uses a template file to perform controlled and consistently ordered actions with the LCA program, SimaPro, and effectively removes the need for manual user input. It can be set to run using data from one or more life cycle inventory (LCI) files, which allows for rapid iteration and testing of data. It also partially addresses some of the limitations of LCA by establishing a procedure through which temporal and spatial variations in data can be integrated into LCI files and then passed to SimaPro via the program without the need for additional manual data entry and analysis. The data from the LCI files and the analysis results are packaged into consistent and readable tables which can be shared and/or used for interpretation. The template file can also be shared and used to reproduce methods and results for an external audit.

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