The course "Energy Consumption and Life Cycle Assessment" teaches the importance of energy conversion and the associated emissions for sustainability assessments of technical systems, as well as the basics of life cycle assessment including selected environmental impacts.

Global and national energy consumption and relevant energy-related emissions are addressed. The methodological approach of life cycle assessments (LCA) for a holistic sustainability assessment is discussed. The entire life cycle, consisting of the production, use and disposal phases, is taken into account. Starting from the respective steps for the preparation of an LCA, the procedure for material flow analysis, process chain analysis and input-output analysis is discussed. Subsequently, selected energy and material flows are dealt with. Here, the cumulative energy input as well as the generation and dispersion mechanisms of air pollutants and greenhouse gases are considered. Based on this, selected environmental impacts and health effects are dealt with. Beyond the method of life cycle assessment, other ecological assessment methods are introduced.

The course enables students to understand the basic relationships between energy expenditures, energy-related emissions and resulting environmental impacts and to evaluate technical systems holistically in the sense of a life cycle assessment.

The accompanying exercise reinforces the course material through applications and calculation examples.

The exercise materials are made available at least one week before the respective exercise date.

Learning Goals and Competencies
The students should:

• be able to illustrate the formation mechanisms of energy-related air pollutants and climate gases
• learn methods of accounting for cumulative energy expenditure and, based on this, life cycle assessment and have the competence to apply them