摘要
The environmental impact during the preparation of coffee beverages was evaluated on real time. The functional unit is a cup of coffee prepared from 7 g of ground coffee and 125 mL of tap water. The boundaries system considered are assembly process, electricity process, tap water process, coffee process and municipal waste process. Based on boundary system, the life cycle inventory is carbon dioxide, 50.31 g; coal, brown, 53.72 rag; coal hard, 0.9906 g; dinitrogen monoxide, 0.9575 mg; natural gas, 0.0020 m^3; methane, fossil, 13.82 mg; oil, crude, 1.012 g; uranium, 15.02 ug. The life cycle impact assessment is determined using the sum of the contributions of the impacts shown in the inventory analysis, each one multiplied by a coefficient called the ＂characterization factor＂, which indicates the scale of the potential contributed by the individual substance to the effect. The results show the advantages of using the LCA （life cycle assessment） on real time as it provides information from both quality and environmental parameters allowing taking actions based on timely information. The preparation of a cup of coffee produced an environmental load of 50.9 g of CO2 equivalents and Non Renewable energy equivalents to 151 kJ; the sugar process and materials transportation were not considered.
作者简介
Corresponding author： Antonio Rodriguez Martinez, Ph.D., research field： life cycle assessment. E-mail： antonio_rodriguez@uaem .mx.
