The Influence of Agricultural Data Uncertainty in the Life Cycle Assessment of Biodegradable Hydraulic Lubricants

From a Life Cycle Assessment study of hydraulic lubricants from vegetable and mineral oil, it has been found that the agricultural step in the biodegradable hydraulic lubricant production has the main environmental impact. The aim of this study is to develop an uncertainty analysis of agricultural data used in the biodegradable hydraulic lubricant inventory from this LCA to determine the influence of data uncertainty in the environmental LCA result. Two parameters have been selected for the uncertainty analysis: fertilization practices and machinery operations. A variation parameter analysis has been carried out obtaining that assumptions and simplifications made (pre-treatment soil operations and fertilization rates), which clearly influence on the different impact categories studied. A Monte Carlo analysis has been performed showing Eutrification Potential category is the most affecting by input data uncertainty propagation, which means the fuel consumption and fertilization rates input data need to be selected from a more accuracy source.