Introduction

Making products is a critical process for it requires the gathering of the raw materials from their sources. The extraction of the raw materials requires a long course for it comprises the input-output relationship guide and usage. While extracting the materials from their natural habitats, there is a need to consider the impacts of the processes to the environment, and the construction and assessment of the life cycles should capture such. Such considerations help the designers of the life cycle to modify the production process and ensure that there is minimal or no pollution to the environment.

Based on the Baltic University (2006), the assessment of the lifecycle entails procedures that which look at the potential aspects of the commodities while examining, evaluating and compiling the outputs and inputs of the production process.  The university asserts that, during extracting raw materials from the sources, the evaluation of how friendly the course is to the environment was significant. Similarly, the university points the assessment as a mode of determining and analyzing the impacts the processes will have to the surrounding along the chain, via various technical types of conversation which are part of the manufacturing process.  The conversation refers to the removal of the materials from their sources and how the inputs and outputs vary. The life cycle assessment follows a distinct procedure that is accumulating, and evaluating the probable green effects and the inventories of the relevant production and input as well as deducing the outcomes and the impacts of the inventory phase. I choose to look at the process of manufacturing natural oil from plants.

Select a Product of Your Choice for Analysis

The production of oil is essential for use as the food or in technical applications like fuel, raw materials in the production of chemical elements, and lubricants. The critical step in oil production is separating it from the oil-containing materials and its purification. The production course entails capturing vital steps as the processing to obtain quality oil, treatment of the materials used, storage of the fuel and the transportation to the intended places (Mahato et al. 15). The quality of the oil obtained depends on the raw materials used in the process of making oil. The raw materials for the fuel are plant products from oil plants such as groundnuts and sunflower seedcakes (Goula et al. 822). The extraction of the raw materials starts from the field where the plants are obtained. The plants are passed to the screw presses for sedimentation and filtration to achieve the clean product. The benefit for this process of purifying the oil by filtration serves as the best approach to obtaining the fresh oils since the turbid are removed. However, pure crude cannot be achieved unless the plants used are the small and medium-sized ones (Paradiso et al. 45). The components such as the chlorophyll or fatty acids are removed from the plant materials to get the excellent oil. Indeed, it is difficult to obtain high-quality oils when using oil plants such as the oilseeds since the high content of fat in them harbors processes such as drying (Cheng et al. 300). Similarly, oil is susceptible to oxidation where the degradation of the products from the operation of oxidation takes place slowly.  During the extraction of the oil from seeds and soft herbage, a suitable solvent such as propanone is used and it’s later dried in the sun and distilled to separate it from the oil.

Flow Chart for Oil Production

The chart indicates that the process of oil extraction can be a cycle. Once small plants are used to making oil through the means discussed above, the product, fuel, is fed by people ones cooked (Girotto et al. 35). Then, the products are expelled from the body through excretion and absorbed by plants through respiration or uptake by the plant roots. The chart is simplified to show the inter steps involved in the extraction process.

Inputs and Outputs in the Manufacturing Process

The process of making the natural oils requires some inputs which help realize the outcomes. Heavy duties such as purification and drying require powerful machines which use fuel as a source of energy. As well, the chambers produce exhaust gases and water effluents and therefore should be appropriately modified. Similarly, other inputs such as transportation should be provided to deliver the products to the whole sellers. There are outputs such as the food for human from the final product and labor as well as the waste products.

Impacts of the Resources Used to Make Oils to the Environment

The manufacture of natural oils is one of the industrial processes that a sense of friendliness to the surrounding (Fidalgo et al. 2245). However, in the large scale manufacturing process, the factories have machines that purify the plant materials which are raw sources of the natural oils (Breivik et al. 411). Since the factories need energy, the burning of fuels is used to initiate the energy required to run the factories. On the course, waste gases such as the sulfur IV oxide and carbon monoxide are emitted to the surrounding (Worthington et al. 16210). Ones these gases are in the atmosphere; they destroy the ozone layer, leading to penetration of the ultra-rays to the surrounding causing the greenhouse effect (Bennie et al. 2705). Similarly, the clearing of the bushes to obtain raw materials is also not friendly to the environment. There occurs exposure of land to agents of erosion such as wind and water which destroy the fertility of the soil. As well tries are sources of rainfall and also windbreaks. When cut, the rainfall patterns become unpredictable, and the blowing wind may destroy structures. The effluents from the processing factories pollute the water bodies and the soils if dumped carelessly.

Recommendations to Minimize Pollution

Since the production of oils from plants is a commercial and industrial activity, the pollution is often kept minimal since it’s a requirement by the environmental conservatives. Therefore, to minimize the contamination, the factory chimneys should be scrubbed or fitted with filters to convert harmful gases to harmless forms (Patel et al. 50). The effluents should be treated before being dumped to water bodies to minimize soil pollution and putting the aquatic life at threat. As well, I would recommend the planting of trees that provide the materials for the oil to regulate the cutting down of trees.

Conclusion

Natural oil is widely used in domestic chores for cooking. The product is produced from a particular component of the ecosystem. As a result, care is taken to minimize pollution to the environment. The product is sold to consumers rendering benefit to the producer as well. The process is a bit efficient to carry out since it uses the raw materials that can be established and managed by the industry itself. The process needs human resources for the dehulling segment and thus serving as a source of income.

Works Cited

Bennie, Jonathan, et al. “Global trends in exposure to light pollution in natural terrestrial ecosystems.” Remote Sensing7.3 (2015): 2715-2730.

Breivik, Harald, and Harald Svensen. “Very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids from natural oils.” U.S. Patent Application No. 15/570,411.

Cheng, Shuiyuan, et al. “Characterization of volatile organic compounds from different cooking emissions.” Atmospheric Environment 145 (2016): 299-307.

Fidalgo, Alexandra, et al. “Eco-friendly extraction of pectin and essential oils from orange and lemon peels.” ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 4.4 (2016): 2243-2251.

Girotto, Francesca, Luca Alibardi, and Raffaello Cossu. “Food waste generation and industrial uses: a review.” Waste management 45 (2015): 32-41.

Goula, Athanasia M., et al. “Green ultrasound-assisted extraction of carotenoids from pomegranate wastes using vegetable oils.” Ultrasonics sonochemistry 34 (2017): 821-830.

Mahato, Neelima, et al. “Citrus essential oils: Extraction, authentication, and application in food preservation.” Critical reviews in food science and nutrition (2017): 1-15.

Paradiso, Vito Michele, et al. “Towards a green analysis of virgin olive oil phenolic compounds: Extraction by a natural deep eutectic solvent and direct spectrophotometric detection.” Food Chemistry 212 (2016): 43-47.

Patel, Vrutika, et al. “Response and resilience of soil microbial communities inhabiting in edible oil stress/contamination from industrial estates.” BMC Microbiology 16.1 (2016): 50.

Worthington, Max JH, et al. “Laying waste to mercury: inexpensive sorbents made from sulfur and recycled cooking oils.” Chemistry–A European Journal 23.64 (2017): 16219-16230