A great deal of efforts has been put into enhancing the efficiency of internal combustion engines as the main contributors to environmental and health problems faced worldwide. Several well-known discrete performance and emission indicators are frequently used to evaluate and compare new designs, engine modifications, and fuel formulations. However, conventional analysis of performance and, more importantly, emission parameters is subjective because the magnitude and rating of harmfulness of the investigated indices are not equivalent to each other.‏ Moreover, this type of analysis does not ‏take into account the background information of the fuel formulations under investigation, or ‏in other words, it is solely focused on the combustion stage. These introduce ‏biases into the decision-making process. To address these challenges, we introduce an integration of conventional combustion analysis data with the life cycle assessment approach, namely Integrated Sustainability Analysis of Combustion Engines (ISACE). More specifically, first, background data of fuel formulations (cradle to tank) and combustion outputs (performance and emission parameters under different engine conditions) are converted into human health, ecosystem, climate change, and resources endpoint damage categories. In better words, the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) quantifies the fuel production and combustion data into a manageable number, i.e., endpoints and facilitates the understanding and evaluation of the magnitude and significance of their potential environmental impacts. Finally, these endpoints having different units will be weighed and combined to achieve a single environmental score or total weighted environmental impact. This single ISACE score can now be an objective basis for the decision-making process.

作为解决全世界所面临的环境和健康问题的主要因素，人们已经在提高内燃机的效率方面作了大量努力。几个众所周知的离散性能和排放指标经常用于评估和比较新设计，发动机改装和燃料配方。但是，常规的性能分析（更重要的是排放参数）是主观的，因为所研究指标的危害程度和危害程度彼此不相等。此外，这种类型的分析未考虑到以下方面的背景信息：研究中的燃料配方，换句话说，它仅专注于燃烧阶段。这些将偏见引入决策过程。为了应对这些挑战，我们介绍了将常规燃烧分析数据与生命周期评估方法进行集成的方法，即内燃机综合可持续性分析（ISACE）。更具体地说，首先，将燃料配方（从摇篮到油箱）和燃烧输出（在不同发动机条件下的性能和排放参数）的背景数据转换为人类健康，生态系统，气候变化和资源终点损害类别。用更好的话说，生命周期影响评估（LCIA）将燃料生产和燃烧数据量化为可管理的数字，即端点，并有助于理解和评估其潜在环境影响的大小和重要性。最后，将对具有不同单位的这些端点进行加权和组合，以达到单个环境评分或总加权环境影响。现在，单个ISACE分数可以成为决策过程的客观基础。