During these calculations, costs and revenues in future years are discounted (using an interest rate) to account for the time value of money. In the case of LCC, costs and revenues over the lifetime of the system are converted to a common time (e.g., present value, 110 annual value 111 ) based on the preferences of decision-makers. 112-114 LCC generally centers itself on one or more actors (e.g., producer, consumer, waste management operator), depending on the objectives of the QSD study. LCC results can be reported for the project as a whole, or they can be normalized to the defined functional unit (a reference unit to quantify the performance of a system ). In contrast, TEA is typically used to determine the financial viability of the system through selling of the generated product(s), including the potential for acceptable risk and ROI. Specifically, a discounted cash flow rate of return analysis is often used to calculate a product's breakeven point, which is the point where the equivalent value of the sum of all cash flows at the base cost year equals zero (i.e., net present value = 0). At the breakeven point, the product cost or selling price is referred to as the leveraged cost or the MSP, and the discount rate is referred to as the internal (or investor's) rate of return (IRR). Appropriate IRR targets are typically set according to industryspecific standards based on the type of technology, the stage of development, and the level of risk associated with investment. For example, a 10% IRR is commonly used for projects within the bioenergy industry with "n th -plant" assumptions (i.e., for a mature industry where n plants have been established), but higher IRRs (e.g., 10-20%) may be required by investors in higher risk ventures (e.g., projects with significant regulatory and operational details yet to be resolved)