How digitalization and circular economy affect the way we conduct and interpet LCA results?

Transcription

1 LCIC 2018 SESSION 15 PATHWAYS TOWARDS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY How digitalization and circular economy affect the way we conduct and interpet LCA results?

2 TABLE OF CONTENT 1) General information 2) Case study 3) Conclusion -2-

3 1) GENERAL INFORMATION MAPPING THE TOPICS WITHIN THE LCA FRAMEWORK I. Digitalization: Provision of comprehensive primary data for inventory analysis I II II. Circular Economy & Sustainability: Interpretation of LCA results in a circular way in order to identify new potentials for improvement Source figure: ISO (2009). -3-

4 1) GENERAL INFORMATION II. CIRCULAR ECONOMY & SUSTAINABILITY Application of the Life Cycle Gap-Analysis (LCG-A) [1] Iterative procedure with six cumpolsory steps for the interpretation of LCA results Objective - Analyze the consequences of the developed recycling solutions with regard to both: & EU Action Plan for CE Closing the loop [2] EU PEF - life cycle environmental performance of products [3] -4-

5 2) CASE STUDY ILLUSTRATION WITH AN EXAMPLE Product system System boundary Functional unit 1 rechargeable NiMH button cell with a nominal voltage of 1.2V and a nominal capacity of 500mAh with a life expectancy of 1000 cycles Elementary flows Manufacturing NiMH battery Use End-of-Life (EoL) Mechanical pre-treatment Pyrometallurgical treatment Acid leaching Ionometallurgical process Elementary flows Steel Nickel Cobalt Cerium oxide Lanthanum oxide Mg+REE alloying process Source image - URL: -5-

6 2) CASE STUDY ILLUSTRATION WITH AN EXAMPLE Step 1: Determination of the product s total environmental impact E total (X SOA ) Elementary flows State-of-the-Art (SOA) System boundary Manufacturing NiMH battery Use End-of-Life (EoL) Mechanical pre-treatment Pyrometallurgical treatment Elementary flows Steel Nickel Cobalt -6-

7 2) CASE STUDY ILLUSTRATION WITH AN EXAMPLE: DIGITALIZATION -7-

8 2) CASE STUDY ILLUSTRATION WITH AN EXAMPLE Step 2: Determination of the product s LCG E LCG (X SOA ) EU Action Plan for Circular Economy Closing the loop: Life Cycle Gap (system losses within a Circular Economy): 58% -8-

9 2) CASE STUDY ILLUSTRATION WITH AN EXAMPLE Step 3+4: Develop solutions and determine the product s new LCG E LCG (X Remaghic ) Elementary flows System boundary Manufacturing NiMH battery Use End-of-Life (EoL) Mechanical pre-treatment Pyrometallurgical treatment Acid leaching Ionometallurgical process Elementary flows Steel Nickel Cobalt Cerium oxide Lanthanum oxide Mg+REE alloying process EU Action Plan for Circular Economy Closing the loop: Life Cycle Gap (system losses within a Circular Economy) is reduced by 29% -9-

10 2) CASE STUDY ILLUSTRATION WITH AN EXAMPLE Step 5+6: Determination of the total environmental impact E total (X Remaghic ) and comparison with E total (X SOA ) EU PEF - life cycle environmental performance of products: The total env. impact of the new product version E total (X Remaghic ) decreases by about 3% E total (X Remaghic ) E total (X SOA ) -10-

11 3) CONCLUSION I. Digitalization: Big data and industrial internet will effect the way we collect data (automatized, continuous and in real-time) within inventory analysis II. Circular Economy & Sustainability: The application of the LCG-A allows to analyze the consequences of new technologies with regard to both: In our example, the consequences of the developed recycling solutions are with regard to Circular Economy (-29%) and sustainabilty (-3%) positiv! -11-

12 END OF THE PRASENTATION Thank you for your attention! Contact Data M.Sc. Environmental Engineering Fraunhofer Institute für Chemical Technology ICT Joseph-von-Fraunhofer-Straße 7 I Pfinztal I Germany Phone: michael.dieterle@ict.fraunhofer.de

13 SOURCES [1] Dieterle. M., Schäfer. P., Viere. T. (2018). Life Cycle Gaps: Interpreting LCA Results with a Circular Economy Mindset. Elsevier. ScienceDirect. Procedia CIRP 69 ( 2018 ) doi: /j.procir [2] European Commission (2018). Circular Economy. Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan. URL: [3] European Commission (2018). Environment. Sustainable Development. Product Environmental Footprint. URL: