Insights from the SETAC Europe 25th LCA Symposium

Alice Lopes, Technical University of Darmstadt; Diego Garcia Gusano, Tecnalia Research and Innovation; Laura Göllner-Völker, Technical University of Darmstadt; Carina Mueller, University of York; Mario Schmidt, Hochschule Pforzheim; Liselotte Schebek, Technical University of Darmstadt; Cécile Querleu, Solvay; Nicole Unger, Mondi Group; Alberto Bezama, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ; Hans-Jürgen Garvens, German Environment Agency; and Andrea Gassmann, Fraunhofer Research Institution for Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS

The SETAC Europe 25th LCA Symposium was held virtually from 12–14 October 2022 by the Technical University of Darmstadt – Chair of Material Flow Management and Resource Economics and contained two and a half days of exciting discussions and experience exchange on the overarching topic “The Role of LCA in Raw Material Sustainability, Circularity and Criticality.”

The symposium welcomed inspiring daily opening keynotes such as Karel Van Acker, KU Leuven; Liselotte Schebek, TU Darmstadt; and Hans J. Garvens, German Environment Agency, followed by thrilling session keynotes, oral presentations and poster breakout sessions in the field of energy technologies and energy system, resource efficiency in production, circular economy, bioeconomy, and transitions pathways. The symposium also offered two seminars, “The Role of LCA in Material Sustainability” with Guido Sonnemann, Univeristy of Bordeaux, and “LCA and Planetary Boundaries” with Anders Bjørn, Technical University of Denmark.

We’ve asked the session chairs to spotlight key discussions, lessons learned, scientific highlights and interesting results from their perspective, and we are happy to share them here.

Session 1: Energy Technologies and Energy System

Chairs: Diego Garcia Gusano, Tecnalia Research and Innovation; Laura Göllner-Völker, Technical University of Darmstadt

Falko Parthey from Siemens Energy opened session one with his session keynote speech on “Achieving EcoTransparency with Digitalization.” Parthey presented the EcoTransparency app, which enables a shift from a static to a dynamic solution for the communication of potential environmental impact results for internal and external stakeholders. The keynote was followed by exciting presentations and discussion on the following topics:

• Comparative environmental life cycle assessment of a stilted and vertical bifacial agri-photovoltaic system
• Life cycle assessment of salinity gradient energy recovery by reverse electrodialysis in coastal municipal wastewater treatment plants
• Exploring the material criticality of two hydrogen-related products under different indicators
• Environmental performance of a hybrid solar–hydrogen cogeneration system for residential applications
• Future environmental performance of an emerging hydrogen production technology using anion exchange membranes

The session was wrapped up with questions from the chairs to the presenters, such as “Which are the transversal aspects of criticality, sustainability and circularity in your field?” and “What is the role of assumptions made in LCA for evaluating the results?” The answers included, if circularity of materials increases, the level of criticality of such material decreases. Criticality is a very important topic in hydrogen production since it is unclear if it is possible to cover lithium production in the future; circularity would decrease the problem, but it is rather hard to achieve from today’s point of view. With regard to the assumptions made in LCA, there is no better method, but we can only strive to make the best assumptions. Transparently communicating the assumptions, making data available, and getting better from time to time is essential.

Session 2: Resource Efficiency in Production

Chairs: Carina Mueller, University of York, and Mario Schmidt, Hochschule Pforzheim

Increasingly novel approaches are being developed to deal with resource efficiency in LCA, especially to support decisions in production. In the session “Resource Efficiency in Production,” different developed methodologies and practical challenges in the implementation of these approaches were presented and discussed. Altogether, there was one keynote presentation, followed by five oral presentations and six posters. The presentations highlighted the challenge to balance between developing simple methods, which can be implemented in practice, and accounting for the complexity of the system (e.g., accounting for technical functionality, distance to planetary boundary, future energy availability to extract or recycle resources). In terms of remaining gaps on this topic, the participants highlighted the following areas during the discussion:

1. The lack of knowledge about how, in practice, future recycling could be implemented at scale
2. The missing “planetary boundary” for resource depletion of metals or minerals
3. Inability to trace rare minerals and metals and therefore measure their impact through input–output models despite their importance for the economy
4. How to ethically allocate resources to whom and why in the future

Session 3: Circular Economy and Challenges in LCA

Chairs: Liselotte Schebek, Technical University of Darmstadt, and Cécile Querleu, Solvay

Up to 74 participants attended this virtual session. The first presentation was the keynote speech by Michele de Rosa, LEGO Group, Danish Center for Environmental Assessment (DCEA). His presentation highlighted the fact that circular economy does not start at the end-of-life of the products but is about efficiency of use of resources.

Then the session was dedicated to five very different presentations, coupling different approaches and thematics:

• Economic optimization model along a whole chain of production or consumption, and waste management of a product, coupled with consequential LCA
• Comparison of recycling with no recycling solutions, including the downcycling of the recycled materials
• Use of blockchain in circular economy
• Recycling materials in automotive power systems, like fuel cells
• Coupling LCA with process design and life cycle costing for a process platform

In the take-home messages, we noticed that the benefits of circular economy only exist if secondary materials can replace virgin materials and that it is particularly rich to couple approaches to be able to merge LCA and circular economy thematics.

Session 4: Bioeconomy

Chairs: Nicole Unger, Mondi Group; Alberto Bezama, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ

Vanessa Zeller opened session four on bioeconomy with her keynote presentation clearly outlining the concept of circular bioeconomy. She defined it as the area where the concepts of circular economy (driving for material efficiency) and bioeconomy (contributing to climate targets) meet, and where LCA practitioners face various challenges. In her presentation, the role of different modeling frameworks (attributional and consequential) was highlighted, among other things.

The topics of diverting waste and closing loops through recycling and other utilization were dominant in the presentations that followed. Several speakers presented insights from case studies where waste was used as a source for higher value utilization, such as making use of methane biodegradable polyester in landfills in the U.S. or diverting autumn tree leaves from composting to supply energy and reduce greenhouse gases. In this context, the challenge when waste becomes a valuable by-product and linked impact allocations challenges were discussed in the Q&A session.

The feasibility of different recycling bio-composites in the aviation industry was explored, as well as the closing of carbon loops by using carbon capture and utilization to reduce climate change impact. The relevance of the regional conditions was also discussed, and a toolbox approach to assess the impact of regional circular bioeconomy was presented.

Different views existed on the general drive to use more biobased feedstocks. While some stated there is still a lot of unused potential for materials to divert from waste, others highlighted that there is also a limited availability of biomass, e.g., wood, which is also in competition with other functions of natural systems.

This linked to the topic of trade-offs, which were only featured as sidenotes in most presentations. During the discussion, some views addressed that focusing on pressing issues, such as climate change, helps, while there was a clear recognition that a wide range of impacts, which also included aspects that currently cannot be reflected in LCA, need to be considered, such as biodiversity, soil quality, ecosystem services as well as socio-economic aspects.

Session 5: Transition Pathways

Chairs: Hans-Jürgen Garvens, German Environment Agency, and Andrea Gassmann, Fraunhofer IWKS

Friday’s session started with a keynote by Hans J. Garvens, German Environment Agency, on the role of LCA in the transition towards climate neutrality. He emphasized the major role LCA plays in the upcoming industrial revolution to develop a sustainable future. To avoid burden shifting, we need to develop blueprints for radical reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and take a close look at other impact categories. Henning Wilts of Wuppertal Institute gave more insights into possible pathways and their challenges from a life cycle perspective. Sara Tonilo from the University of Verona focused on warehouse operations. Tomas Ekvall from the Chalmers University of Technology presented recycling and reuse modeling with regard to whom to allocate the positive effects without overestimating the outcome of the overall system. Jens Johansson of the Swedish National Agency for Public Procurement elucidated a model to assess GHG emissions from economic data only, where characterization factors were derived from studies having also economic data handy. Oskar Vögler of Carbon Minds presented their new LCI database on chemical processes, which is based on country and site-specific data and also considers the specific processes of all known chemical production units. Vanessa Schindler from Technical University Darmstadt concluded with a prospective LCA of power engineering systems.

The local organizing committee warmly thanks all participants, the scientific committee, session chairs, seminar holders and the sponsors Merck, Plastic Europe and RSC Sustainability, as well as SETAC for the opportunity to hold this important event.

Author’s contact information: Alice Lopes, [email protected]