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PublicationAnalysis and visualisation of large scale life cycle assessment results: A case study on an adaptive, multilayer membrane façade( 2024-05-17)
;Borschewski, DavidThe importance of visualisations in context of life cycle assessment has been widely discussed and acknowledged in the literature. Especially with the increasing ability to process and create large-scale LCA results, visualisations are vital tools to not only analyse and interpret but also check and validate underlying datasets. Based on a dataset containing 1.25 million LCA results for all potential configurations within a defined parameter space, different visualisations and analysis methods were applied to identify hotspots, assess parameter sensitivity, gain insights to optimise environmental sustainability, and provide benchmarks for an adaptive, multilayer membrane façade. Box plots for the identification of hotspots, parameter sensitivity, and benchmarking, as well as colour-coded scatter plots, have proven to be incredibly versatile and effective for understanding the results and providing multiple perspectives to gain further insight. The ability to interact directly with interactive visualisation in order to identify and isolate specific areas of interest allows for a very efficient analysis of the relevant aspects of data. However, the usefulness of the proposed visualisations is not only dependant on the quality and characteristic of the underlying data but also on the objectives and scope of the study, as well as the intended medium illustrating the results. -
PublicationGrill and chill: A comprehensive analysis of the environmental impacts of private household barbecuing in germany( 2024-01-25)
;Geng, Shaoran ;Dorling, Kevin ChristopherRising environmental consciousness has prompted increased scrutiny of the environmental impact of everyday activities, such as barbecuing - a popular summertime activity in Germany. This study aimed to explore the environmental impacts of three grilling techniques, charcoal (including reusable types such as swivel, round, and kettle grills, as well as disposable charcoal grills), gas, and electric grills, utilizing a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach including the manufacturing of grills, consumption of energy sources and grilling ingredients, as well as the end-of-life of the grills. Five impact categories were considered: global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), abiotic depletion potential fossil (ADP), and land use (LU) according to the CML2016 and ReCiPe 2016 methodology. This study found that a barbeque event for four people results in GWP, AP, EP, ADP, and LU values ranging from 18 to 20 kg CO2-eq., 174 to 179 g SO2-eq., 166 to 167 g PO4-eq., 102 to 138 MJ, and 36 to 38 m2 annual crop-eq., respectively, across different types of grills. Furthermore, the ingredients proved to be the most significant contributor, surpassing 70% in all impact categories. Among the three types of grills, the electric grill emerged as the most environmentally friendly, while the disposable grill had the greatest environmental impact across the majority of categories. Lastly, the environmental impacts of varying consumer behaviors were evaluated to potentially assist consumers in adopting more sustainable grilling practices. -
PublicationBringing light into the dark - Overview of environmental impacts of carbon fiber production and potential levers for reduction( 2024)
;Prescher, Tim ;Reden, Tjark vonCarbon fibers (CFs) are a crucial material for lightweight structures with advanced mechanical performance. However, there is still a paucity of detailed understanding regarding the environmental impacts of production. Previously, mostly singled-out scenarios for CF production have been assessed, often based on scarce transparent inventory data. To expand the current knowledge and create a robust database for future evaluation, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out. To this end, a detailed industry-approved LCI is published, which also proved plausible against the literature. Subsequently, based on a global scenario representing the market averages for precursor and CF production, the most relevant contributors to climate change (EF3.1 climate change, total) and the depletion of fossil energy carriers (EF3.1 resource use, fossil) were identified. The energy consumption in CF manufacturing was found to be responsible for 59% of the climate change and 48% of the fossil resource use. To enable a differentiated discussion of manufacturing locations and process energy consumption, 24 distinct scenarios were assessed. The findings demonstrate the significant dependence of the results on the scenarios’ boundary conditions: climate change ranges from 13.0 to 34.1 kg CO2 eq./kg CF and resource use from 262.3 to 497.9 MJ/kg CF. Through the investigated scenarios, the relevant reduction potentials were identified. The presented results help close an existing data gap for high-quality, regionalized, and technology-specific LCA results for the production of CF. -
PublicationProcess-based life cycle assessment for the manufacturing of functional materials and printed electronics( 2023-06-16)
;Narres, Nicoletta ;Fuhs, FranziskaPrinted electronics are a massively researched technology that is continuously developing new materials, processes, and applications. With the increasing interest in the technology, also the associated environmental impacts gain growing importance. Therefore, insights on processes for functional material production and device manufacturing in the domain of printed electronics are required to provide a solid data baseline for determining environmental impacts of printed electronic devices and in a subsequent step benchmark them against conventional electronics. The document at hand summarizes the outcomes of task T11.5 - Pilot line LCA from the publicly funded EU-project LEE-BED (grant agreement no. 814485). The main objectives of the work conducted in this specific work package are the information of material developers, pilot line operators and potential users of printed electronics on the environmental impacts resulting from different production technologies. This means that the manufactured products (demonstrators, end user products) are explicitly not focused on, even though data collection for production processes naturally cannot be performed completely independently of products. Within the project, the outcomes of this task are fed back to the phase 1 service - life cycle analysis, developed in WP3 and applied in WP9 and WP10 in the project duration. -
PublicationSustainability screening in the context of advanced material development for printed electronics( 2021)Flexible, ultra-light and wafer-thin – the future of electronics is printed! The cornerstones for this development are conductive inks and adhesives that connect components and sensors with each other, integrating them into a printed environment. A decisive role hereby is played by advanced materials, such as functional inks, and their interaction in final devices for application in various use-cases. For this purpose, various particle structures in the nanometre range are created that enable the required conductivity, while keeping material input of the conductive substance as low as possible. Due to the excellent properties, the versatile functionalities, the possible high production volumes and the associated reduced production costs a wide range of applications is facilitated through printed electronics and mass markets become accessible. Therefore, associated environmental impacts as well as the security of the supply chain are expected to gain further relevance in the future. Yet, as most of the processes are in a development stage, prospective assessments before the start of production are essential, if development of printed electronics shall be aligned with sustainability goals. In order to address environmental consequences of future implementations of advanced materials for printed electronics at an early stage, this contribution is considering and evaluating the sustainable effects in a comprehensive assessment even before the physical start of product and material development. To this end, a procedure was developed, in which underlying methodology enables development engineers to identify hotspots at an early stage and to address and mitigate them early on. This way, challenges of tomorrow’s circular economy are already being addressed today and critical sustainability pitfalls can be avoided.
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PublicationInfluence of design properties of printed electronics on their environmental profile( 2021)
;Fuhs, FranziskaIn the context of an Internet of things (IoT) vision, printed and embedded electronics have gained serious momentum over recent years. Large leaps in innovation promote the applicability of the technology and help reduce device cost significantly. Additionally, printed electronics are often perceived as a green technology with high potential of replacing established subtractive manufacturing methods and act as an enabler in many areas of society. However, their environmental impacts are still rarely investigated thoroughly. Device development for printed electronics typically starts with the definition of functionalities rather than exact knowledge about components and materials, making an integrated early-stage life cycle assessment (LCA) of the devices challenging due to the typically large amount of possible technical solutions for each use case. This contribution fundamentally supports the idea that getting involved with environmental considerations as early as possible in the development is pivotal in avoiding sustainability pitfalls from the start. Consequently, several LCA studies are summarised focusing on three different sustainability scopes: material, production and device, as well as use-phase and end-of-life. The work aims to provide an overview over the sustainability potentials and risks of the production processes of printed electronics from flexible substrates and conductive inks based on micro- and nano-sized particles. Different filler materials for the inks are considered, as their impact heavily influences the overall device impacts. In conclusion, recommendations for further work in the field are derived, summarising potentials of printed electronics, while equally considering remaining challenges. Thus, the conducted work contributes to a better understanding of environmental impacts in the development of printed electronics and helps applying the findings already at the very first development stages. -
PublicationEnvironmental impacts and implications of RFID tagsThe European Union (EU) funded project Nano-Enabled Conducting Materials Accelerating Device Applicability (NECOMADA), Grant Agreement Number: 720897, has the ambition incorporate advanced functional materials to deliver customised conductive inks and flexible adhesives compatible with high volume manufacturing platforms. Specifically the development of these enabling materials will support high speed roll-to-roll (R2R) integration of hybrid and large area electronics to address internet of things opportunities. The overall NECOMADA objective is the delivery of conductive inks and adhesives compatible with R2R application on flexible substrates via a high speed printing and/ or pick and place conversion. The project targets substantial reduction in device costs compared with the current state of the art. This is achieved through the combination of formulated structured nanomaterials (conductive inks/ adhesives) with R2R printing, coating, and component pick and place at pilot scale to demonstrate the potential for low cost, robust, high volume device manufacturing. The objective of this study is to raise awareness about relevant sustainability issues for materials developed within NECOMADA, machinery and processes used, as well as appliers of the new technology. This is done by describing the environmental impacts of the RFID tags developed in the scope of NECOMADA, as well as the findings during the investigation. In this study, four packaging applications are examined (food boxes, aluminium can, plastic detergent bottle, and medical blister) and their implications to the product is analysed. Figure 1 shows the investigated systems over their life cycle stages. Figure 1: Investigated systems of the study over their life cycle stages In the system ""RFID tag"" the environmental impacts of its life cycle stages are assessed. This includes the manufacturing of conductive particles, inks and adhesives, as well as components like ICs and substrates. Finally, the NECOMADA pilot line brings materials and components together via printing, attaching and converting.
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PublicationDeliverable 11.4. Sustainability module for pilot line(Fraunhofer IBP, 2019)
;Viitanen, Anna-KaisaKanerva, TomiThe sustainability module makes sure users of the pilot line are able to receive sustainability-related information about NECOMADA products they order. This is integrated in the configuration/order process as opt-out feature. The goal is to increase the sustainability awareness of future beneficiaries of the NECOMADA project. In a broader sense, it contributes to a future in which sustainability qualities of products are commonplace next to classic qualities such as effectiveness, cost and reliability. The sustainability-related information about the ordered NECOMADA product is provided in the form of a sustainability fact sheet. The sustainability fact sheet focuses on two life cycle assessment impact categories, climate change and resource depletion - minerals and metals. Both categories are recommended by the European Commission to measure and communicate environmental performance of products. Based on the relevance of greenhouse gas emissions and the reduction of these emissions the sustainability fact sheet focuses on the anthropogenic (induced by human activities) climate change. The associated environmental impact category is the Global Warming Potential (GWP), which is expressed in kilogram carbon dioxide equivalent (kg CO2-eq.). The environmental impact category 'Global Warming Potential' will be analysed for a period of 100 years (GWP100). For this purpose, the EF3.0 characterization factors are used, which are described in the IPCC 2013 report. -
PublicationRecommendations for resource efficient and environmentally responsible manufacturing of CFRP products(Carbon Composites, 2017)
;Kugler, Martin ;Pitschke, Thorsten ;Seitz, Matthias ;Schüppel, Denny ;Kreibe, SiegfriedReden, Tjark von