Presentation @BioBase4SME Interreg project Workshop Environmental assessment of biobased products: Mainstreaming LCA for SMEs

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BioBase4SME Workshop – Brussels, 28/06/2017
Environmental Assessment of BioBased
Products:
Mainstreaming LCA for SMEs

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FUTURE MATERIALS…
… MADE BY TODAY’S PEOPLE
ADVANCED
MATERIALS FOR
ENERGY
APPLICATIONS
INNOVATIVE AND
SUSTAINABLE
POLYMERIC
MATERIALS
CELLS FOR
MATERIALS AND
MATERIALS FOR
CELLS
MULTIFUNCTIONAL
SURFACES
LIFE CYCLE
THINKING
CHARACTERIZATION
PLATFORM
©MateriaNova

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Why should I prove it’s green?
It’s BIO!
Olivier Talon / Materia Nova

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Is bio always a good thing?
Is even green always a good thing?
What is bio? What is green? What is good? What is LCA?

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According to Google Image, biobased IS green, obviously…

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Why?

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Why?
Mostly for 1 reason
CARBON

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Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products
atmospheric CO2
biomass
plants
1 year
adapted from Narayan, 1st PLA world congress, München, 2008

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Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products
atmospheric CO2
biomass
plants
1 year
fossil feedstocks
oil, gas, coal
106 years
adapted from Narayan, 1st PLA world congress, München, 2008

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Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products
atmospheric CO2
biomass
plants
1 year
fossil feedstocks
oil, gas, coal
106 years
plastics
chemicals
fuels chemical industry
adapted from Narayan, 1st PLA world congress, München, 2008

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Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products
atmospheric CO2
biomass
plants
1 year
fossil feedstocks
oil, gas, coal
106 years
plastics
chemicals
fuels chemical industry
adapted from Narayan, 1st PLA world congress, München, 2008
1- 10 years
atmospheric
CO2

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Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products
atmospheric CO2
biomass
plants
fossil feedstocks
oil, gas, coal
plastics
chemicals
fuels
1 year
106 years
chemical industry
1- 10 years
adapted from Narayan, 1st PLA world congress, München, 2008

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Some think we should not. Well.
Should we care about that?

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The Rodney and Olamatea Times
August 14, 1912, page 7
By the way…
1912.
94 years before the creation of Twitter.
106 years before the election of Trump.
OK. Let’s consider we should care.

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So, this is it?
Global warming is not a hoax,
but biobased fuels and products
are the answer because they
do not add ancient CO2 to
the atmosphere?

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Of course, it’s not that simple…

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There are other environmental issues than
CO2 and climate change…
You may need to use fossil fuels anyway to
transform biomass into biobased products…
You may need to use fossil fuels
anyway to grow biomass…
You may need to use a larger amount of the
biobased product to reach the same function,
because it has different properties…
…

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So how can I figure out
whether my biobased product
is greener than the
not-biobased benchmark?

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There are other environmental issues than
climate change…
You may need to use fossil fuels anyway to
transform biomass into biobased products…
You may need to use fossil fuels
anyway to grow biomass…
You may need to use a larger amount of the
biobased product to reach the same function,
because it has different properties…
…

20. ©MateriaNova
There are other environmental issues than
climate change…
You may need to use fossil fuels anyway to
transform biomass into biobased products…
You may need to use fossil fuels
anyway to grow biomass…
You may need to use a larger amount of the
biobased product to reach the same function,
because it has different properties…
…
You need to take into account not only your
production process, but also to consider
how your raw materials were produced…

21. ©MateriaNova
There are other environmental issues than
climate change…
You may need to use fossil fuels anyway to
transform biomass into biobased products…
You may need to use fossil fuels
anyway to grow biomass…
You may need to use a larger amount of the
biobased product to reach the same function,
because it has different properties…
…
You need to take into account not only your
production process, but also to consider
how your raw materials were produced…
You need to consider how your product is
used, and to make comparisons based on
similar functionality…

22. ©MateriaNova
There are other environmental issues than
climate change…
You may need to use fossil fuels anyway to
transform biomass into biobased products…
You may need to use fossil fuels
anyway to grow biomass…
You may need to use a larger amount of the
biobased product to reach the same function,
because it has different properties…
…
You need to take into account not only your
production process, but also to consider
how your raw materials were produced…
You need to consider how your product is
used, and to make comparisons based on
similar functionality…
You need a multicriteria tool that will
also give answers about other impacts…

23. ©MateriaNova
There are other environmental issues than
climate change…
You may need to use fossil fuels anyway to
transform biomass into biobased products…
You may need to use fossil fuels
anyway to grow biomass…
You may need to use a larger amount of the
biobased product to reach the same function,
because it has different properties…
…
You need to take into account not only your
production process, but also to consider
how your raw materials were produced…
You need to consider how your product is
used, and to make comparisons based on
similar functionality…
You need a multicriteria tool that will
also give answers about other impacts…
You need
LCA!

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What is LCA?
(Life Cycle Assessment)

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LCA is meant for identifying / solving environmental issues without
inducing impact switches (towards other LC steps or impact types)
after modification
impact
initial situation
impact

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end of life
raw materials
manufacturing
use
transports
LCA quantifies exchanges between a system and the environment
raw materials
energy
land
air
emissions
water
emissions
soil
emissions

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LCA makes links between these exchanges and
multiple environmental impact categories
ozone depletion
acidification
water depletion
ecotoxicity
land use
eutrophication
toxicity
climate
change
;;;;;;;;;
;;;;;;;;;
;;;;
CO2
CH4
HCl

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LCA translates these flows into environmental impacts
The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's
Seventh Framework Programme (FP7; NMP.2012.3.0-1) under grant agreement number 309802.

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What can be the benefits from a LCA study?
• Compare product vs benchmark
• Verify presupposed environmental benefits
• Identify hotspots
• Reveal priorities for improvement of environmental footprint by
ecodesigning products and processes
Flax-based insulation
panels vs. PU benchmark

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Some examples
of results
(from selected scientific papers
published in the last 4 years)

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Bio vs. traditional sandwich composites

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Bio vs. traditional sandwich composites
The results you hope

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Foamed packaging / starch vs EPS

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Foamed packaging / starch vs EPS
The results you could expect

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Bio alternatives to oil-based PET

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Bio alternatives to oil-based PET
!
The results you may fear

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PET bottles, bio or not bio?
full fossil
full corn

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Conclusions

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• The origin of C in a biobased product is a good point.
But not enough to make it green
• A product may be biobased and yet have a problematic
environmental footprint
• Quantification of potential impacts all along the life
cycle is a necessity to claim greenness
• LCA is not only a tool for quantifying environmental
impacts, its main added value is in accompanying eco-
design and improvement of products and processes
©MateriaNova

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LCA vouchers are still available in BioBase4SME so you can
co-finance this type of studies. Come and talk to us.
Don’t paint it green. MAKE it green!

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©MateriaNova
www.materianova.be
Thanks for your attention
olivier.talon@materianova.be