Screening LCA based on delta approach – a case study of oil water separation system

Main Presenter:    Ana Claudia Nioac de Salles 

Co-Authors:   Ingrid Pinel     Johanna Hinrichs      Simone Barletta      Giulia Molinari                              

As part of the Horizon Europe GIANCE Project (Graphene Alliance for Sustainable Multifunctional Materials to Tackle Environmental Challenges) screening life cycle assessments (LCAs) have been conducted in the early stage of the project to support the development of eleven use cases (UCs) during their design phase with information on environmental impact aspects of the graphene-related materials (GRM). The assessments involved conducting a preliminary analysis based on estimated data on the main changes, referred to “Delta”, on the bill of materials (BoM) and use phase (e.g. resource consumption and product’s life span) of the new GIANCE solutions in comparison to the state-of-the-art. These data represent the effect of the UC’s key performance indicators (KPIs) on the environmental impact, defined as “LCA values”. The aim was to verify the potential environmental benefits of the GIANCE new technologies and materials used in the UCs, by assessing the significance of the environmental
impacts and pinpoint the hotspots. To illustrate this approach, the case study of the GIANCE oil water separation system is shown. First, the LCA values were defined according to the UC’s KPIs. One of them was „resistance to oxidative agents”, this increases the efficient cleaning of the membrane, resulting in lower frequency of material replacement, and less chemical consumption and maintenance time. The effect on the “LCA value” is less use of resource and generation of waste. Then data were collected on the main changes on the material composition of the system, e.g. including graphene oxide, and the chemicals used during maintenance. The preliminary results showed higher environmental impacts of GIANCE’s materials than the state-of-the-art due to high amounts of graphene considered at the beginning of the project, which has high environmental impacts during its production phase. On the other hand, the results from the use phase, including maintenance and less replacement of a new
membrane, presented potential reduction on the overall environmental footprint of the system. These insights supported further development towards sustainable innovations in the application of graphene and modifications on the BoM of the water treatment system. Screening LCA based on the delta approach and LCA values requires a lower volume of data than a full LCA and is less time-consuming and costly. It provides important insights into environmental impacts that should be incorporated into the early stages of research and development (R&D) for materials and products, to ensure responsible innovation.

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