With our Life Cycle Research Highlights we are putting a spotlight on open access papers we feel deserve special attention! Each month, we highlight four papers that we consider innovative, insightful and well written. Support us in identifying great research and submit a paper for consideration by our selection committee here. Subscribe to our dedicated project newsletter and receive our summaries each month directly in your mailbox!


Bioplastic production in terms of life cycle assessment: A state-of-the-art review


Our Summary:

Through a literature review of articles on bioplastics, the study highlights that the recycling of both plastics and bioplastics could potentially lead to an increase in environmental impacts instead of a decrease. The article emphasizes the significance of incorporating multiple impact categories into the LCA when assessing bioplastics as a material to support the circular economy. The authors suggest that more research is necessary to fully comprehend the potential of bioplastics, considering the impacts, harmonization, and methodological enhancements of LCA.

Sizing a hybrid hydrogen production plant including life cycle assessment indicators by combining NSGA-III and principal component analysis (PCA)


Our Summary:

For the design of a hybrid hydrogen production plant, the authors considered the assessment of the environmental performance of each component using an LCA model in Brightway2 (Python). An evolutionary algorithm NSGA-III was used to evaluate the performance of 13 midpoint indicators selected from IMPACT World+. The study found that the following impact categories should be considered to avoid impact transfer: climate change, freshwater ecotoxicity, land acidification, water scarcity, ozone depletion, ionising radiation, and fossil and nuclear energy use.

Life Cycle Gap Analysis for Product Circularity and Sustainability—a Case Study with Three Different Products


Our Summary:

This paper evaluates life cycle gaps of three products, plastic bottles (54%), rechargeable batteries (61%) and t-shirts (98%) and compares the three. It concludes that there is a large potential in improving current life cycle systems of several industries and product groups. Furthermore, a methodological weakness is also identified, i.e. the fact that a life cycle gap analysis assumes the general necessity of a product or service as opposed to evaluating whether circularity can be improved with more disruptive innovations.

Risk and sustainability: trade-offs and synergies for robust decision making


Our Summary:

This research paper proposes a framework for decoupling risk assessment and sustainability to minimize risk-sustainability trade-offs and to maximise optimum synergies. The framework consists of four steps: (1) identifying assessment scope and aligning system boundaries, (2) harmonizing assessment metrics and applied methods, (3) addressing cross-cutting issues and, (4) intermediate results are exchanged.

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