Life Cycle Research Highlights

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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!

Life‑LCA: case study of the life cycle impacts of an infant

Authors: David Bossek, Vanessa Bach, Matthias Finkbeiner,

Journal: The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

Our Summary:

Life-LCA has advanced as a method of assessing and analyzing the impacts of human product and service consumption behaviour from the prenatal phase through age 49. According to the studies, more than 50% of emissions are attributed to transportation and food across all the impact categories, including climate change, acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical ozone formation. There is a high contribution from clothing consumption during the prenatal and infant phases, while energy and water have a major impact in adulthood phases.
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Bioplastic production in terms of life cycle assessment: A state-of-the-art review

Authors: Sameh Samir Ali, Esraa A. Abdelkarim, Tamer Elsamahy, Rania Al-Tohamy, Fanghua Li, Antonio Zuorro, Daochen Zhu, Jianzhong Sun,

Journal: Environmental Science and Ecotechnology

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.
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Life cycle thinking and safe-and-sustainable-by-design approaches for the battery innovation landscape

Authors: Lya G. Soeteman-Hernandez, Carlos Felipe Blanco, Maarten Koese, Adrienne J.A.M. Sips, Cornelle W. Noorlander, Willie J.G.M. Peijnenburg,

Journal: iScience

Our Summary:

This article uses Life Cycle Thinking as a methodology to address the impacts of the battery production value chain in Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design. SSbD targets the dimensions of safety, environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The authors used LCA, S-LCA, LCC and the Levelized Cost of Storage indicator to compare categories such as criticality, human toxicity, environmental toxicity, social impact, circularity, functionality, and cost for battery technologies. The review found that the creation and integration of knowledge-based systems improve the operationalization of SSbD.
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Sizing a hybrid hydrogen production plant including life cycle assessment indicators by combining NSGA-III and principal component analysis (PCA)

Authors: Hemant Sharma, Guillaume Mandil, Élise Monnier, Emmanuelle Cor, Peggy Zwolinski,

Journal: Energy Conversion and Management: X

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.
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Progress of social assessment in the framework of bioeconomy under a life cycle perspective

Authors: Ricardo Rebolledo-Leiva, María Teresa Moreira, Sara Gonzalez-García,

Journal: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

Our Summary:

The shift towards a bioeconomy framework requires greater attention to the societal context in which new technologies, bioenergy systems, and bioproducts will be developed. During the review, it was determined that the social aspects are largely limited to labour issues, product, and organisational perspectives. Therefore, the authors suggest integrating multi-level perspectives into the S-LCA to promote the transition to the bioeconomy. Including indicators related to social norms and values, entrepreneurship, consumer behaviour, and government promotion and support.
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Economic Indicators for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: Going beyond Life Cycle Costing

Authors: Vivek Arulnathan, Mohammad Davoud Heidari, Maurice Doyon, Eric P. H. Li, Nathan Pelletier,

Journal: Sustainability

Our Summary:

The article emphasizes the need to establish a broader framework for addressing the economic dimension of LCSA. Accordingly, the Environmental LCC approach is incorporated to assess all internal and external costs associated with a product's life cycle, including monetized externalities. The review resulted in 21 indicators, with a high level of measurability and usability, grouped into six economic impact categories: profitability, stability, autonomy, productivity, customers, and innovation. Therefore, this catalogue provides decision-makers with a diverse representation of economic performance.
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How to embed environmental sustainability: The role of dynamic capabilities and managerial approaches in a life cycle management perspective

Authors: Guia Bianchi, Francesco Testa, Sara Tessitore, Fabio Iraldo,

Journal: Business Strategy and the Environment

Our Summary:

The study identified how internal capabilities and managerial approaches influence the probability of an organization embedding LCM within its operations. For this purpose, the study conducted an empirical survey of 187 Italian medium and large manufacturing enterprises. The concept model was based on four profiles, considering organizational barriers and levels of willingness to adopt LCM strategies. The authors concluded that firms could spot environmental opportunities for innovation and LCM embeddedness by combining sensing and seizing capabilities with an integrative approach.
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Life Cycle Gap Analysis for Product Circularity and Sustainability—a Case Study with Three Different Products

Authors: Michael Dieterle, Tobias Viere,

Journal: Materials Circular Economy

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.
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Life cycle assessment of behind-the-meter Bitcoin mining at US power plant

Authors: Martin Roeck, Thomas Drennen,

Journal: The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

Our Summary:

The study conducts a Life Cycle Assessment of a natural gas power plant that produces 88,840 metric tons of CO2-eq annually to mine Bitcoin behind-the-meter. If the powerplant directed 100% of its electricity production for mining Bitcoin, it would emit 656,983 metric tons of CO2-eq . In behind-the-meter Bitcoin mining, 79% to the major GHG emissions are attributed to the mining itself. This is especially relevant for the New York State as it aims to curb 85% of GHG emissions...
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Sustainability improvements in complex systems composed of products and services

Authors: Anna Biedermann, Natalia Muñoz López, José Luis Santolaya Sáenz, José Ignacio Valero Martín,

Journal: The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment

Our Summary:

The aim of this study is to assess and improve the sustainability of the products and services system composite. Thus, it proposes an approach to analyse system sustainability using the life cycle sustainability assessment method (LCSA) consisting of environmental, economic and social dimensions in four phases: (i) identification of links between involved systems; (ii) sustainability assessment of the P+S system; (iii) application of sustainability strategies; and (iv) sustainability results comparison. The research culminates in a set of quantitative sustainability indicators...
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