Prospective life cycle assessment of an antibacterial T-shirt and supporting business decisions to create value

Manda, B.M. Krishna; Worrell, Ernst; Patel, Martin Kumar

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2015.07.010

Cited by 42 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Walser and colleagues () tested ranges of values for a number of parameters related to the use phase of the nanosilver‐coated T‐shirt, including washing frequency, washing temperature, and the lifetime of the T‐shirt. Both Walser and colleagues () and Manda and colleagues () investigated different production processes for the nanosilver used in antibacterial T‐shirts, representing different stages of technological maturity and production scale. In their prospective modeling of ethylene production in the United States, Yao and colleagues () employed expected and rapid scenarios to account for different adoption rates of emerging ethylene production technologies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: Recommendations for Prospective LCA

Arvidsson

Tillman

Sandén

et al. 2017

J of Industrial Ecology

342

233

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The challenge of assessing emerging technologies with life cycle assessment (LCA) has been increasingly discussed in the LCA field. In this article, we propose a definition of prospective LCA: An LCA is prospective when the (emerging) technology studied is in an early phase of development (e.g., small-scale production), but the technology is modeled at a future, more-developed phase (e.g., large-scale production). Methodological choices in prospective LCA must be adapted to reflect this goal of assessing environmental impacts of emerging technologies, which deviates from the typical goals of conventional LCA studies. The aim of the article is to provide a number of recommendations for how to conduct such prospective assessments in a relevant manner. The recommendations are based on a detailed review of selected prospective LCA case studies, mainly from the areas of nanomaterials, biomaterials, and energy technologies. We find that it is important to include technology alternatives that are relevant for the future in prospective LCA studies. Predictive scenarios and scenario ranges are two general approaches to prospective inventory modeling of both foreground and background systems. Many different data sources are available for prospective modeling of the foreground system: scientific articles; patents; expert interviews; unpublished experimental data; and process modeling. However, we caution against temporal mismatches between foreground and background systems, and recommend that foreground and background system impacts be reported separately in order to increase the usefulness of the results in other prospective studies. Keywords:case study emerging technology industrial ecology life cycle assessment (LCA) prospective technological changeConflict of interest statement: The authors have no conflict to declare.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…; Manda et al. ), membrane filtration systems for drinking water (Manda et al. ), production of the nanomaterial graphene (Arvidsson et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: Recommendations for Prospective LCA

Arvidsson

Tillman

Sandén

et al. 2017

J of Industrial Ecology

342

233

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“…So far, several studies describe the application of prospective LCAs [22][23][24][25][26][27]. Nonetheless, no general framework for conducting prospective LCAs is given and no comprehensive systematic literature review on LCAs of emerging technologies has been conducted until now.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance

2020

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Emerging technologies are expected to contribute to environmental sustainable development. However, throughout the development of novel technologies, it is unknown whether emerging technologies can lead to reduced environmental impacts compared to a potentially displaced mature technology. Additionally, process steps suspected to be environmental hotspots can be improved by process engineers early in the development of the emerging technology. In order to determine the environmental impacts of emerging technologies at an early stage of development, prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) should be performed. However, consistency in prospective LCA methodology is lacking. Therefore, this article develops a framework for a prospective LCA in order to overcome the methodological inconsistencies regarding prospective LCAs. The methodological framework was developed using literature on prospective LCAs of emerging technologies, and therefore, a literature review on prospective LCAs was conducted. We found 44 case studies, four review papers, and 17 papers on methodological guidance. Three main challenges for conducting prospective LCAs are identified: Comparability, data, and uncertainty challenges. The issues in defining the aim, functionality, and system boundaries of the prospective LCAs, as well as problems with specifying LCIA methodologies, comprise the comparability challenge. Data availability, quality, and scaling are issues within the data challenge. Finally, uncertainty exists as an overarching challenge when applying a prospective LCA. These three challenges are especially crucial for the prospective assessment of emerging technologies. However, this review also shows that within the methodological papers and case studies, several approaches exist to tackle these challenges. These approaches were systematically summarized within a framework to give guidance on how to overcome the issues when conducting prospective LCAs of emerging technologies. Accordingly, this framework is useful for LCA practitioners who are analyzing early-stage technologies. Nevertheless, further research is needed to develop appropriate scale-up schemes and to include uncertainty analyses for a more in-depth interpretation of results.

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“…Food products - [54] Ethanol production from wheat straw 3-4 [55] Chlor-alkali electrolysis 3-4 - [56] Fullerene and carbon nanotubes 3-4 [57] Ethylene production from wood 7-8 [58] Membrane filtration system 3-4 [59] Antibacterial T-shirt 5 [11] Energy system 9+ [24] Wastewater treatment 5 [38] Power electronic inverter 9+ [37] Power electronic inverter 9+ [60] agriculture [61] But-1,3-diene 3-4 [62] Renewable energy technologies 9+ [63] Liquid phase batch reactions 3-4 + --n.s. [64] Self-cleaning coated float glass 4-5 [65] PV panels [66] Recycling CdTe PV [67] Caprolactam production 2 [68] Scale up of a generic plant 6-7 [69] Scale up of a generic plant 7-8 [70] LFP-CnF batteries 3-4 [29] Transport systems 9+ [17] Cellulose nanocrystal foam 3 and 4 [71] Bio-based plastics 3 [73] Electricity production 9+ - [74] Metal recovery from e-waste 2-3 [75] Metal recovery from e-waste 2-3 [27] Nanosilver T-shirts 3-4 and6-7 [26,76] PV panels 9+ [77] Ethylene production 4-6 - [78] Electric vehicles 9+ -…”

Section: Framework For Ex-ante Lcamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this approach, the existence of a specific development path is assumed, excluding the uncertainties related to the choice for other possible paths. For example, Manda et al assessed innovative materials and finishing techniques with antibacterial T-shirts as the clearly targeted output [59]. Secondly, as an alternative, an exploratory approach aims at collecting and analysing contextual background information in order to define plausible scenarios.…”

Section: Uncertaintymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Future of Ex-Ante LCA? Lessons Learned and Practical Recommendations

et al. 2019

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Every decision-oriented life cycle assessment (LCAs) entails, at least to some extent, a future-oriented feature. However, apart from the ex-ante LCAs, the majority of LCA studies are retrospective in nature and do not explicitly account for possible future effects. In this review a generic theoretical framework is proposed as a guideline for ex-ante LCA. This framework includes the entire technology life cycle, from the early design phase up to continuous improvements of mature technologies, including their market penetration. The compatibility with commonly applied system models yields an additional aspect of the framework. Practical methods and procedures are categorised, based on how they incorporate future-oriented features in LCA. The results indicate that most of the ex-ante LCAs focus on emerging technologies that have already gone through some research cycles within narrowly defined system boundaries. There is a lack of attention given to technologies that are at a very early development stage, when all options are still open and can be explored at a low cost. It is also acknowledged that technological learning impacts the financial and environmental performance of mature production systems. Once technologies are entering the market, shifts in market composition can lead to substantial changes in environmental performance.

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Prospective life cycle assessment of an antibacterial T-shirt and supporting business decisions to create value

Cited by 42 publications

References 27 publications

Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: Recommendations for Prospective LCA

Environmental Assessment of Emerging Technologies: Recommendations for Prospective LCA

How to Conduct Prospective Life Cycle Assessment for Emerging Technologies? A Systematic Review and Methodological Guidance

The Future of Ex-Ante LCA? Lessons Learned and Practical Recommendations

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