Why should I prove it's green? It's bio!

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

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

2. 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

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

4. 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?

5. According to G o o g l e Image, biobased IS green , obviously…

6. Why?

7. Why? Mostly for 1 reason CARBON

8. Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products atmospheric CO 2 biomass plants 1 year adapted from Narayan, 1 st PLA world congress, München, 2008

9. Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products atmospheric CO 2 biomass plants 1 year fossil feedstocks oil, gas, coal 10 6 years adapted from Narayan, 1 st PLA world congress, München, 2008

10. Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products atmospheric CO 2 biomass plants 1 year fossil feedstocks oil, gas, coal 10 6 years plastics chemicals fuels chemical industry adapted from Narayan, 1 st PLA world congress, München, 2008

11. Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products atmospheric CO 2 biomass plants 1 year fossil feedstocks oil, gas, coal 10 6 years plastics chemicals fuels chemical industry adapted from Narayan, 1 st PLA world congress, München, 2008 1- 10 years atmospheric CO 2

12. Carbon in biobased products vs. carbon in other products atmospheric CO 2 biomass plants fossil feedstocks oil, gas, coal plastics chemicals fuels 1 year 10 6 years chemical industry 1- 10 years industrial biotechnologies adapted from Narayan, 1 st PLA world congress, München, 2008

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

14. 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.

15. So, this is it? Global warming is not a hoax, but biobased fuels and products are the answer because they do not add ancient CO 2 to the atmosphere?

16. Of course, it’s not that simple…

17. There are other environmental issues than CO 2 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 … …

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

19. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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!

24. What is LCA? ( L ife C ycle A ssessment)

25. 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

26. 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

27. LCA makes links between these exchanges and multiple environmental impact categories ozone depletion acidification water depletion ecotoxicity land use eutrophication toxicity climate change ;;;;;;;;; ;;;;;;;;; ;;;; CO 2 CH 4 HCl

28. 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.

29. 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 First prototype After LCA-induced optimizations

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

31. Bio vs. traditional sandwich composites

32. Bio vs. traditional sandwich composites The results you hope

33. Foamed packaging / starch vs EPS

34. Foamed packaging / starch vs EPS The results you could expect

35. Bio alternatives to oil-based PET

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

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

38. Conclusions

39. 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

40. 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 !

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