electricity from lignite—mainly due to the high share of these energy sources in the
electricity mixes. The preliminary results indicate considerable environmental
benefits in the case of the OPV charger in 7 of the 18 ReCiPe impact categories. In
particular, the reductions take place in categories like toxicity (freshwater, human,
and marine) and eutrophication (freshwater, marine). In 8 of the 18 impact categories, the electricity generated by the OPV charger has lower impacts than one of
the country-specific electricity mixes, mostly than the German scenario. For
example, the OPV charger mitigates the climate change potential compared to
German scenario significantly, whereas the French scenario still has the lowest
impacts due to the high share of nuclear energy. Just in three impact categories, the
OPV charger seems to have higher impacts than both scenarios.
For a conventional phone charger, however, key components were identified in
the pre-manufacturing stage by Heo et al. [5]. These are the printed circuit board
and the plastic case composed from 20% recycled poly carbonate (PC). The study
compared the global warming potential (GWP) for both recycled PC and virgin PC.
The result shows that recycled PC is clearly beneficial: the GWP is 96% less. The
amount of GHG emission of the mobile charger containing 20% recycled plastics is
1.9648 kg CO 2 which is 0.089 kg CO 2 less than a conventional charger containing
virgin plastics. A 10% increase of recycled PC contents in the charger results in
0.3% GHG-reduction across the total life cycle.
After launching the first industrial-scale production plant for polyols containing
about 20 percent CO 2 , possible thanks to the development of a catalyst which was
able to reduce the activation energy of CO 2 , Himmelreich did an LCA on the
process. The evaluation the environmental impact of these new polyols showed that
the result will be dependent on the chosen source of CO 2 (e.g. biogenic, natural
sources, power plants or ammonia plants) and the assumed burden of the carbon
dioxide [6].
Eco-systèmes and other leading companies in take-back schemes approved by
the French authorities are working on collecting and recycling WEEE. They represent several thousand producers. The database on WEEE management by Van
Nieuwenhuyse et al. may contribute to solve several challenges faced by producers
to adopt a circular approach, from an environmental assessment perspective,
notably by:
• reducing the dissymmetry between production and end-of-life modelling, in
terms of reliability and granularity of the data used;
• facilitating the modelling of a life-cycle stage which is generally not managed
by material producers nor product manufacturers, and involves multi-step and
multi-actor pathways;
• taking into account, on the basis of field data, the environmental benefits of
material and energy recovery.
A LCI database has been developed to couple material with WEEE categories.
Thereby, the database allows to take the complete recycling chain into account and
Environmental Assessment of Energy Related Products …
227
electricity mixes. The preliminary results indicate considerable environmental
benefits in the case of the OPV charger in 7 of the 18 ReCiPe impact categories. In
particular, the reductions take place in categories like toxicity (freshwater, human,
and marine) and eutrophication (freshwater, marine). In 8 of the 18 impact categories, the electricity generated by the OPV charger has lower impacts than one of
the country-specific electricity mixes, mostly than the German scenario. For
example, the OPV charger mitigates the climate change potential compared to
German scenario significantly, whereas the French scenario still has the lowest
impacts due to the high share of nuclear energy. Just in three impact categories, the
OPV charger seems to have higher impacts than both scenarios.
For a conventional phone charger, however, key components were identified in
the pre-manufacturing stage by Heo et al. [5]. These are the printed circuit board
and the plastic case composed from 20% recycled poly carbonate (PC). The study
compared the global warming potential (GWP) for both recycled PC and virgin PC.
The result shows that recycled PC is clearly beneficial: the GWP is 96% less. The
amount of GHG emission of the mobile charger containing 20% recycled plastics is
1.9648 kg CO 2 which is 0.089 kg CO 2 less than a conventional charger containing
virgin plastics. A 10% increase of recycled PC contents in the charger results in
0.3% GHG-reduction across the total life cycle.
After launching the first industrial-scale production plant for polyols containing
about 20 percent CO 2 , possible thanks to the development of a catalyst which was
able to reduce the activation energy of CO 2 , Himmelreich did an LCA on the
process. The evaluation the environmental impact of these new polyols showed that
the result will be dependent on the chosen source of CO 2 (e.g. biogenic, natural
sources, power plants or ammonia plants) and the assumed burden of the carbon
dioxide [6].
Eco-systèmes and other leading companies in take-back schemes approved by
the French authorities are working on collecting and recycling WEEE. They represent several thousand producers. The database on WEEE management by Van
Nieuwenhuyse et al. may contribute to solve several challenges faced by producers
to adopt a circular approach, from an environmental assessment perspective,
notably by:
• reducing the dissymmetry between production and end-of-life modelling, in
terms of reliability and granularity of the data used;
• facilitating the modelling of a life-cycle stage which is generally not managed
by material producers nor product manufacturers, and involves multi-step and
multi-actor pathways;
• taking into account, on the basis of field data, the environmental benefits of
material and energy recovery.
A LCI database has been developed to couple material with WEEE categories.
Thereby, the database allows to take the complete recycling chain into account and
Environmental Assessment of Energy Related Products …
227