Towards better monitoring of technology critical elements in Europe: Coupling of natural and anthropogenic cycles

The characterization of elemental cycles has a rich history in biogeochemistry. Well known examples include the global carbon cycle, or the cycles of the ‘grand nutrients’ nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. More recently, efforts have increased to better understand the natural cycling of technology critical elements (TCEs), i.e. elements with a high supply risk and economic importance in the EU. On the other hand, tools such as material-flow analysis (MFA) can help to understand how substances and goods are transported and accumulated in man-made tech- nological systems (‘anthroposphere’). However, to date both biogeochemical cycles and MFA studies suffer from narrow system boundaries, failing to fully illustrate relative anthropogenic and natural flow magnitude and the degree to which human activity has perturbed the natural cycling of elements. We discuss important interconnections between natural and anthropogenic cycles and relevant EU raw material dossiers. Increased integration of both cycles could help to better capture the transport and fate of elements in nature including their environ- mental/human health impacts, highlight potential future material stocks in the anthroposphere (in-use stocks) and in nature (e.g., in soils, tailings, or mining wastes), and estimate anticipated emissions of TCEs to nature in the future (based on dynamic stock modeling). A preliminary assessment of natural versus anthropogenic ele- ment fluxes indicates that anthropogenic fluxes induced by the EU-28 of palladium, platinum, and antimony (as a result of materials uses) might be greater than the respective global natural fluxes. Increased combination of MFA and natural cycle data at EU level could help to derive more complete material cycles and initiate a dis- cussion between the research communities of biogeochemists and material flow analysts to more holistically ad-dress the issues of sustainable resource management

Management system for building materials as a basis for closed loop material flow analysis considering material efficiency and climate change mitigation

Resource management is becoming increasingly important in the construction sector. In order to support the recycling of materials, it is necessary to determine the quantities in the building stock and those caused by construction activities. At present, a large number of different actors use different categories for construction materials and the raw materials they consist of as well as for waste categories, depending on their field of activity. This results in imprecisions that make it difficult to consistently track and influence mass flows and hinder targeted resource management. This is the starting point of this paper as it discusses possibilities to establish a consistent allocation of materials to context-typical groups following the approach of continuous material flow analysis. On the input-side, aspects of mineral planning and on the output-side aspects of waste and secondary raw material management are being considered and references to grey emissions are established along the entire process chain. In this way, cross-departmental planning relating to recycling management and climate protection will be supported. With regard to the object of consideration and the level of action, a distinction is made between two different spatial scale levels: on the one hand, the individual building level, where the material inventory approach is used to provide detailed information on the building\u27s material composition, and on the other hand the regional level, for which more aggregated information on building material groups is provided in the form of material cadastres. Current results of a research project in Germany are presented

Nature-based solutions as enablers of circularity in water systems: A review on assessment methodologies, tools and indicators

Water has been pushed into a linear model, which is increasingly acknowledged of causing cumulative emissions of pollutants, waste stocks, and impacting on the irreversible deterioration of water and other resources. Moving towards a circular model in the water sector, the configuration of future water infrastructure changes through the integration of grey and green infrastructure, forming Nature-based Solutions (NBS) as an integral component that connects human-managed to nature-managed water systems. In this study, a thorough appraisal of the latest literature is conducted, providing an overview of the existing tools, methodologies and indicators that have been used to assess NBS for water management, as well as complete water systems considering the need of assessing both anthropogenic and natural elements. Furthermore, facilitators and barriers with respect to existing policies and regulations on NBS and circularity have been identified. The study concludes that the co-benefits of NBS for water management are not adequately assessed. A holistic methodology assessing complete water systems from a circularity perspective is still needed integrating existing tools (i.e. hydro-biogeochemical models), methods (i.e. MFA-based and LCA) and incorporating existing and/or newly-developed indicators.Horizon 2020 research and innovation program; CERCA program; Slovenian Research Agenc

Measurement and assessment of circular economy in water systems

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University LondonAs the concept of Circular Economy (CE) is gaining momentum, the need for appropriate circularity assessment methodologies and indicators grows exponentially. Although circularity in water requires a nexus approach according to the new Circular Economy Action Plan, a sectoral division is still dominated in the scientific community. In this study, a thorough appraisal of the latest literature is conducted, providing an overview of existing tools, methodologies and indicators that have been used to assess water systems considering the need of assessing both anthropogenic and natural elements. The identified lack of a holistic methodology and comprehensive indicators assessing complete water systems from a circularity perspective led to the development of a circularity assessment framework, namely the Multi-Sectoral Water Circularity Assessment (MSWCA) framework. The MSWCA follows a multi-sectoral systems approach, symbiotically managing key socio-economic and non-economic sectors of the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems nexus. The developed framework enables the investigation of the feedback loops between the nature-managed and human-managed systems to assess water and water-related resources circularity and develops an indicators database facilitating the assessment. This study further develops a novel approach that combines both expert and participatory practices for the prioritization of indicators based on views and needs of practitioners, whilst considering the complex interdependencies of the indicators and determining their importance. The 20 circularity indicators of the MSWCA framework are ranked by different stakeholders and their interrelationships are identified using the Interpretive Structural Model, resulting in 6 levels of importance. Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis further enabled the classification of the indicators into 4 categories based on their driving and dependence power. Finally, following the MSWCA framework, a dynamic indicators-based modelling tool is developed and applied to the HYDROUSA H2020 project. Benchmark and dynamic circularity assessments are performed to compare the circularity performance of the HYDRO system to the previous configuration of the system and to optimize HYDRO system’s operation by investigating changes in circularity performance of different operational scenarios, respectively. The circularity performance of the system is based on the results of 46 operational indicators that target system’s multi-functionality and additional benefits and costs, all incorporated resources, waste and emissions, as well as economic, technical and ecological aspects, the 3 CE principles and are related to 13 SDGs

Circularity of carbon-based material systems in the German anthroposphere

The anthroposphere is the system created by human beings where flows and stocks are deliberately induced through economic, social, biological and cultural activities to outline complex socioeconomic needs, relationships and structures. An essential flow for the current global status quo in energy and material activities at both biogenic and anthropogenic levels is carbon (C). The use of carbon in anthropogenic activities implies carbon emissions promoting human-induced climate change. With the aim of moving towards low-carbon economies, several strategies for abating resource scarcity and carbon emissions have been recently outlined. Based on the Material Flow Analysis (MFA) methodology, an economy-wide dynamic stock-flow model (EW-SFM) was developed to characterize, analyze and evaluate the German carbon-based systems between until 2055. The analyzed dynamics and behavior helped to comprehend the limits of circularity of carbon flows and stocks under a EW-SFK perspective

Performance Measures of Road Infrastructure - A Life Cycle Thinking Approach

Roads have been an important asset of human society and the approach we adopt towards planning, designing, constructing, operating, and maintaining of the road infrastructure has significant consequences in the long-term for not only the humans, but all species on planet Earth. Hence, the lifecycle performance of the road infrastructure that sustain our socioeconomic development with a low environmental impact, while fulfilling their technical and functional requirements is of critical importance and needs to be improved. This thesis aims to understand the nature of the information that helps improve the performance of road infrastructure over their lifecycle and propose solutions that close the existing research gaps.This thesis is essentially divided into two parts. In the first part, it focuses on the current lifecycle thinking towards the public physical infrastructure. It carries out a survey of the literature to gain a holistic understanding of the current challenges that infrastructure faces, namely population growth, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, land use and coverage change, and abiotic depletion. It then recommends potential approaches to close the identified gaps. The investigation reveals that considering the entire lifecycle of the infrastructure helps avoid partial thinking, which affects the mankind and the ecosystem adversely and results in problem shifting. It shows how the lifecycle-based methods that incorporate uncertainties help enhance the depth of understanding and decisions regarding the lifecycle performance of infrastructure. In addition, it advocates that the collaboration between and within different fields of science and practice needs to be increased to better capture the consequences of various risks and avoid adverse effects.In the second part, a systematic desk (or secondary) research and regular interactions with the Norwegian Public Road Administration (NPRA) were carried out which revealed the following research gaps to improve the environmental and economic performance of the Norwegian road networks: (1) measure environmental performance of the construction machinery over their entire lifecycle based on regionalized data, which helps increase both the resolution and exclusiveness of the results; (2) estimate lifetimes of pavements based on their technical performance, which helps in improving the validity of the results when benchmarking different pavements with respect to different criteria, e.g., environment, economy, and society, and supports the decision-making at different phases of road infrastructure projects; and (3) capture material flows and stocks of road infrastructure, which helps get an overview of the availability in terms of quantities and time of the secondary materials to theoretically substitute the virgin/primary materials. Hence, potential approaches were used by means of different methods and models, namely geographical information systems (GIS), life cycle assessment (LCA), survival analysis, decision tree model, and material flow accounting (MFA), for the three focus areas to bridge the identified gaps. Also, the Norwegian input data were applied to show the proposed approaches quantitatively. Findings from the research carried out in the second part of the thesis show that:\ub7\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0 Although the operation phase of the construction machinery has been studied solely in most of the prior research, the investigation in this research showed that the inclusion of the other phases is equally important. This means that the production, delivery, maintenance, dismantling, waste processing, and circulation of energetic and non-energetic materials at different phases of a machine’s lifespan contribute to the overall environmental impacts. \ub7\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0 The proposed approach to measure the durability of the pavements showed discrepancies between the maintenance records and the technical requirements and explained how different factors increased or decreased the lifetimes of pavements in different traffic classes. In addition, the results from the statistical tables (showing relative values) were transformed to absolute values to ease the readability and comparability of lifetimes between different pavements.\ub7\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0\ua0 The amount of stock in the Norwegian road network has continuously increased and in 2017 there were about 420 Mt of road materials in-service. The growth was owing to the continuous expansion of the road networks. However, the growth in the amount of road stock was predicted to increase by 9 % – 10 % between 2018 and 2050 as well, though it was assumed that the network would not expand after 2017

Material Requirements, Circularity Potential and Embodied Emissions Associated with Wind Energy

Wind energy, which is often posited as a key decarbonisation option, represents one of the fastest-growing energy sources globally in recent years. Research on the material requirements for transitioning to a low-carbon electricity system at national levels, as well as research exploring the potential of the electricity system to serve as a source of secondary materials remains underexplored. We address these gaps in the knowledge by analysing the stocks and flows in a wind power system towards 2050 using Sweden as a case study, including the demands for bulk (concrete and steel) and critical materials (neodymium and dysprosium), through a dynamic material flow analysis based on policy-relevant scenarios. We demonstrate that some of the investigated scenarios generate substantial increases in the stocks and flows of bulk and critical materials. We show that, after 2045, the year by which Sweden has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero, the inflows show a decreasing trend while the outflows show an increasing trend, suggesting the beginning of the closing of the material loops, provided untapped circularity potentials transform into actual capacities. For wind power to comply with emissions targets, the steel and concrete production processes will need to be decarbonised at a rate in line with the climate targets. We show that the adoption of mitigation measures to decarbonise the concrete and steel industries aligned with Sweden\u27s climate change mitigation agenda, has the potential to reduce embodied carbon emissions for wind power infrastructure in 2045 from corresponding to around 4 % of current total national emissions in the absence of measures to practically negligible levels. National policies need to focus on promoting the implementation of circularity strategies and decarbonising the entire value chain of the involved materials

Modeling the effects of ecosystem changes on seagrass wrack valorization: Merging system dynamics with life cycle assessment

Seagrass meadows, while recognized as essential ecosystem service providers, are degrading worldwide. This has a profound impact on the environment but also on socioeconomic systems which hope to utilize beach-cast seagrass (wrack) as a bioresource. This study integrates system dynamics (SD) thinking with life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC) to understand how a degraded ecosystem feedbacks into the circular bioeconomy. An SD model was created to assess the impacts of seagrass meadow changes on wrack production and on ecosystem services accounting, considering an Italian case study of wrack deposited on a beach. Environmental and economic impacts of wrack valorization through anaerobic digestion (AD) were then determined through LCA and LCC. Finally, an extended LCC combined the results of the SD model, LCA, and LCC to demonstrate the cost of seagrass meadow degradation and the value of restoration. The results confirmed complexities in stakeholder perspective within the waste-to-resource framework. For the AD operator, meadow restoration would increase the profits from wrack valorization (23.10 €/ton), while for the municipality, meadow degradation would reduce the high costs associated with management (104.29–140.00 €/ton). When also considering the impacts on the environment and local community, valuation of ecosystem services and cost of restoration were influential. Meadow restoration with wrack valorization was the most favorable option if the natural capital of the seagrass meadows was valued appropriately (>0.065 €/m2) and direct costs of restoration could be kept relatively low (<1179 €/ha). Overall, the model resulted in a total net present cost of −3.161,462.40 € for the baseline scenario, −1,488,277.28 € for the scenario of wrack valorization, and −1,231,325.12 € for the scenario of wrack valorization and meadow restoration

Taking Stock of Industrial Ecology

Sustainable Developmen

Consideration of Abiotic Natural Resources in Life Cycle Assessments

The book contains a collection of articles dealing with how the extraction of mineral resources can be considered in environmental analyses such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The consumption of resources, e.g., metals, is increasing strongly worldwide. This is associated with more energy use; environmental pollution; and social, economic, and political consequences. An increase is also expected for the coming decades. At the same time, modern products and technologies, even in the field of renewable energies, require a large number of critical raw materials. A crucial question here is the exhaustibility of natural resources. What is the relevance of resource depletion today? Must a geological shortage of metals be expected in the foreseeable future? How could such a thing be considered in the LCA of products and weighed against other environmental aspects? The articles in question have been written over the past three years by leading experts in both geology and environmental sciences and show the breadth of the controversial discussion