Sustainability of Biobased Materials
Full course description
Bio-based materials are promising sustainable substitutes for fossil based materials. Biomass is an abundant renewable resource for bio-based materials, thereby creating a continuous loop of CO2 sequestration and CO2 emission with anticipated reduced net greenhouse gas emissions. They also offer the option for (enzymatic) green production routes and can provide an additional waste strategy, i.e. biodegradation. In addition, bio-based materials offer economic development potential, e.g. for rural areas. However, bio-based materials are not intrinsically sustainable. Sustainability issues like competition with food security and reduced biodiversity have already been identified and should be taken care of when further developing the bio-based economy. Hence, sustainability assessment is essential to develop bio-based materials that are also sustainable.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a recognized and standardized methodology to quantify the environmental impacts of a product. LCA considers the entire life cycle of a product and is a valuable tool to avoid shifting environmental impacts from one life cycle stage to another stage. LCA also supports decision makers to avoid creating a new environmental issue while solving a current environmental issue.
In this course, students will acquire a thorough understanding of LCA, including the main strengths and weaknesses. They will be able to use LCA as method and tool for analysis of the environmental impacts from products and technical systems. They will know the most frequent uses of LCA in industry and regulation and obtain concrete skills in the application of the methodology and tools to perform an LCA as well as in the use of LCA results produced by others. Students will also be acquainted with LCA-derived methods for economic and social impact assessments.
Course objectives
At the end of the course, students should be able to:
1. describe the four stages of life cycle assessment (LCA) and explain the important aspects in each phase (e.g. functional unit, system boundaries (allocation, system expansion), impact assessment methods) (knowledge)
2. to review of an LCA study from the scientific literature or industry highlighting the strengths and weaknesses and explaining how the results should be interpreted and can be used in other LCA studies (understanding)
3. explain what important parameters are for the LCA studies of biobased materials (understanding)
4. moderate a debate and take part in debates of other students on a sustainability topic related to (biobased) materials (evaluating)
5. develop and perform a LCA study on a research topic related to (biobased) materials (application, creation)
6. present a LCA case study on a poster and orally present it in a seminar (communication)
7. work pro-actively and independently on a challenging research project
Recommended reading
We will make use of handbooks, scientific articles, and official reports of governmental organisations, companies or expert committees. All course materials will be provided by the course coordinators or links to online materials will be provided in the manuals or on Canvas. The following online resources are frequently used in the course and/or provide interesting background information:
- Handbook Chapters from a book on essential concepts of sustainability: Tom Theis and Jonathan Tomkin, Editors, Sustainability: A Comprehensive Foundation. OpenStax CNX. 06.jan.2015 http://cnx.org/contents/1741effd-9cda-4b2b-a91e-003e6f587263@43.5. The book can be read online and is downloadable as PDF or EPUB file.
- Handbook - General guide for Life Cycle Assessment. European Commission - Joint Research Centre - Institute for Environment and Sustainability: International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook - General guide for Life Cycle Assessment - Detailed guidance. First edition March 2010. EUR 24708 EN. Luxembourg. Publications Office of the European Union; 2010. The pdf file is available at: http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/ILCD-Handbook-General-guide-for-LCA-DETAILED-GUIDANCE-12March2010-ISBN-fin-v1.0-EN.pdf
- Free online textbook on LCA “Life Cycle Assessment: Quantitative Approaches for Decisions That Matter”, by H. Scott Matthews, Chris T. Hendrickson, and Deanna H. Matthews, available at www.lcatextbook.com. The book provides an introduction and substantive quantitative examples for all components of life cycle assessment.
- Complementary information available at the website of the European platform on Life Cycle Assessment : http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?page_id=86
Additional materials will be provided by the course coordinators or will be searched and selected by the students.
Maastricht University students have off-campus access to protected services and resources, like databases, e-journals and e-books of the UM Library. Different solutions are provided for remote access: Direct Library login, Library Access Browser Extension, Student Desktop Anywhere (SDA) and Virtual Private Network (VPN). All information is provided on the website: https://library.maastrichtuniversity.nl/services/remote-access/