Whole value chain based resource efficiency indicators:
their use and development in Reffibre-project.
Catharina Hohenthal - VTT
Jorge León - ITENE
Workshop on 6th of October 2015, Valencia, Spain
20.1.2016
1
Co-funded by
the European
Union
Index
1. Life Cycle Assessment – Value Chain
2. Resource efficiency indicators
3. Inventory Data Collection & Modelling Softwares
4. Allocation Methods
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Sustainability objectives and Challenges
The value chain level impacts of energy and material savings
due to optimized use of recycled fiber
 Identifying indicators suitable for resource-efficiency in pulp and
paper industry, taking into account the recycling loop
 Allocation of the burdens between different life cycles
(background processes, co-product allocation, number or
reuse cycles for fibre recycling, etc.)
 To develop tools to be used for product design taking into account
environmental and economic impacts throughout the value chain
 Converting the LCA and economic impacts to exploitable data for
monitoring the processes
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20.1.2016
Co-funded by
the European
Union
Paper Value Chain
Pulping
(mech./chem.)
Reffibre process in focus
Outside focus
Fresh fiber
Papermaking
Recycled fiber
Converting
collection
use
Waste
sorting
Sorting of
paper
Deinking
Fiber from other
value chains
ELE
NEW
processes
E.g. EtOH
Incineration
WWT
Water
Ash
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Landfill
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Process models
The process models have to describe the modification of the
materials by the process but also the effects of the process on the
environment
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
A schematic view on process models data transfer in Reffibre
between dry sorting and stock preparation, paper making and
environmental and economic assessment.
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Life Cycle Assessment – LCA
Life-cycle thinking should be the basis of the sustainability indicators
LCA is based on inventory
Inventory is based on product value chain
Value chain includes e.g. energy, chemical, raw material use
and emissions in a transparent way
PROCESS
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Impact assessment- indicator
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Why LCA?
 Life cycle thinking is important:
 Systematically made overview  risks of shifting the potential burdens
between different life cycle stages or individual processes can be
recognized and possibly avoided (ISO 14040)
 Sustainability of a product should be ensured already in the product
development phase (Eco Design)
 Environmental assessment should be integrated as part of material and
product development already at the early stage.
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Indicators describe performance
ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS (examples)
Different data sources!
 Greenhouse gas emissions (CO2eq)
 Total amount of energy required (electricity, heat and fuels)
 Amount of renewable materials, biobased
 Water use, (H2Oeq)
 Eutrophication potential (P eq)
ECONOMIC INDICATORS (examples)
 Utilization rate %
 Changes in cost %
 Change in revenue %
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
LCA Softwares
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
What kind of data is needed? Where to find it?
Calculations
 The resource efficiency indicators are calculated by using LCA
methodology
 Calculations made with SULCA and Simapro LCA softwares
 Data for the core processes were collected from the industrial partners
in order to calculate the reference scenarios
 The background process data was taken from VTT EcoData or
EcoInvent data
 The recycled fiber and its processing was modelled using allocation
rules
Data sources:
• Process data measured by researchers
• Data from manufacturer
• Database data
• Literature
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Data for evaluation of cases
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Indicators showing change
5
4,5
4
3,5
3
2,5
2
1,5
1
0,5
0
Reference
Reffibre case 1
Reffibre case 2
Climate
Change
Cumulative
energy
demand
Water
footprint
Fossil
resource
use
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
w
a
s
t
e
Modelling with SULCA software
Paper for recycling 1,11
Paper for recycling 1,10
p
a
p
e
r
,
s
o
r
t
e
d
,
Paper for recycling 1,06
Paper for recycling 2,02
Paper for recycling 3,17
sodium silicate,
furnace liquor
sulphite, at plant,
inorganics RER
sodium hydroxide, 50%
in H2O, production mix,
soap, at plant,
tensides RER
biocides, for
paper production
retention aids, in
paper production
pigments, paper
production
modified starch,
at plant,
Paper machine
Deinking plant
Diesel production
excess heat
Power plant
natural gas (kg), high pressure, at consumer, RER, LCI (kg)
Sludge to
agricukture
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
SimaPro software
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
SimaPro software
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Allocation methods
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Reuse and recycling may imply that:
 Inherent properties of materials in subsequent use are changed
 Inputs & Outputs associated with processes for
 extraction & processing of raw materials
 final disposal of products
are to be shared
by more than one
product system
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Allocation procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Closed-loop recycling refers to those situations in which the
material of the product system considered is recycled back to the
same product system.
 Open-loop recycling refers to those situations in which the
material of the product system considered is partly or fully recycled
into another product system.
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Closed-loop allocation:
 In
closed–loop
systems
allocation is avoided since the
recycled material substitutes
the primary material in the
same product system
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Closed-loop allocation:
 Also applied in open-loop
systems
when
the
recycled material has the
same inherent properties
as the primary material
(e.g. Aluminium)
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Closed-loop allocation:
EM = Impact of raw
material acquisition
and end-of-life (EoL)
EM = Ev + EEoL – R * Ev
EV = Impact tied to extracting or producing the raw material needed for
the product, from natural resources, as if it were all primary material
EEoL = Impact tied to end-of-life operations (being part of
the product system which delivers recycled material)
R = recycling rate;
∗ = recycling
credit 23
20.1.2016
Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Open-loop allocation:
 The material is recycled into other
product systems
 The material undergoes a change
to its inherent properties
 e.g. different length of
recycled fibres: REFFIBRE
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Open-loop allocation: when a product consists of 100% primary material
EM = Impact of raw
material acquisition
and end-of-life (EoL)
EM = Ev + EEoL – R * A * Ev
EV = Impact tied to extracting or producing all the raw
material needed for the product, from natural resources
EEoL = Impact tied to end-of-life operations (being part of
the product system which delivers recycled material)
R = recycling rate ; A = Allocation factor;
∗ ∗ = recycling credit
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20.1.2016
Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Open-loop allocation: when a product consists of 100% recycled material
EM = Impact of raw
material acquisition
and end-of-life (EoL)
EM = Ev * A + Epp + EEoL – R * A * Ev
EPP = Impact tied to pre-processing of the recycled material in order to fulfil
the quality requirements of the substituted primary material
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Open-loop allocation: when a product consists both primary and
recycled material
Recycled material
Primary material
EM = Ev * A * C + Epp * C + EV * (1 – C) + EEoL – R * A * Ev
C = Recycling content of the product
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Procedures according to ISO/TS 14067:
 Open-loop allocation:
 Basis for allocation “A”
1. Physical properties (usually unknown)
2. Economic value: market value for the recycled & primary material
3. Number of subsequent uses of the recycled material
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Allocation based on the economic value
 Calculation of allocation factor:
Market value for the recycled material
Market value for the primary material
Industry average
Example:
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20.1.2016
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the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Allocation based on the number of subsequent uses of the recycled material
 Calculation of the number of uses
Industry average*
Input from Task 1.4. European fibre flow model
or
Newspaper (NP)
Other Graphic paper (OGP)
Case materials (CM)
Card Board
G0
G1
G3
G4
G5
G6
G7
G8
G9
ø
12%
72%
8%
28%
38% 22% 13%
13% 6% 4%
30% 25% 16%
32% 17% 10%
7%
2%
9%
6%
4%
1%
5%
3%
2%
1%
3%
2%
1%
0%
2%
1%
1%
0%
1%
1%
0%
0%
1%
0%
3.01
1.06
3.36
2.64
* http://www.paperage.com/2014news/Europe_Paper_Recycling_Monitoring_Report2013.pdf
G2
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the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Allocation based on the number of subsequent uses of the recycled material
 Calculation of allocation factor based on the number of uses (ISO TR 14049)
 u = number of uses
 z1 = fraction of primary product which is recovered
after a first use and then recycled = recycling rate
Then:
 Allocation for the primary (original) product system
A= (1- z1) + (z1/u)
 Allocation for the totality of the recycled product systems
1-A = (z1) * (u-1/u)
Example:
0.7
z1
u
A= (1- 0.7) + (0.7/3.5) = 0.5
3.5
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
How to treat recycling in LCA studies
 Calculation of the number of uses
 How the fiber usage affects the allocation factor
A= (1- z1) + (z1/u)
Relationship between number of uses u and allocation factor when recycling rate z1 = 0.7
1,2
Allocation factor A
1
Number of uses “u” increases
0,8
0,6
A
0,4
1‐A
Allocation factor “A” decreases
0,2
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
number of uses u
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Summarizing...
100% closed
Closed system
Allocation
Open but
primary=recycled
100% primary
material
Open system
100% recycled
material
Allocation
factor
Mix: primary &
recycled
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Conclusions
 Life cycle assessment is used as a methodology to take into
account the impacts along the whole value chain
 There is a need to have an easy tool for companies to integrate
environmental issues
 Reffibre project is helping by
 Modelling the fiber flows and to get the average number of
uses for the different paper grades
 Selecting the most suitable allocation methods needed carry
out LCA calculations
 Integrating the modelling in a common tool
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Co-funded by
the European
Union
Acknowledgement
The research leading to these results has received funding from the
European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under grant
agreement n° 604187.
Thanks for your attention
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