Issue 15, 2024

Early-stage impact assessment tool (ESTIMATe) for the life cycle assessment of CO2-based chemicals

Abstract

In the pursuit of climate change mitigation, the chemical industry is developing carbon capture and utilization (CCU) processes to eliminate fossil carbon feedstock. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of CCU processes is crucial to verify climate change mitigation and identify potential burden shifting to other areas of environmental damage. Preferentially, this knowledge would be available already in early process development. However, LCA expertise is sparse and LCA studies are often data-intensive and complex, limiting the accessibility to non-LCA experts. To bridge this accessibility gap, we present ESTIMATe, an open-source Excel tool automating LCA assumptions and using estimation methods to streamline the LCA of CCU processes. ESTIMATe, designed for non-LCA experts, quickly provides simplified early-stage LCA results before a comprehensive LCA would usually be conducted. Our case studies demonstrate how ESTIMATe guides process development at different levels of process maturity by assessing climate change mitigation potentials, analyzing environmental impacts along the course of process development, and comparing the environmental performance of process alternatives. ESTIMATe is thus designed to complement rather than replace comprehensive LCA software, providing early access to LCA results and enabling process developers to incorporate environmental perspectives into their decision-making. The ESTIMATe tool is available for download at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11060469.

Graphical abstract: Early-stage impact assessment tool (ESTIMATe) for the life cycle assessment of CO2-based chemicals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
26 Feb 2024
Accepted
22 May 2024
First published
24 May 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Green Chem., 2024,26, 8728-8743

Early-stage impact assessment tool (ESTIMATe) for the life cycle assessment of CO2-based chemicals

H. Minten, B. D. Vandegehuchte, B. Jaumard, R. Meys, C. Reinert and A. Bardow, Green Chem., 2024, 26, 8728 DOI: 10.1039/D4GC00964A

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