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Contribution of Material Flow Assessment in Recycling Processes to Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS)

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Contribution of Material Flow Assessment in Recycling Processes to Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS) EnviroInfo 2010 (Cologne/Bonn) Integration of Environmental Information in Europe Copyright © Shaker Verlag 2010. ISBN: 978-3-8322-9458-8 Contribution of Material Flow Assessment in Recycling Processes to Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS) Alexandra Pehlken, Martin Rolbiecki, André Decker, Klaus-Dieter Thoben Bremen University, Institute of Integrated Product Development Badgasteinerstr. 1, D-28359 Bremen [email protected] Abstract Material Flow Assessment (MFA) is a method of analyzing the material flow of a process in a well-defined system. Referring to the life cycle of a product the Material Flow Assessment is part of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and provides the possibility of assessing the environmental impact of a process and product respectively. Applying these methods to recycling processes the potential of saving primary and secondary resources may be measurable. The presented paper will give an overview on the strategy how MFA can contribute to Environmental Management Information Systems (EMIS). 1. Introduction Recycling processes can contribute to lower environmental impacts because they possess a huge potential of secondary resources. The input of a recycling plant is no longer considered as waste stream; instead it is high valuable material that enters the recycling process and the output is even more valuable. Due to the fact that residues always vary in their composition and material flow only data ranges can be used as input parameter. A simulation of recycling processes is therefore often difficult. Notten and Petrie (2003) substantiate the statement that “different sources of uncertainty require different methods for their assessment”. Therefore, recycling process models rely not only on the quality of the process data but also on the uncertainty assessment. The last years there are more and more models developed that include the assessment of uncertainty in recycling processes of waste management (Xu et al., 2009; Tian et al., 2006; Christensen et al., 2007; Refsgaard, 2007). Material flows are main parameters to look at because their characteristics influence the success of the following processing steps. 2. Material Flow Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment in Recycling Processes Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) covers the entire lifecycle of a product, process or activity. According to the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), an environmental lifecycle assessment is analysing the environmental interventions and potential impacts throughout the life (from cradle to grave) from raw material acquisition through production, use and disposal. During the whole life cycle of products and materials the amounts of materials involved, the inputs of energy and water resources along the life cycle, the amounts of waste materials and the associated environmental impacts all along the product chain have to be assessed. Material flow assessment (MFA) clearly is useful here, but it can be only a part of the whole equation. MFA can illuminate the amounts of materials involved and the amount of material waste, but it does not include all the information necessary to assess potential impacts on the 288 environment. With regard to material management MFA must be used in conjunction with other types of data (Allen et al, 2009). A short history of MFA and can be found in Binder et al (2009) and is going back to the roots of the 1960’s to studies on material balances. The publication of Brunner and Rechberger (2003) is now established as a textbook in the application of material flow assessment. Since the input in recycling processes is often a mixture of various material streams the exact composition is never known. There is often a lack of information due to unkown parameters in material composition or process steps (Pehlken et al, 2009). Due to the high potential of recycling processes to contribute to a sustainable management of resources (e.g. energy savings and material efficiency) it is necessary to assess the material flows with the regard to their environmental impact (Bringezu et al, 2009; Salhofer et al, 2004). To assess a sustainable resource management the following conditions for a reasonable recycling process have to be achieved: Adequate material mass for the recycling process Adequate material mass for further product manufacturing Defined material properties Very little variation of material properties. It is desirable to forecast the above mentioned conditions for choosing the processes with the best performance. A rough prediction on material flows, costs and environmental impacts can be assessed through combining the methods material flow assessment (MFA) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). While performing an LCA it is possible to evaluate the environmental impact as carbon footprint, water footprint, ecological footprint and others (Ekvall, 2007; Fatta, 2003; Hashimoto, 2004). But (as mentioned above) these methods lack of the description of material properties, their variations and uncertainties respectively. Material flows should rather reflect a fundamental basis than being reduced to the assessment of mass and volume. Future prospects of the quality of secondary resources, including their input and output properties may be helpful to assess their potential to substitute primary resource for example. Information on material properties generated with LCA and MFA can contribute to the product design, the production phase and the recycling performance of a product. 3. Concept and System Architecture 3.1 Overview Recycling processes generate material flows in various qualities. A complete separation of waste material components is not possible but quality standards can be met through defining separation grades as categories (high, medium, low). Therefore, modeling is useful to describe the correlation of material properties. Please note that the modeling in recycling processes is not related to specific data (numbers) but rather to data ranges (or quality issues). The modeling can help in decision making processes if the uncertainty of the model has an acceptable level. The acceptable level depends on the aim of the modeler and the model user. Assessing the information of the processing steps for modeling purposes with the availability of data ranges and the focus on uncertainties is necessary for the model system. Uncertainty can be understood as the variation of a parameter in a model. This variation is not known and at random. Additionally data- defects can be located in recycling processes due to incomplete or missing data (Marx-Gómez et al, 2004). Modeling recycling processes and the assessment of uncertainty and data defects regarding the input and process parameters are firmly connected. 289 Copyright © Shaker Verlag 2010. ISBN: 978-3-8322-9458-8 3.2 Knowledge of information The management of material flows with regard to their material properties provides information for EMIS that supports the planning of (secondary) resources (see figure 1). Product and material recycling in combination with the applied recycling technique will provide information on material flows with specific material properties. This information can help in assessing the potential of 1. the long term availability of material streams (sustainable resources) 2. the potential of substitution of primary resources with secondary resources (saving primary resources) 3. the efficiency of recycling processes (energy and material savings) In addition to the evaluation of recycling processes and their material flows the overall potential of the available waste streams has to be taken into account while assessing the material flow of recycling products. The life time of a product and the consumer’s behavior plays an important role in predicting the availability of material flows. Environmental EMIS Impact Resource Management Recycling LCA MFA Life Cycle Assessment Material Flow Assessment Figure 1: Contribution of MFA and LCA to EMIS Material Properties 290 Copyright © Shaker Verlag 2010. ISBN: 978-3-8322-9458-8 3.3 Architecture The combination of MFA and LCA with the description of material properties needs the evaluation of materials streams. A Knowledge-Based Decision Support System delivers the structure for the procedure (see figure 2). It uses mainly the information generated by processing steps resulting in an abstract combination of the elements of the model and its linkages. Therefore, this technique allows developing the model. Instead of specific data it processes the information of a process (e.g. dismantling of waste products into components of different shapes and compositions). Collecting information can be made accessible through existing databases like ecoinvent (ecoinvent Centre, Switzerland) or recycling stock exchanges. While calculation input data with program interfaces and the support of Knowledge-Based Decision Support System output data can be generated. The accuracy of the model relies on the data availability and its quality. Therefore, it is necessary to have a well operated network. Figure 2: Architecture of the Knowledge-Based Decision Support System 3.4 Material Management For developing new products most input materials are primary resources and can be described in their properties since nearly all suppliers of resources participate in a quality management system and provide all their details on material streams. In most cases material streams generated from recycling processes (secondary resources) cannot compete with primary materials because secondary resources
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