109 Pressure from legislation and customer requirements Among other things, the new EU Battery Regulation stipulates that rechargeable industrial and commercial batteries with internal storage must have a CO2 footprint declaration as of 1 July 2024. As early as 1 January 2026, a label indicating the performance class for CO2 intensity will be mandatory, and finally, as of 1 July 2027, corresponding maximum values for the CO2 footprint must be complied with. According to DIN EN ISO 14040 and 14044, the LCA required to determine these and similar values consists of four phases: definition of target and scope, life cycle inventory, impact assessment, and evaluation. Depending on the defined scope, the analysis covers all relevant input and output flows. These include raw materials and material procurement, energy, transport, (partial) processing, waste, emissions and discharges into water and soil – both during production and the use phase, right up to end-of-life scenarios. Beyond legislative requirements, the analyses may also be useful or necessary for a second reason: More and more processing companies are demanding corresponding evidence in order to make their own production more resource-efficient and to equip themselves for future requirements. Even now, this is clearly noticeable in the automotive industry. ARRK Engineering has already linked the balances with an in-house team of experts who work with selected areas in the cross-section of the company and can be called in for projects as required. Improving the eco-balance with the help of the circular economy A typical challenge that requires a lot of know-how and finesse from the implementing experts can clearly be found in the nature of new products: As a rule, hardly any data is available for the use and end-of-life phases before the launch, since they result from the final recycling rate of individual components and materials as well as from actual usage behaviour. Therefore, it is common to use estimates or model calculations in this respect. It must be taken into account that many parameters affect individual phases and process steps in different ways. If conditions change, e.g. due to the development of new recycling processes, these in turn would have to be retroactively incorporated into the LCA. The use of lightweight materials in the automotive industry serves as an illustrative example of how technological progress shifts energy consumption and environmental impact from one phase of the product life cycle to another. For example, a vehicle consumes less energy in the form of fuel during the use phase due to its reduced weight. However, the energy input in the manufacturing phase can increase due to raising parameters such as pressure and temperature, which are necessary in the individual production steps of e.g. CFRP components. Yet, current research results from Chalmers University of Technology indicate that energy consumption and the CO2 footprint in the production of CFRP components may be significantly reduced in the future, with circular economy playing a decisive role.1) Comprehensive competencies from engineering to materials management In order to master the challenges of life cycle assessment, a precise definition of goal and scope as well as an alignment of expectations and the underlying methodology are essential. Implementing companies such as ARRK Engineering are not dependent on any particular software. The analysis can be carried out flexibly with the client’s preferred tool. In doing so, the LCA specialists not only draw on their own engineering know-how, especially from automotive development, but also on in-depth expertise in the areas of sustainable materials and the associated compliance requirements as well as environmental sustainability. These aspects, which are closely intertwined with the principle of the circular economy, are always taken into account within the scope of LCA and thus form the optimal basis for comprehensive approaches to optimising the respective product systems and developing new strategies. Furthermore, as part of the Mitsui Chemicals Group, ARRK Engineering has direct access to the group’s highly developed and sustainable materials and production processes. For example, Mitsui Chemicals has developed a process for producing carbon fibres using microwaves, which saves up to 50 percent energy compared to conventional processes. In addition, the group is currently building up a database for recycled materials, which is intended to drive the implementation of circular economy in many areas. ARRK Engineering incorporates all these competences directly into the life cycle assessments carried out, thus creating sustainable added value for companies from industry as well as the automotive sector. 1) Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106234 ARRK Engineering https://engineering.arrk.com Material https://engineering.arrk.com/ competences/material Webinar „Sustainable development, a key factor to better develop innovative products“ https://t1p.de/r1iqz Image: © Gorodenkoff/shutterstock.com In addition to in-house expertise, especially in the fields of engineering and automotive, ARRK Engineering can draw on the know-how and product development history of its parent company Mitsui Chemicals Group.
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