Chalmers Conferences, LCM 2013

HOW TO MAKE POLICY-RELEVANT LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENTS OF FUTURE PRODUCTS? - LESSONS LEARNED FROM NANOMATERIALS
Rickard Arvidsson, Duncan Kushnir, Björn A. Sandén, Sverker Molander

Last modified: 2014-09-11

Abstract


There is a demand from policy-makers for knowledge about environmental impacts of nanomaterials, and life cycle assessment (LCA) is one method that can be used to obtain such knowledge. Here, we have reviewed 16 LCA and LCA-like studies of nanomaterials, and investigated how these studies handled the fact that for many nanomaterials, complete life cycles do not yet exist to be assessed. We have discovered five different strategies, denoted likely scenarios, extreme scenarios, exclusion, established system and sensitivity analysis. Their relevance and areas of application are discussed, and it is among other things concluded that extreme scenarios and analogies to established systems can be relevant strategies to assess the environmental impact of very immature products.

Keywords


nanoparticles; environmental assessments; immature products; technical change; LCA

References


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