Survey on methods for modelling multiple life cycles, reuse, remanufacturing, etc. in LCA and application to batteries
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Survey on methods for modelling multiple life cycles, reuse, remanufacturing, etc. in LCA
SCORELCA (http://www.scorelca.org/en/index.php) is an association which aims to promote and organise cooperation between industrial, institutional and scientific actors to promote a positive, shared and recognised evolution of global environmental quantification methods at the European and international level, in particular of life cycle assessment (LCA), and putting them into practice.
SCORELCA is currently carrying out a study, notably including the following objectives:
To establish a state of the art of methodologies for the allocation of environmental impacts of each application of a product or service having multiple successive applications, to synthetize as operational methodological guidelines for SCORELCA’s members.
To illustrate these methodologies on a concrete case study related to the LCA of batteries benefitting from a second life.
This study is conducted by Deloitte Sustainability and Gingko 21 for SCORELCA. It aims to identify all publications dealing with methodological issues in case of several successive life cycles when assessing the environmental impacts of various types of products or services (including batteries but not only) and to perform a critical analysis of these methods to understand their suitability in different use contexts.
Note: this study aims to focus on product loops in LCA, i.e. cases of reuse, remanufacturing, second life, etc. Considerations regarding material loops in LCA are excluded from the scope of this study as they were addressed in previous SCORELCA studies.
The objectives of this quick survey are to:
Understand the current challenges faced by practitioners when modelling the environmental impacts of several successive life cycles of a given system;
Identify methods or approaches recently developed (or still under development) to address these challenges, that were not identified through the literature review performed so far;
Collect LCA practitioners’ opinion on the recent methodological developments in the field.