Fraunhofer UMSICHT Institute Branch Sulzbach-Rosenberg
Fraunhofer UMSICHT Institute Branch Sulzbach-Rosenberg

Life cycle assessments LCA

LCA / Life Cycle Assessment by Fraunhofer UMSICHT

ISO-compliant life cycle assessments / LCAs for waste management and new technologies.

Our team for life cycle assessment and life cycle analyses (LCA) at the Sulzbach-Rosenberg branch of Fraunhofer UMSICHT supports you in properly determining and calculating the environmental impact of products and processes.

Our specialization lies in the preparation of ISO-compliant life cycle assessments and life cycle analyses in the areas of waste management, recycling technologies, bioenergy and combustion technology and in the evaluation of new technologies, for example in chemical recycling, carbonization or pyrolysis.

Methodologically, we work on the basis of recognized frameworks such as ISO 14040/14044, Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and Organization Environmental Footprint (OEF) methods or the GHG Protocol. When calculating greenhouse gas emissions, we take Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions into account. 

For life cycle inventory data on energy procurement, material production and processing, logistics and disposal services, we use the Ecoinvent and GaBi databases.

 

Life cycle assessments / LCA in waste management

Life cycle assessments / LCA in waste management

One of our core competencies is the preparation of life cycle analyses (LCA) for classic waste management and recycling processes - from collection, transportation and sorting to recycling, e.g. for lightweight packaging waste, mixed residual waste or production waste. The resource consumption, GHG emissions, energy requirements and much more of waste disposal processes are quantified, evaluated and compared in a well-founded manner. This creates the basis for minimizing the environmental impact, achieving your own sustainability goals and documenting this in an objective and standardized manner.

Thanks to our expertise from numerous projects for the development and implementation of waste management concepts and strategies, we can make optimum use of your existing waste and resource management database and supplement it as required. To this end, we carry out customized waste surveys and material flow analyses in order to record waste quantities, composition and qualities as well as recycling and recovery potential in the best possible way and make them available for a life cycle assessment.

 

 

Life cycle assessments for new technologies

Life cycle assessments for new technologies

For the life cycle assessment of innovative technologies and new materials/products, we have access to the experience and databases of our specialist technical departments. This allows us to access primary data (e.g. mass and energy balances) from research projects and plants up to the industrial test scale, e.g. in the areas of pyrolysis, combustion technology, chemical recycling, biochar and other areas of chemical, process and process engineering.