Chair of Sustainable Engineering
News
Life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts of an infant
Life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts of an infant
A new case study collected primary data on a pregnant mother, a newborn baby, and a three-year-old infant in Germany. The study aimed to investigate the environmental impacts from ovulation to the third year of life to derive measures for reduction, show the impacts of alternative…
Compensation of a broad set of environmental impacts beyond climate change
The “Circular Ecosystem Compensation” approach is presented in a new publication. Through using the methods “Life Cycle Assessment”, “Monetization” and “Renaturation”, the compensation of environmental impacts beyond climate change is enabled. Different environmental burdens are thus compensated through environmental gains on a monetary basis. Die…
Life Cycle Assessment of Power-to-Liquid Kerosene Produced from Renewable Energy and CO2 from the Air in Germany
The publication analyses the environmental impacts of power-to-liquid kerosene using life cycle assessment. Not all analysed production layouts lead to a reduction of the environmental impact. If the production is based on high-temperature electrolysis combined with low-temperature CO2 air capture and onshore wind power, the environmental impacts…
Analysis of the EU climate ambitions for greenhouse gas reductions and renewable energy consumption shares
The publication analyzes these factors and concludes that the EU's annual reduction in greenhouse gases must be tripled by 2030 to meet the targets set. For renewable energy, the growth rate must be increased by 2% per year until 2030.
Publication: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2022.100936
Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner was appointed member of the editorial board of Scientific Reports
Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner was appointed member of the editorial board of Scientific Reports, a journal of the Nature Publishing Group. Scientific Reports is an open access journal publishing original research from across all areas of the natural science e.g. psychology, medicine and engineering. It is the 6th most-cited journal in the world,…
The global environmental costs of mining and processing abiotic raw materials and their geographic distribution
Mining and processing of raw materials has many adverse effects on the environment. The chair of Sustainable Engineering quantified the impact of mining and processing 38 abiotic raw materials with LCA coupled with environmental costs. The research was funded by the BMBF.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132232
Carbonbrief picked up the…
Development of the ESSENZ method and its application to NMC batteries
ESSENZ is a method for evaluating the criticality of abiotic resources as well as societal aspects during mining. Due to its further improvement, product-specific recycling shares, as well as the influence of certified mines on social aspects can be included in the assessment. The analysis of the NMC batteries shows that a decreasing cobalt share…
Sustainable Engineering Department visits the SEPAWA® specialist groups CAT/LUV
Under the motto "Sustainability! Unlimited", the SEPAWA CAT (Cosmetic Applications and Technologies) and LUV (Legislative - Environment - Consumer) Groups held a lecture event in Mainz. The event presented promising concepts for sustainable ingredients for cosmetics and detergents and was also dedicated to the latest regulations and certifications.…
An approach to determine missing life cycle inventory data for chemicals (RREM)
Life cycle assessments of chemicals and products containing them are often not possible due to missing life cycle inventory data. Therefore, the department of Sustainable Engineering has developed an approach that can be applied to fill the data gaps. By modeling the synthesis reaction and linking it to existing life cycle inventory data sets, the…
Development of a method to assess overfishing in LCA
Overfishing refers to the depletion of fish stocks due to (over)exploitation caused by excessive fishing. The developed method is based on the distance-to-target approach, using the EU's strategy to prevent overfishing in European oceans by 2030 as a target. In addition, the method allows for a direct comparison with other impact categories, such…
Prof. Matthias Finkbeiner among the 2% top-scientists globally
Prof. Matthias Finkbeiner has made it onto the prestigious Stanford University’s list of the top 2% of scientists globally!
Stanford University recently released its World’s Top 2% Scientists list, based on 22 major fields and 172 subfields, and presents the ranking of the world’s most cited researchers and those who are among the top 2% of more…
The Department of Sustainable Engineering mourns the loss of Dr. Robert Ackermann
Completely unexpectedly, Dr. Robert Ackermann passed away on March 26, 2021. The department mourns the loss of his long-time colleague and wishes his family much strength during this difficult time. For this reason, the two courses Ecological Risk Management and Corporate Environmental Management Methods will unfortunately have to be cancelled in…
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Special Issue: Life Cycle Assessment in the Context of Decarbonization and
Together with Dr. Stephan Krinke of Volkswagen, Dr. Vanessa Bach of the Department of Sustainable Engineering is publishing a Special Issue of the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment on decarbonization and carbon neutrality.
Information can be found in the English-language announcement below.
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Climate or carbon neutrality is a…