In this interview, we discuss the role of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in the ALIGNED project, which focuses on promoting sustainable practices in the bio-based chemical sector within the European Union (EU). NTNU has been key in developing tutorials for modeling life cycle databases and gathering data to map the bio-based chemical industry in Europe.
What is the role of NTNU in the ALIGNED project?
A: In the first half of the project, NTNU focused on two main tasks:
1) Compilation of tiered tutorials for modelling prospective background life cycle databases (Task 1.1 from WP1: Shared modelling framework and learning), developed by Marcos Watanabe and Francesco Cherubini. This was presented in the 2nd LCA Methodology Workshop , organized by our BTG partners.
2) Collection of data for an overview of the bio-based chemical sector in the European Union (EU) (Task 6.2 from WP6: Bio-based chemical sector). We created a roadmap detailing trends, environmental and socioeconomic aspects, common processes, feedstocks, production pathways, and existing EU strategies targeting the chemical sector. I presented this overview at the “Environmental sustainability in the biochemicals sector” workshop organized by BTG, and at the 11th International Conference on Life Cycle Management (LCM2023). This overview was further expanded to explore the challenges and opportunities in transitioning from a fossil-based sector to a bio-based one, particularly in reducing climate change, toxicity, and pollution impacts, while enhancing circularity. This resulted in a scientific publication that includes contributions from our BTG, A4F and AAU partners.
Now, in the second half of the project, the project partners will apply the tutorials for prospective background databases in their respective case studies with the industrial partners, while NTNU will continue refining these tools for better implementation. As for WP6, I’m working on the potentials for a sustainable expansion of bio-based chemicals in the EU, considering current EU production of chemicals and plastics, and the biomass availability. Preliminary assessments on replacing fossil polymers with bio-based alternatives have been performed and were presented SETAC 2024 .
How do you plan to conduct the data collection, modelling and assessment of this sector? What are the main challenges?
A: For the assessment of sustainable expansion of bio-based chemicals in the EU, we are using EU datasets to understand the currently volume of produced chemicals, and with literature data for country specific biomass availability and bio-based alternatives for the most produced chemicals and polymers.
The first major challenge in this assessment is biomass availability. Replacing all (or most of) the chemicals and polymers with bio-based alternatives would require a great amount of biomass, which is not currently available or produced. To avoid land use conversion and competition, our focus is on utilizing residue biomass (e.g., agriculture and forest residues, food wastes, among others).
A second challenge is that being bio-based does not automatically result in environmental advantages over fossil-based alternatives. It is key to identify the most environmentally concerning fossil-based chemicals and polymers, so we can target and prioritize bio-based options that offer significant benefits, such as lower climate change impacts, reduced toxicity, and improved degradability and recyclability.
Another challenge is the maturity level of these bio-based alternatives. Most are still at early stages of production, making it difficult to fairly compare their low TRL performance with fossil-based options that have been optimized over decade. To address this challenge, we apply a combined framework integrating ex-ante and prospective LCA. This stage of the assessment will benefit from the prospective background datasets developed by NTNU during the first part of the project.
