Background: Fly ashes from municipal solid waste incineration contain significant amounts of (technology critical) elements. Processes to recover Cu or Zn are already in practice, but it still remains difficult to evaluate the full secondary resource potential of the ashes. One reason is the absence of a worldwide comparable analytical basis for detailed market analyses. To encounter this, (i) an advice on how to analyse 65 elements after microwave-assisted digestion by ICP-OES and ICP-MS is delivered, (ii) the heterogeneity (hours to annual cycle) is evaluated for a incineration plant, (iii) leaching efficiency with three different eluents and (iv) the market potential of the elements as commodities are evaluated. Results and conclusions: Aqua regia digestion was found to be sufficient to evaluated the recovery potential; except for the mass constituents Al, Si, Sn, Ti and the trace components Cr, Hf, Nb, U and W, for which HF-containing digestions delivered better recoveries. On different time scales, ashes were very homogenous and HCl- as well as H₂SO₄-supported leaching delivered, satisfying results within an hour (exceptions are, e.g., Bi and Sb). By applying characterisation factors of the life cycle assessment impact category “Resource depletion—minerals and metals” supplemented by the list of critical raw materials of the EU: Ag, Bi, Cd, Ga, In and Sb are most interesting elements to be recovered in future activities.

Increasing shares of renewable electricity generation lead to fundamental changes of the electricity supply, resulting in varying supply mixes and environmental impacts. The hourly-defined life cycle assessment (HD-LCA) approach aims to capture the environmental profile of electricity supply in an hourly resolution. It offers a flexible connectivity to unit commitment models or real-time electricity production and consumption data from electricity suppliers. When charging EVs, the environmental impact of the charging session depends on the electricity mix during the session. This paper introduces the combination of HD-LCA and smart charging and illustrates its impacts on the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of BEVs.

Flexible, ultra-light and wafer-thin – the future of electronics is printed! The cornerstones for this development are conductive inks and adhesives that connect components and sensors with each other, integrating them into a printed environment. A decisive role hereby is played by advanced materials, such as functional inks, and their interaction in final devices for application in various use-cases. For this purpose, various particle structures in the nanometre range are created that enable the required conductivity, while keeping material input of the conductive substance as low as possible. Due to the excellent properties, the versatile functionalities, the possible high production volumes and the associated reduced production costs a wide range of applications is facilitated through printed electronics and mass markets become accessible. Therefore, associated environmental impacts as well as the security of the supply chain are expected to gain further relevance in the future. Yet, as most of the processes are in a development stage, prospective assessments before the start of production are essential, if development of printed electronics shall be aligned with sustainability goals. In order to address environmental consequences of future implementations of advanced materials for printed electronics at an early stage, this contribution is considering and evaluating the sustainable effects in a comprehensive assessment even before the physical start of product and material development. To this end, a procedure was developed, in which underlying methodology enables development engineers to identify hotspots at an early stage and to address and mitigate them early on. This way, challenges of tomorrow’s circular economy are already being addressed today and critical sustainability pitfalls can be avoided.

With an increasing share of renewable energy technologies in our energy systems, the integration of not only direct emission (from the use phase), but also the total life cycle emissions (including emissions during resource extraction, production, etc.) becomes more important in order to draw meaningful conclusions from Energy Systems Analysis (ESA). While the benefit of integrating Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) into ESA is acknowledged, methodologically sound integration lacks resonance in practice, partly because the dimension of the implications is not yet fully understood. This study proposes an easy-to-implement procedure for the integration of LCA results in ESA based on existing theoretical approaches. The need for a methodologically sound integration, including the avoidance of double counting of emissions, is demonstrated on the use case of Passivated Emitter and Rear Cell photovoltaic technology. The difference in Global Warming Potential of 19% between direct and LCA based emissions shows the significance for the integration of the total emissions into energy systems analysis and the potential double counting of 75% of the life cycle emissions for the use case supports the need for avoidance of double counting.