From processes to life cycles to technology networks - new challenges for LCA in chemical engineering

This current opinion addresses the challenges for chemical engineering resulting from the requirement of sustainable development on the one hand and the consequence of production maxima for fossil oil and natural gas reached within this century on the other hand. Increasing importance of renewable resources will lead to a change in the structure of industrial processes, leading to smaller, more decentralised processes that will be shaped by raw materials used, technologies employed and products generated by their spatial context. An increase in the share of energy technologies using intermittent and/or cyclically available renewable resources such as wind and solar radiation will lead to more interaction between industry and the energy system. Industrial processes will become part of regionally defined technology systems. Ecological evaluation of industrial processes will have to evolve as a consequence of these changes. It will become integral part of chemical engineering design practice as systemic environmental concerns become more prevalent. It will also evolve from dealing with life cycles to broadening its scope to whole technology systems. The contribution will provide a framework for the requirements to be met by environmental evaluation methods that meet these future chemical engineering challenges.