ECOTOOL
"Improving Life Cycle analysis tools for sustainability assessment in forestry, agriculture and environment technologies"
| Coordinatore | CENTRE INTERNATIONAL D'ETUDES SUPERIEURES EN SCIENCES AGRONOMIQUES DE MONTPELLIER
Organization address
address: Place Pierre Viala 2 contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | France [FR] |
| Totale costo | 0 € |
| EC contributo | 23˙400 € |
| Programma | FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) |
| Code Call | FP7-PEOPLE-IRSES-2008 |
| Funding Scheme | MC-IRSES |
| Anno di inizio | 2009 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2009-06-01 - 2011-11-30 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
CENTRE INTERNATIONAL D'ETUDES SUPERIEURES EN SCIENCES AGRONOMIQUES DE MONTPELLIER
Organization address
address: Place Pierre Viala 2 contact info |
FR (MONTPELLIER) | coordinator | 23˙400.00 |
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Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
'To comply with the Integrated Product Policy (IPP) advocated by the European Union (2003), being able to measuring the environmental impacts of technologies or processes is now compulsory. IPP is largely based on a life-cycle management (LCM) approach in which Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) are the most popular evaluation methodology. But although numerous advances have been carried out, LCA has still not reached the full fame and level of diffusion that should be necessary with regard to IPP objectives, especially in the case of agro-bioprocesses (agriculture and food, forestry, environment industries). Three main objectives will be followed by ECO-TOOL to encourage its diffusion: 1- Carrying out research for making LCA a more relevant and user- friendly tool in the sector of agro-bioprocesses: the bottlenecks of LCA for agro-bioprocesses will be identified; the feasibility of fast measurement devices for acquiring validated data on soil quality assessment will be tested; LCA software packages will be benchmarked; specific LCA analysis will be carried out on second-generation biofuel production; a simplified LCA-tool will be designed; 2- Encouraging in France the emergence of research and higher education on LCA for agro-bioprocesses, 3- Having ECOTOOL partners turned into major actors of the international community on LCA dedicated to agro-bioprocesses.'
Introduzione (Teaser)
Researchers have investigated how to measure the environmental and social impacts of agro-bioprocesses. This will enable compliance with EU Integrated Product Policy regulations.
Descrizione progetto (Article)
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) tools are used to assess social and environmental impacts associated with the stages of a product's life from cradle-to-grave. The cycle begins with the extraction of raw materials, moving through processing and distribution to disposal or recycling.
The ECOTOOL project aimed to develop LCA tools for assessing environmental and social impacts of forestry, agriculture and environmental technology processes. The work included developing methods for more user-friendly LCA assessment processes, and tools for improving LCA impact indicators, such as for soil quality.
A new approach was taken to streamline LCA applied to agriculture, involving the use of traceability data collected in compliance with EU regulations or other requirements. The development of information and communication technologies and the use of smart phones have helped to facilitate data acquisition in agriculture.
Project partners also identified bottlenecks in LCAs for agro-bioprocesses. These included the lack of relevant indicators in agriculture, such as water and land use, which have been taken into account only recently.
For land use, it is necessary to know precisely the carbon content of the soil, which is related to fertility and carbon sequestration ability. Therefore, ECOTOOL explored the strengths and weaknesses of near-infrared spectroscopy for measuring carbon in soil, and proposed improvements.
Researchers also developed a method for removing the effect of soil moisture on carbon estimation from spectra. This will help in designing portable sensors for measuring carbon content, enabling the amount of sequestered carbon to be determined and refinement of land use impact. The result will be more precise LCA outputs.
ECOTOOL also focused on assessing the environmental impacts of forest and algal-based biofuels. A general framework for assessing the social impacts of bioenergy production at different levels of concern (i.e. company, municipality, state) was set up. The framework was applied to chains of biofuel production from forests or algae.
The project transferred knowledge of bio-based products and services from partners in Australia and Finland to partners in France. This included reciprocal exchanges of scientists, and the organisation of seminars and an international conference. The work will help France to develop a large-scale research and higher education structure dedicated to LCA for bio-based products and services.