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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - STAR-ProBio (Sustainability Transition Assessment and Research of Bio-based Products)

Teaser

Summary

Europe is confronted with depletion of natural resources due to their unsustainable use, increased global competitiveness, increasing population and other environmental and economic challenges. Promoting the sustainable growth of dynamic bioeconomy sectors will contribute to an innovative, resource efficient and competitive Europe in transition from a fossil fuel-based society to a bio-based one. Bio-based products represent a great opportunity to reconcile sustainable long-term growth with environmental protection, a priority of the European Growth Strategy, through the prudent and responsible use of renewable resources for agriculture and industry. Managing those resources and their derived products in a sustainable manner implies major challenges. The development and use of sustainability assessment schemes for bio-based products is expected to contribute to a clear and evidence-based view of the economic, social and environmental impact/benefits of bio-based solutions.
The overall goal of the project is to formulate guidelines for a common framework promoting the development of regulations and standards that support the adoption of business innovation models and market uptake in the bio-based products sector.
Blending heterogeneous areas of expertise â€“ including green chemistry, agronomy, natural sciences as well as social sciences, allow STAR-ProBio developing a blueprint for sustainability schemes and tools applicable to a large spectrum of bio-based products and make recommendations for a more efficient and harmonized policy regulation framework for the market-pull of such products. These objectives are achieved by performing a comprehensive assessment, which looks at the three pillars of sustainability (economic, environmental and social) in a truly circular way. Hence, looking along the whole supply chain, including end of life options and indirect land use change (ILUC) effects, allows assessing bio-based productsâ€™ sustainability in a cradle-to-cradle fashion. Proposed methodologies, criteria and indicators are applied to selected case studies to illustrate benefits and impacts of bio-based products. These case studies cover a small number of bio-based products and several bio-based co-products derived from alternative feedstocks in different biorefinery scenarios. The decision to consider a limited number of value chains is based on the idea that, for integrated case studies, an in-depth analysis, with a strong focus on the development of a robust methodology for sustainability assessment, should be pursued.

Work performed

WP1 was completed, with key outputs including: (i) the identification of sustainability assessment gaps and recommendations to overcome them based on analyses of current standards and sustainability assessment schemes;(ii) the identification and selection of feasible value chains and case studies for evaluating the sustainability assessment scheme to be developed within WP8.
WP2 and WP3 have closely worked together to assure the harmonised environmental assessment of the case studies, in terms of functional unit, system boundaries, allocation methods, environmental indicators.Thereafter, corn glucose, corn stover and sugar beet pulp were selected as feedstock for further investigation of the defined case studies. To date, the life cycle inventory phase of the selected feedstocks is being developed in order to have an appropriate inventory table to carry out the life cycle impact assessment.
WP3 has also developed some hybridised indicators by combining resource efficiency principles with that of green chemistry, highlighting the circularity characteristics embedded by the economic operators within product and process designs.
Within WP4 work has focussed on the development of the techno-economic sustainability assessment methodology for the production of bio-based products including relevant principles, criteria and indicators. Moreover, has been developed a detailed inventory of alternative end of-life options for bio-based and conventional products and defined the scope of the techno-economic sustainability analysis of the end-of-life routes for the production of bio-based chemicals, added-value products and polymers.
WP5 has worked on facilitating the market uptake of sustainable bio-based products by providing in-depth information on the sustainability preferences and expectations of all relevant value chain players. An important output of WP5 is the completion of the first Delphi survey round, addressing two groups of European stakeholders: professionals and end-consumers.
WP6 has performed an extensive review of social sustainability with a specific focus on bio-based economy. This was then used to identify a social impact framework tailored to bio-based products by means of a two-step methodological framework encompassing, (i) the identification and mapping of relevant stakeholders and (ii) the validation of the preliminary social value items list, through a participatory involvement of stakeholders.
WP7 developed a causal-descriptive model based on a system dynamics methodology to show that bio-based products run the risk of accelerating land use change with negative effects on the environment.
WP8 has built on the work of WP1 by performing SWOT and PESTEL analyses of the gaps identified in existing sustainability schemes. Moreover: (i) concepts for communication of LCIA results were analysed; (ii) an approach to benchmarking was elaborated; and (iii) potentiality of thresholds was assessed. One of the key outputs has been the conceptualisation of the Sustainability Assessment Tool for Bio-based Products (SAT-ProBio) â€“ to be developed into a blueprint and a tool. Preliminary work for the establishment of a CEN Workshop Agreement, around SAT-ProBio, took place, including the preparation of the Terms of References for selecting a National Standardization Body.
WP9 has focused on the analysis of regulations, (eco)labelling and policy initiatives, which shown a huge number of promising links between the STAR-ProBio products and the existing framework of bioeconomy. The analysis of these links has provided guidance for the development of the blueprint and tool. In addition, WP9 has focused on the development of recommendations for standards and criteria for eco-labels for bio-based products.

Final results

By the end of the project, the refined set of LCA and the hybridised indicators (which create linkages between principles of circular economy and LCA) are expected to become a part of the environmental module that forms the proposed sustainability assessment framework that will enable an efficient impact-led evaluation, approval and uptake of novel and existing bio-based products, in conformity to the standards that are expressed in CEN/TC/411: bio-based products.
An innovative approach to identify and mitigate the risk of negative ILUC effects from alternative production routes for bio-based products has been proposed. That is, a shift from a deterministic perspective to a risk-based approach through the application of a specific causal-descriptive model based on a system dynamics methodology. This model aims at identifying the main risk factors to predict changes in demands of additional land and explain land use changes. Those indicators will be tested in real case studies and included in the blueprint for the assessment of environmental, techno-economic and social sustainability of bio-based products.