Life cycle assessment of chemical technologies across the innovation spectrum: insights from lab-scale to industrial applications

This doctoral thesis explores the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as a quantitative tool to promote sustainability in the chemical and manufacturing sectors, with particular focus on integration with Green Chemistry principles and Circular Economy models. While Green Chemistry and Circular Economy provide valuable frameworks for sustainable innovation, they risk remaining qualitative without rigorous environmental assessment. LCA provides the necessary quantitative framework to validate sustainability claims, identify environmental hotspots, and detect burden shifting between life cycle stages or impact categories. The work encompasses seven case studies demonstrating LCA application across innovation stages. Chapter 3 presents traditional LCA of established industrial systems: waste management in the footwear district integrating Material Flow Analysis with LCA to support circular transitions, medical filters for hemodialysis in an underexplored sector, and wood flooring with focus on carbon accounting and end-of-life scenarios. Chapter 4 presents prospective LCA of emerging technologies at laboratory scale: biofuel cells for lignocellulosic biomass valorization, catalysts for catalytic methane decomposition, cutin-based coatings from waste valorization, and acquafaba valorization with particular attention to allocation challenges. The thesis demonstrates that conducting rigorous LCA in the chemical sector extends beyond inventory compilation and software modeling, requiring multidisciplinary competence encompassing chemical knowledge, LCA methodology, practical problem-solving for database limitations, and communication skills for diverse stakeholders. Critical challenges identified include methodological choices in allocation and system boundaries, data scarcity and database fragmentation, resource allocation for thorough inventory modeling, and transparent communication of uncertainties to non-expert audiences. The work reveals knowledge gaps where practitioners must rely on experience rather than documented best practices, including combining multiple LCI databases appropriately, understanding software functional differences, and managing uncertainty communication.