Integrating Critical Raw Materials into Life Cycle Assessment using a New Dynamic Material Assessment Tool
Ole Meyer and Naila Rana Andira and Fernando Andres Penaherrera Vaca and Alexandra Pehlken
Procedia CIRP
With the current push for sustainability being challenged by rising geopolitical tensions, it is now essential for manufacturers to consider the criticality of the raw materials sourced for product manufacturing as part of the environmental sustainability of the product. Being aware of material dependencies and strategies to mitigate them is essential for overcoming global crises that have impact on procurement of critical raw materials, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and trade wars. In literature, there are precedents for incorporating Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) results into Critical Raw Materials (CRM) assessments, or alternatively, of considering material criticality as a category of LCA. However, gaps still exist when looking into LCA integration of CRM assessments, such as the one provided by the EU. This work explores the compatibility of previously unconnected CRM assessments with LCA. For this purpose, a LCA of a German data center is used with a self-developed tool for performing CRM assessments which can be customized to be included in any sustainability reporting. The presented tool is based on a curated database which contains the primary data necessary for CRM assessments, like world production, international trade, and sustainability values, such as the end-of-life recycling rates for each material. Given the customizable nature of the underlying database, the tool provides a dynamic calculation of any CRM assessment. Ultimately, the CRM tool is used to perform multiple CRM assessments, which are then evaluated on their compatibility with traditional LCA outputs for the presented use case.
2026
article
1000-1005
ZL-CE
Zukunftslabor Circular Economy
Zukunftslabor Circular Economy
