A-LCA IWG SG5

EoL modelling in the EF Method:

the Circular Footprint Formula
(CFF)
F. Ardente, S. Andreasi Bassi, J. Peters, D. Candelaresi, N. Ferrara

12.07.2023

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 Agenda
 The challenge of the end-of-life modelling in LCA
 The Circular Footprint Formula (CFF) in the Environmental Footprint (EF)
 The CFF applied to the carbon footprint rules of EV batteries

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 Joint Research Centre – European Commission

As the science and knowledge service of the

European Commission, the Joint Research
Centre's mission is to support EU policies with
independent evidence throughout the whole policy
cycle.

As a Commission service independent from

national or corporate interests, the JRC builds trust
by providing evidence to support the definition of
policies - from their design to implementation,
monitoring and evaluation.

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Passato, presente e

Pilot phase Transition phase

International International Environmental

Reference Life Reference Life Cycle Recommendation
Cycle Data System Data System (ILCD) Footprint 2021/2279
(ILCD) guidance methodology

2003 2005 2008 2010 2011 2013 2015 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

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 The challenge of the end-of-life formula

using the secondary material producing the secondary material

Life cycle product A Life cycle product B

Waste management A = Waste

Production A Product A use A Product B use b
Production B management B

 Who is responsible of the impacts due to recycling?

 Who is responsible of the avoided primary resources?
 How do we avoid that both take the credit (i.e. double-counting)?

“There exists no purely natural-science-based approach to separate the different

products in an overall system where recycling occurs.” (Schrijvers, 2016)
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 EoL Modelling in the EF Method
Circular Footprint Formula (CFF)
 Balance between cut-off and avoided burden approach via the factor 'A'
 A = 1 -> cut-off; A = 0 -> avoided burden. 'A' values are material dependent and related to the
market
 A factor values shall be in the range 0.2 ≤ A ≤ 0.8:
 A = 0.2 – low supply of recycled materials compared to a high demand: focus on recyclability at EoL
 A = 0.8 – high supply of materials recycled at the EoL and low demand: focus on recycled content.
 A = 0.5 – equilibrium between supply and demand: focus both on recyclability and recycled content.
 Default A-values: 0.5 for plastics, 0.2 for metals
1 A-value 0
Avoided
Cut-off burden
Accounting for only recycled 0.2 Accounting only for
content on input side at recovered materials credit
6 beginning of life on output side at end-of-life
 The Circular Footprint Formula (CFF)
 Aimed at achieving a balance between accounting of recycled material at input side
(secondary material input) and end-of-life credits (recovered material after recycling)

 Applied per material, with material-specific parameters

Parameters Process
Material production
(1 – R1) * Ev

Waste recycling

Energy recovery

7 Disposal
 CFF – Material production – per material per FU
Mass of primary material Mass of secondary material
Allocated secondary mass Allocated primary mass

𝑄𝑆𝑖𝑛
1 − 𝑅1 𝑥 𝐸𝑉 𝑅1 𝑥(𝐴 𝑥 𝐸𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑑 + 1 − 𝐴 𝑥𝐸𝑉 𝑥 )
𝑄𝑝

• Allocation factor – market based • Ration between the quality

• Recycled content • Per material per application • Difficult to quantify (mainly
• Default = 0 • Annex C of the EF method based on economic factors)
• May be company-specific • It shall be between 0.2 – 0.8 • Annex C of the EF method
• 0.2 if demand is higher than supply
• Impacts of producing primary • 0.8 if supply is higher than demand
material • 0.5 if balanced (or unknown)
• It could be a process from EF
database (or primary data, if • Impacts of collecting, sorting and
available) recycling the secondary material
• It could be a process from EF database

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 Material recycling
Mass of material being recycled

𝑄𝑆𝑜𝑢𝑡
1 − 𝐴 𝑥 𝑅2 𝑥( 𝐸𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔𝐸𝑜𝐿 − 𝐸𝑉∗ 𝑥 )
𝑄𝑃

• Recycling rate • Ratio between the quality of the secondary material and
• Annex C of the EF method the quality of the primary material.
• Difficult to quantify
• Impacts of collecting, sorting, and • Annex C of the EF method.
recycling the waste.
• It could be a process from EF
database

• Impacts of producing the avoided secondary

material.
• For simplicity, if Ev and Ev* are the same
material, you can assume Ev=Ev*.

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 Energy recovery and disposal

 All the material not recycled (after collection, sorting and recycling) is either incinerated
with energy recovery or sent to disposal (i.e., incineration without energy recovery and
landfill).
 The benefit of the incinerations plant (i.e., the avoided impact of producing the
energy that would have been produced without the incineration) are subtracted to
the impacts of the incineration (e.g., the direct emissions)
 The allocation factor of the energy is currently 0, meaning that all the credits of
the incineration are given to the product being incinerated and none to the product using the
energy from incineration.
 All the impacts of incineration and landfilling are a burden on the product generating
the waste.

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 From PEF to CFB
The Environmental Footprint (EF) is
an LCA-based method developed by The EF has been recommended by the
EC in the last decade. EC to quantify the environmental impacts
of products (goods or services) and
organisations (PEF/OEF).

The use of PEF is being discussed or

proposed in EU legislations as:
The PEF is a multi-criteria measure of the • Battery Regulation Proposal (art. 7
environmental performance of a good or service Carbon footprint of batteries)
throughout its life cycle. • EU Taxonomy
• Green Claims Directive
• Ecodesign Directive
PEFCR have been developed for a broad set of
different products, among them batteries. The • Ecodesign for Sustainable Products
PEFCR for batteries is currently being revised Regulation
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 CFB-EV Rules
JRC "Science for policy report" was developed in support to the definition of the methodology, for
the calculation of the carbon footprint for EV batteries (CFB-EV rules - June 2023)1.
 Open dialogue with stakeholders
 This document will serve as the basis for the adoption of rules according to Article 7 for EV batteries
 This document is expected to be also the basis for building future similar rules for other types of batteries,
including flow batteries.

Link to the latest version of the CFB-EV Rules:

1 https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/permalink/battery/GRB-CBF_CarbonFootprintRules-EV_June_2023.pdf
Also accessible from:
https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/projects.html
https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/EU_BatteryRegulation_Art7.html

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  The rate of properly collected battery (70%) was made
EoL Modelling - CFB explicit in the formula
 A different fate was assumed for properly and non-
properly collected battery waste
 The conditions under which a company-specific collection
rate and a company-specific battery cell recycling may be
modelled with company-specific process were clarified.
 For R1 default value equal to 0 (unless differently proved)

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 Concluding Remarks
 CFF aims a defining a holistic approach for EoL modelling (taking into account both
recycled content and recyclability)

 A-factor allows to adjust between cut off or avoided burden approach. But: Currently
used EF datasets are based on a determined A-value (e.g. 0.2 for metals)

 Trade-off between simplicity and accuracy, primary and secondary data

 Quality aspects difficult to consider

 Temporal mismatch as general problem of EoL modelling for long living products

 CFB models EoL treatment based on default process model -> simplification.

 CFB considers additional parameter (collection rate)

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 Thank you

© European Union 2023

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