Host institution: Technische Universitat Darmstadt (TUDa), Germany *
Co-supervisor: Grenoble INP Institut d'ingénierie et de management de l'Université Grenoble Alpes (G-INP), France
Partner enterprise: ok*worx consulting, Germany
Abstract of the project:
Prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) is an emerging field that evaluates technologies that are in an early phase of development with respect to their environmental perfomance. Recently, first generic guidelines for LCA upscaling approaches have been published for materials in energy applications. [1,2] The internally developed framework UpFunMatLCA proposes five generic development stages and has contributed to a more systematic assessment of future environmental impacts. However, possible tradeoffs among impact categories and the relation between manufacturing and material background system effects have not been studied yet. Therefore, the ambition of this project is to move further. This will be done in a two-step approach addressing first the methodological challenges and second the challenges regarding the user-oriented implementation. At TUDa, PhD15 candidate will focus on the development of the upscaling method and its application to case studies. The upscaling case studies will be developed in cooperation with PhD11 (UNOVA/UCL) for light trapping enhanced photovoltaic devices, PhD12 (G-INP/UNOVA) for transistors in power electronics, and PhD13 (G-INP/UCL) for novel fabricated 3D nanostructured piezoelectric harvesters. At G-INP, PhD15 will focus on the development of a design-oriented decision tool based on the environmental impact assessment of the described materials used in energy technologies by the partners in WP3. PhD15 will additionally collaborate with ok*worx consulting on developing the LCA framework and the design-oriented decision tool.
Supervisors:
TUDa: A. Weidenkaff
G-INP: P. Zwolinski
Partner Enterprise:
ok*worx consulting: O. Kusche
* If you have worked/lived/resided in this country for more than 12 months during the 3 years before the start of this PhD (typically: 1 Oct 2022 to 30 Sept 2025), you are not eligible for this position.
1 L. Smith et al., J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 2019, 102, 7037.
2 S. Weyand et al., Energies 2019, 12, 4228.
2 S. Weyand et al., Energies 2019, 12, 4228.
