Life cycle assessment of the resource efficiency of wood cascading
(Topic B.7)
– The cascade use of wood is climate-friendly. However, is it also more resource-efficient than other forms of wood use? –
Wood occupies a dominant role in the use of renewable resources in Germany. A distinction by the use of renewable raw materials is to be made between the material and the energetic use. In the context of the use as material in the production, it is focused on the entire raw material or on the individual components, to process these in other products. The energetic use aims at the generation of thermal and electrical energy from renewable resources. While the material wood consumption remained constant in recent years, the expansion of the use of wood is because of the current funding situation, particularly due to the rising energetic use. The described competition between material and energetic use of wood in the forestry and timber industry could be addressed by using the cascade utilization.
The ecological benefits, due to greenhouse gas emissions, of cascade use systems have been demonstrated in several studies. In some of these studies also the increase in resource efficiency by sequential wood utilization was claimed. However, the authors were unable to provide a quantitative evidence of an improvement in resource efficiency. Resource efficiency is understood here as the ratio of a benefit to the resources used.
The aim of this project is to identify the resource efficiency of wood cascades via life cycle assessment and to address the methodological challenges posed by such an analysis. Furthermore, a decision support for multi-criteria indicator sets will be conducted to evaluate ecologically advantageous product systems.
To achieve the research objective, the work is divide into three main areas. The first section devotes to consider resource efficiency at product level. In the second part, the wood-based cascade use is examined based on life cycle assessment. The last part of the article deals with the multi-criteria analysis for decision support in the consideration of life cycle analysis results, which are based on several indicators.
In order to obtain the data needed for life cycle assessment and to evaluate realistic product systems, a close cooperation with experts from forest and wood science is required. In addition, a collaboration with mathematicians is necessary to conduct the multi-criteria analysis of the complex life cycle assessment successfully. Furthermore, in the other projects of the research training group environmentally oriented indicators are needed and can be provided by using the created product systems and indicators.