A Hybrid Input-Output, Techno-Economic Life Cycle Modeling Approach to Enable Greener Supply Chains

Northwestern University, Evanston IL

Investigators

Abstract

1236837 (Masanet). There is growing interest among manufacturers, retailers, and governments in understanding the supply chain energy and carbon "footprints" of products, as well as in ways to reduce such footprints. While much attention has been paid to life-cycle assessment (LCA) methods for environmental footprint estimation, comparably little attention has been paid to robust, quantitative methods for analyzing design, process, and policy opportunities for reducing product environmental footprints. This research will develop a hybrid supply chain modeling approach, which aims to couple input-output LCA methods with sector- and process-level techno-economic energy analysis data and methods. The approach will allow for both environmental and economic assessment of discrete technology and process improvement opportunities across the many energy and emissions sources, end use technologies, and sectors that comprise a product's supply chain footprint. This will be accomplished through several key tasks that include: (i) developing methods for disaggregating sector energy data into end use categories meaningful for engineering analysis; (ii) developing statistical methods for benchmarking current end use technologies for each sector; (iii) deriving techno-economic cost curves by end use; and (iv) developing an intuitive public use computation tool for applying the modeling methods. The work will further the state of analytical and statistical methods in the characterization of complex supply chains in technology-rich fashion, which is critical for detailed design, supply chain engagement, process and materials selection, and product-oriented policy decisions. The successful development of this novel modeling approach would have a huge impact on the LCA and supply chain environmental management communities, and would further be ideally suitable as an educational tool for students at many levels, including pre-college students. Such information can be used by manufacturers to understand where the greatest opportunities for environmental improvement might be in their supply chains and how cost-feasible such improvements might be, by policy-makers to identify product supply chains and technologies that offer the most cost-effective and efficient targets for reducing product embodied impacts, and by the LCA community to better model technology variation and technology costs at the process level in LCAs. It will also help forge a new bridge between the LCA and techo-economic modeling communities. The project will develop case studies for visualizing and analyzing the various degrees of freedom for driving greener supply chain practices, and will incorporate these case studies into a teaching module with exercises for pre-college science classes. Smaller research problems will be structured to be suitable for undergraduate students. Regular meetings among participants will ensure proper communication, and a formal data management procedure will be in place to ensure proper archiving of modeling and simulation data, material, procedure, software, and educational material. In addition to normal journal publications, a website will be developed to advertise the program, disseminate results and information about teaching modules and sharing demonstration experience in schools, and announce outreach activities such as seminars by PI, research openings for undergraduates, and summer activities for teachers.