Exploring Biogenic Carbon in Lifecycle Assessments

In this episode, we’re diving into the world of biogenic carbon, what it is, why it matters, and how it’s treated in Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs).

Join us as we untangle the science, standards, and sustainability implications of measuring carbon from renewable biological sources.

Whether you're a sustainability pro or just carbon-curious, this one’s for you.

Presenters:

Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Vijay Thakur, Senior Manager, Sustainability & LCA Lead, Intertek Assuris

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Transcript

00:16 --> 01:57
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Hello and welcome to this podcast where today we are going to be exploring biogenic carbon in lifecycle assessments. I'm Catherine Beer, the Regional Director for Business Assurance here in the UK and Iberia.

And I'm delighted today to be joined by my colleague Vijay Thakur, who is a consultant with the Assurance Business. Now Vijay is a sustainability professional with over 10 years of experience. Specifically in the field of life cycle assessments, Vijay has worked on LCA and EPD for various industries, including the steel, textile, petrochemical products, automotive components, special steel products and a few others across various geographies. Vijay is also associated with EPD International as an approved verifier and has completed various EPDs for various sectors, construction, chemical, apparel, etc. 

So Vijay, I'm very excited to get into exploring a little bit more behind biogenic carbon in the LCA, not something I know very much about myself. Can you please briefly explain what biogenic carbon is and why it's relevant in life cycle assessments today?

01:57 --> 03:25
 Speaker 2 – Vijay Thakur, Senior Manager, Sustainability & LCA Lead, Intertek Assuris

Sure. So biogenic carbon refers to carbon that is absorbed by biological material like plants, trees, crops, etc. They absorb the CO2 from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis process and that's what makes it bio-based origin, and on the other hand we have the fossil carbon, which is coming from fossil sources like crude etc. So, similar to renewable energy, bio-based solutions or biological materials, are seen as an alternate.

Due to the problem of fossil carbon, you can actually absorb the carbon through the plants during its growth and release it back to the end of life. You can still have a zero impact and why it's relevant is because there is a good focus now, where people are thinking about the alternatives to the fossil-based product and coming up with new solutions or looking the alternatives.  That's where these bio-based materials are sometimes better. However, the catch is by just being biogenic, it doesn't mean its automatically sustainable. It also depends on how that carbon is stored, released, or even reabsorbed over the time. So, these are the things that we need to look at from a LCA lens and that's why it is relevant.

03:25 --> 03:38
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Wow, OK, a lot I was not aware of there. Fantastic. So, biogenic carbon is often assumed to be carbon neutral. Is that true?

03:38 --> 05:29
 Speaker 2 – Vijay Thakur, Senior Manager, Sustainability & LCA Lead, Intertek Assuris

Yeah, that's a common misconception, I would say, and to an extent true as well. It can be carbon neutral, but it depends on the full lifecycle context, I'll give you a very good example of paper versus plastic straw, something that we see quite common today, as an initiative by restaurants or organizations. The sole purpose of this type of initiative was to tackle the growing problem of persistent plastic waste in landfills and oceans, but instead of, fixing the closed loop recycling system and promoting the reusable alternatives, we shifted to the alternative paper straws without addressing the critical issue of end of life management. So, what happens in most of the time is because this paper is bio based in nature, and also comes from renewable source--which although is great-- if it is a single use item and ends up in a landfill where it might degrade anaerobically, it can emit some methane, which is far worse greenhouse gas compared to CO2. So, you might actually be having a greater environmental impact compared to the plastic straw.  That is something we can evaluate through lifecycle assessment, by completely comparing the two products side by side, looking at their full system boundary, and the completing the environmental impact. 

So, the ultimate conclusion is that even the sustainable materials might need the right system behind them. Otherwise, we risk we have a risk of solving one problem, while creating another problem.

05:29 --> 05:42
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Yeah, OK, makes sense. Makes sense. So. So can you give me some practical examples of any such cases, maybe just to make it more real for the audience?

05:42 --> 07:49
 Speaker 2 – Vijay Thakur, Senior Manager, Sustainability & LCA Lead, Intertek Assuris

Sure, I have already discussed one, but I can think of some more. 

For example, a closely related example is bio-based cutleries, forks, spoon or even plates, which are made of PLA or other biobased material and very often they have a very thin layer of plastic on those disposable items and which makes it like you know, not easy to recycle or degrade.

So, if these types of coatings are not there, they may be technically compostable or recyclable. Also, another fact is that sometimes claims like compostable or biodegradable, they work only under a prescribed environment or you can say under the industrial environment, which is not available everywhere. Sometimes, these materials just exist in landfill or are just dumped on open land. So, it creates more of a problem because you cannot mix this type of waste with the conventional plastic waste because it would contaminate it. If chemically they are different from the conventional plastic, it's not easy to recycle them, and it's not easy to degrade them in the conventional landfill.  If they are not designed for that kind of environment, you might create more of a problem compared to solving the actual issues.  Many times, these initiatives are taken purely to just look good because that is perhaps more important than actually doing something to save the environment. So the key point that I want to bring in is that using the bio-based material doesn't guarantee a better environmental outcome. We have to match the right material choice with the right infrastructure and need to consider the consumer behaviour and the end of life treatment.

07:49 --> 08:00
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Yeah, interesting. So are there major differences between LCA standards and how to handle biogenic carbon?

08:00 --> 09:56
 Speaker 2 – Vijay Thakur, Senior Manager, Sustainability & LCA Lead, Intertek Assuris

Absolutely. This topic is quite evolving I would say and various standards approach this topic a little bit differently or I would say there are some fundamental difference on the way it is calculated. For example, in the PEF method, all the biogenic CO2 is considered as zero, which means you neither account for the CO2 uptake or the CO2 emissions. The only thing that we would be accounting for is the biogenic to maintain uptake or emissions. So that's the PEF approach, also called the 00 approach. On the other hand, ISO 14067 or 14044, they take a little bit different approach, where they characterize the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as -1 and the release is +1. Ultimately, that sums up to zero over the entire product life cycle if the carbon is fully incinerated or fully released back into the environment. In some cases, when it is converted to the methane then, where the net emissions would come into the picture. So, those are some of the differences. 

Of course, there are some other considerations regarding the guidance on how you can take the benefit of temporary storage of carbon or the permanent storage of carbon in the product. Some standards allow this, some don't. Also, some standards have a little bit different guidance on how you calculate the land use related carbon dioxide emissions. These are some of the challenges, which you will come across when you're comparing the different standards on how to approach this problem.

09:56 --> 10:20
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

My goodness, it's not straightforward, is it? It certainly needs such a thought through review, which is obviously where the likes of yourself comes in. So look Vijay, that that's been really, really insightful. Now if you had to leave the listeners with one key message.
 About biogenic carbon and LCA, what would it be?

10:20 --> 11:16
 Speaker 2 – Vijay Thakur, Senior Manager, Sustainability & LCA Lead, Intertek Assuris

Yeah. So my one key message would be don't just assume that bio means better. The climate benefit of bio-based material depends on time, context and what happens at the end of life. 

We need to stop thinking in silos and need to understand that just changing material is not enough. We have to understand the full system and especially the full end of life and so repeat here. You have to understand the full product system, how the product is used, what kind of infrastructure or support mechanism exists, and how long the carbon would be stored or how the carbon is emitted back into the environment. To conclude, biobased solutions inherently are not good or bad. It's situational and only a system thinking approach like a lifecycle assessment can tell us the full story.

11:16 --> 12:24
 Speaker 1 – Catherine Beare, Regional Director - Business Assurance (UK & Iberia)

Totally understood. Well, look, thank you Vijay for joining us today. Clearly a wealth of experience in this area and something that clearly is not so straightforward as it may seem, as you say, not always as obvious whether you're making the right decision or not.

So look, we offer many solutions around LCAS. You've heard about a very detailed one today, which Vijay and the team would be more than delighted to give you more insights and support on. So do get in touch.

Now For more information, please do go and visit our website on www.intertech.com/assuris/sustainability. 

So that concludes today's podcast. Thank you for listening and do watch out for more episodes from our sustainability experts to help you with your sustainability journey. Thank you all.