IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

Mistra TerraClean (MTC) is a research programme focusing on developing smart engineered materials and devices for the treatment of air and water. The second phase of the programme (MTCII) commenced in the fall of 2021 and is scheduled to conclude by the end of September 2025. The aim of Work Package (WP) 3 in MTCII is to provide input regarding human health and environmental impacts to the various case study packages (CSPs) involved in MTCII for supporting the development of smart, flexible and effective materials.

The work in WP3 has been divided into three tasks:1) Appraisal process development, 2) Life cycle-based risk and opportunity mapping (LCBROM) and safety assessments, and 3) Life cycle assessment (LCA), Life cycle costing (LCC) and applied ecotoxicity testing. This report, D3.5, is an external summary report summarizing the series of internal deliverables in Task 2. Task 2: LCBROM and safety assessments The LCBROM method was originally developed (by WP3 in task 2 in MTCII) to fill a gap of tools currently available for assessing innovations at low technology readiness levels (TRL).

The goal of LCBROM is to analyse concerns and opportunities for materials or processes at low TRL to guide innovation toward a more sustainable solution. When performing an LCBROM, use of Materials and Energy and release of substances with identified Toxicity potential, in short MET are assessed against the life cycle stages of production, use, and disposal and summarized in a MET matrix. The original wording was used in eco-design approaches and uses simplified terms (toxicity instead of specifying endpoints) to facilitate a dialogue. Environmental aspects are separated into three general categories to provide wider coverage. When the innovation is assessed against the toxicity part of the MET matrix, a safety assessment can be performed to support the LCBROM assessment further. That has been applied in some LCBROM assessments.

Additionally, stand-alone safety assessments based on hazard assessments have also been performed. An introduction to the LCBROM method and a summary of the four LCBROMs delivered as part of Task 2 are presented in Part 1 of this report. These are extended abstracts of more detailed internal deliverables. Similarly, an introduction to safety assessment as an evaluation tool and the three safety assessments delivered as part of Task 2 are presented in Part 2 of this report