Material efficiency for circular economy: from assessments to optimizations

Abstract

The environmental performance of an ecosystem requires optimizations from the design stage to the end of life demonstrating the ability of its products and system to be reintroduced inside the lifecycles trying to regenerate natural systems and minimizing the environmental footprint. Paying special attention to use phase optimization will contribute to extending the lifespan of the products and system. To improve the material efficiency the linear model shall be transformed into a circular model, in which the regulatory initiatives could merge household appliances and industrial equipment. To understand the various capabilities, an overview of the standardization works about material efficiency for circular economy in Europe is necessary. The horizontal standards, all in progress, focus primarily on assessments of various criteria of energy-related products (ERPs). To complete efficient assessments, IEC standards dealing with dependability enable the optimization of products and systems designs and their use phase. To reach the final optimization, accurate aging models that are validated by tests and completed by digital tools embedding adaptive models of failure rate.