From 19 to 21 June 2024, Venkateshwaran Venkatachalam and Meret Jürgens took part in the CIRP Life Cycle Engineering conference in Turin. As part of the event, they each presented aspects of their current research in a short presentation followed by a discussion. Venkateshwaran Venkatachalam spoke about the substitution potential of recyclates based on their technical properties and environmental impacts, which were analysed at the IKK. Meret Jürgens presented findings from a comprehensive literature analysis on the environmental impacts of Circular Economy measures for plastic products in Europe. Both used the subsequent discussion to obtain suggestions and feedback.
The conference covers a wide range of topics in the field of Life Cycle Engineering (LCE), including eco-design, sustainable manufacturing, sustainable supply chain management, sustainable product development and life cycle analysis. The keynote presentations included "Life cycle engineering as a pathway to achieving net-zero targets" (S. Kara and M. Z. Hauschild), "The new Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR): key scientific considerations for a methodology for the definition of product requirements" (C. Magrini) and "Targeting environmental sustainability goals in the aviation industry: a multi-dimensional problem" (L. Bedon).
The participation in the CIRP Life Cycle Engineering conference emphasises the importance of research at the IKK and its contribution to sustainable solutions in plastics and recycling technology. The conference submissions are available online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2024.01.062 (Venkateshwaran Venkatachalam) and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2024.01.046 (Meret Jürgens).
