Lou BERNARD
Position
Sustainability Technical Officer at Lomartov S.L.Entity:
Lomartov S.L.Country:
SPAINSession:
Speech by Lou Bernard
Theme: Life cycle assessment of two ecodesigned printed electronic devices.
| Lou Bernard studied at the Bordeaux Graduate School of Biomolecule Technology, Bordeaux, France, where she obtained first a bachelor’s degree and then M.S. degree in biotechnology engineering in 2023. She did various work placements in startups on environmental microbiology and molecular biology where she was investigating bioplastic synthesis from organic waste and air depollution using bacteria. She is currently working as sustainability engineer at Lomartov, Valencia, Spain where she focuses on sustainability assessment of emerging technologies. This work includes conducting Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), economic evaluations and using ecodesign methodology among other tasks, to evaluate impacts of innovative technologies. |
Abstract
| The primary objective of Sustain-a-Print (SaP) project is to develop novel life-cycle pathways for printed electronics (PE) to achieve circularity. This involves redesigning PE products and manufacturing processes, using biobased and compostable materials and promoting closed-loop recycling of the metals used in conductive inks. Two PE devices were developed in SaP following ecodesign principles: a biosensor and a membrane switch.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to calculate the environmental impacts of the ecodesigned PE devices, identifying key environmental hotspots and comparing them with the original devices produced under a linear economy model. A cradle-to-cradle approach was adopted, meaning that the scope of the assessment covers the production of the new materials, novel manufacturing processes and the end of life (EoL) of the PE devices. Special focus was placed on the EoL solutions proposed for the various components. The ecodesigned biosensor shows a significant reduction in weight, mainly due to lower use of substrate and ink. This results in decreased environmental impacts, as lower quantity of metals —responsible for most of the environmental burden— is required, and a substantial portion is assumed to be recovered at the EoL. In contrast, the ecodesigned membrane switch uses more material, as the new copper ink is less conductive than the silver ink in the original device. Nonetheless, the environmental impacts of the new devices are still notably lower than its baseline, due to the lower impacts of copper compared to silver and the potential for metal recovery at EoL. |