Environment: A software to measure circular economy in companies

ENEA has developed the TE3C software, at the request of Utilitalia, which enables companies to quantify energy savings and CO2 emissions avoided by using secondary materials (waste, by-products or recycled materials) in place of virgin raw materials.

"The use of secondary materials instead of primary materials can reduce energy consumption and climate-changing emissions throughout their life cycle, with sustainability benefits across the supply chain. Thanks to this new tool that can be consulted online for free, companies will now be able to calculate the benefits in terms of Circular Energy Efficiency Certificates (TEECs) and Circular Carbon Credits (3Cs) resulting from the use of secondary materials in place of primary ones, hence the name TE3C given to the software", explained Silvio Viglia,  researcher at the ENEA Tools for Sustainability and Circularity Laboratory for Productive and Territorial Systems and among the developers of the software and technique, together with Roberto Carletti and Laura Cutaia of the ENEA Circular Economy Division.

In fact, an innovative aspect of this system is the possibility for companies to obtain Circular Energy Efficiency Certificates and Circular Carbon Credits accrued from using or producing secondary material instead of primary materials. " TEEC and 3C certificates are issued only after verification of data and documents of the purchase and sale of the secondary material, enhancing the efforts of the secondary supply chain to produce quality materials. In the future, these titles and credits could be recognized in the respective markets, providing a ‘boost’ to both companies and the supply chain," Viglia said.

The heart of the software is a database for calculating TEECs and 3Cs, which includes 8 main types of materials (plastics/rubber, aggregates, nonferrous and ferrous metals, paper/paperboard, glass, textiles and wood) and cotains data from scientific studies provided by Utilitalia member companies regarding the energy intensity ^[1] and carbon footprint ^[2]of 34 specific materials (in primary and recycling ‘form’).

In addition to attesting the savings achieved, the software also enables cooperative contribution actions, i.e., registered users can contribute new data on materials, both primary and secondary, to the system's database. "After registering to the site by filling out a master form, users (e.g., research organizations, universities, consortia or companies) can activate their role as users and as data providers, thereby expanding the database. The information will be validated by our experts before publication," Viglia pointed out.

The actual savings in terms of energy and avoided emissions are based on the “cradle-to-market” assessment, which evaluates the environmental impact of a product throughout the entire life cycle (LCA) of secondary materials compared to the replaced primary materials. “According to the LCA method we adopted, the ‘cradle’ of virgin materials is represented by the point of extraction, while for secondary materials the origin is the point of generation of the by-product” Viglia explained.

The study analysed over 40 recycling supply chains: in the case of cardboard, energy savings are equivalent to 0.25 tep/t (tons of oil equivalent per ton of secondary raw material used), for glass 0.58, for PET (the polymer of the plastic in mineral water bottles) 1.11, and for steel 2.86. For aluminum, the savings are maximum: for one ton of recycled material, about 4 toe is saved and 15 tons of CO₂ emissions into the atmosphere are avoided.