Remanufacturing of energy using products makes sense only when technology is mature: Introducing a circular economy indicator for remanufacturing based on a parameterized lca and lcc assessment of a circulation pump

Abstract

In the current debate about Circular Economy (CE) many circularity measurements focus solely on material cycles and resource-efficiency. Hence, remanufacturing is per se seen as a sustainable End-of-Life (EoL) pathway. As CE-indicators do often not take the use-phase into account, that assumption is not necessarily true and the benefit questionable. This is why in this paper a remanufacturing indicator is introduced which evaluates if remanufacturing is a good EoL strategy for energy using products (EuP) from an ecologic and economic point of view, taking technical improvements and energy efficiency gains into account. We elaborate what matters when assessing remanufacturing, especially when a comparative assessment is conducted. The indicator is applied in a case study where remanufacturing of an old circulation pump is compared to using various new, more efficient pumps as substitutes in a 2nd Life Cycle. Thereby, a parameterized model is developed for the LCA and LCC assessment of the remanufacturing process. The main finding is that remanufacturing of EuP only makes sense when technology is mature. This is very distinct from an environmental perspective but applies also to the financial aspects.