BioLaMer LCA partners from University of Bologna participated and presented the research results at the SETAC Europe 36th Annual Meeting, held in Maastricht, The Netherlands, from 17–21 May 2026.
The conference brought together a vibrant international community of more than 2,500 participants, including academic researchers, industry representatives, policymakers, and sustainability experts. Across five days of sessions, discussions focused on advancing environmental assessment methods, promoting circular bioeconomy strategies, and supporting innovation toward more sustainable production systems.
BioLaMer Contributions
Our partners presented two scientific posters focused on early-stage sustainability assessment for biopolymer production:
- Prof Serena Righi presented a poster titled “A Combined Sustainability Approach to Guide Infrastructure Design for Poly(hydroxyalkanoate) Production from Food Waste” which explored how integrating Life Cycle Costing (LCC)-based upscaling with early-stage Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can support sustainability-informed system design prior to industrial scale-up.
- Dr Floriana Coppola presented a poster “Early-Stage Life Cycle Assessment to Support the Ecodesign of Laboratory-Scale Poly(hydroxyalkanoate) Production Strategies” demonstrating how early-stage LCA can help identify environmental hotspots and operational trade-offs while process adjustments are still practical and cost-effective.
Together, these studies emphasize the value of combining early-stage LCA with complementary tools such as LCC to support informed decision-making during the initial phases of process development. This approach is particularly important for emerging biopolymer systems, where early design choices can strongly influence environmental performance, scalability, and long-term economic feasibility.
The abstracts of both poster presentations have also been submitted for inclusion in the conference proceedings, further extending the visibility and dissemination of the research outputs.
Funding Acknowledgment
This project is funded by European Innovation Council under Grant Agreement no. 101099487. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
