Title awarding university: Leibniz University Hannover

Cooperation: Fraunhofer Institute for Wood Research Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institute WKI

Title of the doctoral project: Assessing biogenic carbon in the context of prospective life cycle assessment and circular economy

Short description of the doctoral project: Standards and literature offer various approaches to handling biogenic carbon within life cycle assessments (LCA). While recent efforts have been made to harmonize these approaches—most notably through the UNEP stakeholder ‘Biogenic Carbon Project’—a clear consensus has yet to be reached. Furthermore, specific guidelines remain scarce for assessing biogenic carbon in the context of prospective or circular LCAs.

The aim of this work is to develop a framework for assessing biogenic carbon in prospective LCA, with a particular focus on the spatial and temporal aspects of carbon sequestration. Additionally, this research will develop guidelines for:

• Upscaling inventories (both background and foreground)
• Scenario development utilizing agent-based modeling
• Prospective impact assessments of novel sequestration systems

The work further addresses biogenic carbon within the framework of circular LCA, integrating it with circular bioeconomy indicators to create a holistic sustainability metric. Finally, biogenic carbon is explored through the lens of absolute environmental sustainability assessment (AESA) methodology.

By bridging these methodological gaps, this research provides a robust pathway for quantifying the climate mitigation potential of biogenic systems, ensuring that future bioeconomy strategies are grounded in both temporal accuracy and absolute planetary boundaries.