Over the past few decades, sustainable development has become one of society's most important challenges. In an effort to become sustainable, many companies experience an increasing need to measure, manage and improve the negative economic, environmental and social impacts caused by their organizational behavior along corporate supply chains and product life cycles. Sustainability performance assessment methods are a means for business decision-makers to meet such needs. While sustainability performance assessment methods for economic and environmental dimensions are well-developed, the social dimension of sustainability is lacking in that regard. Social sustainability entails issues such as equity and human rights of company stakeholders such as employees, customers, local community members, value chain actors and society. There is an increasing concern to incorporate social sustainability by businesses so as to become sustainable in all three dimensions; however, an empirical tool is needed to for measuring the social impacts of the company operations and making improvements. The Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) tool was developed for the assessment of the social dimension of sustainability in a meaningful way for application in the business world. United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Society for Environmental Toxicologists and Chemists (SETAC) developed S-LCA Guidelines and Methodological Sheets in 2009 and 2013, respectively, for assessing the social impacts of products and services across the life cycle. The UNEP/SETAC S-LCA methodological framework has been considered the “landmark in the field” of social sustainability assessment because it provides a view of the value chain, an aspect lacking in other social sustainability assessment tools. Even with recent increasing publications by S-LCA practitioners, however, S-LCA is still at an early stage of research and the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines leave a lot of room for interpretation. Thus, it is urged to conduct more research in the field of S-LCA, and a main way to contribute to its further development is through case studies. This research aims to contribute in this way by developing and applying a S-LCA methodology to a case study of the ZERO BRINE project in the Netherlands. The ZERO BRINE project is a European Union-funded partnership that works on zero liquid discharge technology for water, salt and magnesium recovery from brine effluents in the chemical process industry. The main objective of this thesis is to assess the social sustainability performances of the organizations in the ZERO BRINE system in the Netherlands using the UNEP/SETAC S-LCA framework as a reference, so as to determine the social impacts associated with the project as well as to contribute to the further development of the S-LCA methodology. Despite some limitations, in general, the approach proposed in this thesis succeeds in providing a profile of social sustainability which highlights the social hotspot areas that need improvements along the value chain. The results of the case study show the potential social hotspots in the ZERO BRINE chain, which should be considered when implementing the ZERO BRINE project. Personalized recommendations are offered per organization on how those hotspots can be improved. In this way, the advice may be valuable for members of management of the organizations wishing to increase the social sustainability of the business. In particular, the ZERO BRINE system may show a more positive social sustainability outcome if the recommendations of this thesis are implemented strategically.

Circular economy principles are gaining attention in the Netherlands. Industries, consumers and the Dutch government feel increased responsibility to tackle barriers to sustainable development. The government is increasing its investments to stimulate consumers to live more sustainably and companies that develop circular products are established. Industry, however, seems to fall behind on this. Engaging in industrial symbiosis could be an easy start for industries to become more sustainable. Not having to adjust their production processes, merely replacing raw materials with residual materials, creates a low threshold. To enhance the environmental performance of industries, the use of industrial symbiosis thus needs to increase. Research focussed on the development of industrial symbiosis mainly focusses on geographic proximity. By discarding geographic proximity and focussing on regional networks, more opportunities could be spotted and more synergies realized. Especially when this is combined with a bottom-up approach. However, lack in coordination to create these synergies is a huge drawback for IS development according to literature. Establishing a bottom-up facilitation-brokerage network can tackle this issue. Key in this network is the network manager, the private facilitator. Literature shows, however, that a clear approach for a facilitator to develop an industrial symbiosis network is missing. Given the important role of network manager, this strategic policy should be developed. This study provides an analytical tool which private facilitators can use to support their decision-making in coordinating an industrial symbiosis network. A combination of business process modelling and stage-gate theory have led to the development of a schematic overview and an Excel model. By identifying the processes, the private facilitator needs to consider, he can actively engage in the development of an industrial symbiosis network in the Netherlands. This moves the circular economy forwards.

Carbon dioxide can be used during concrete production, which leads to stronger concrete as well as a sequestration method for CO2. While these technologies are developed quite far, they are currently not being used within society nor is there any systemic overview of the system and a reason why these technologies are not used. This thesis performs a Technological Innovation System analysis to investigate the Dutch concrete system and find barriers to the transition from conventional to carbon-cured concrete. The three located barriers are knowledge exchange, guidance of the search and the formation of markets. Intervention tools are presented to decrease the barriers and stimulate the technology within the system to enable further growth.

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris in 2015, ambitious goals for the worldwide CO2 emissions were set. To achieve these goals, a huge reduction in CO2 emissions must be realized. For the energy market, the current aim is to use renewable electricity instead of fossil fuels. However, there are multiple sectors where electricity is not a suitable form of energy, due to storage issues. For example, the chemical industry is heavily based on fossil fuels as a resource to synthesize chemicals. It is therefore useful to investigate the feasibility of renewable synthetic fuels. The goal of this thesis is to design a process that converts the hydrocarbon fuel combustion products CO2 and H2O into a fuel that is a liquid at atmospheric conditions. Methanol is selected as the liquid fuel because of its basic molecule structure. It requires much more energy to obtain methanol from CO2 and H2O than it does from natural gas. The process is determined to be container-sized to become cost competitive through mass production. The technical feasibility of a mass produced, autonomous, renewable and container-sized methanol production plant is studied in this thesis. The whole process is divided into sub processes. H2O is obtained from desalination of seawater. The H2O is split into H2 and O2 using alkaline electrolysis. The CO2 is adsorbed from the air and recovered using pressure and temperature swing. The required energy is obtained using solar PV and solar thermal. The H2 and CO2 are finally converted to methanol in the methanol synthesis sub process. The intermittent character of solar energy yields a dynamically operated process. The methanol synthesis sub process is studied further because of the small scale and dynamic operation that are new concepts for this technology. The other sub processes are considered as black boxes with fixed in- and outputs. The steady state operation of the whole process is modeled using Aspen Plus™ and the distillation process is modelled in MATLAB®. Using the results from Aspen, pinch analysis is performed for optimal use of the available heat. From the results of the model, it is found that an autonomous container-sized methanol production plant is technically feasible. 140 kg of methanol can be produced daily with a purity of at least 96.6 %, using a set-up of three 40 feet sea containers, two of which are dedicated to the capture of CO2. 288 kW of electrical power and 24 kW of heat is required for the operation. This is equal to a solar park with an area of 1663 m2 assuming an average 6 hours of solar irradiance. Using the LHV of methanol in the calculation, the total efficiency of the process is estimated at 45 %. The results from the MATLAB® model of the distillation cannot be validated because the used equation of state of REFPROP underestimates the concentration of methanol in each iteration, yielding an invalid mass balance. Fixing this issue results in an invalid energy balance. It is therefore concluded that REFPROP is not suitable for iterative calculations of distillation columns.

This study provides suggestions to decrease hot utility use and impact on the environment of a skim milk powder (SMP) processing plant. These suggestions are based on the integration of waste streams with processes in the production of SMP. To identify appropriate waste and process streams, process integration has proven to be a successful method. This concept addresses the issue of waste heat of a process by pointing out to the importance of the relation between unit-processes. In this study, the integration of waste streams is accomplished by heat exchangers, heat pumps and a zeolite wheel. The general assumption underlying this research, is that recovering heat from unused waste streams decreases hot utility use. Multiple methodologies were used in this study. To accomplish process integration, the pinch analysis forms an essential tool. This analysis was used to identify potential heat recovery schemes in the SMP plant. Furthermore, to fully understand these schemes, a thermal, environmental and economical analysis was done. These analyses were based on mass and energy balances, (in)direct CO2 emissions and investment and operational costs. Several conclusion can be drawn from the pinch analysis. First, the pinch temperature is 50◦C. This represents the dividing line between processes which require heating and cooling. Second, the heating and cooling demand is known. The SMP production process requires 6.8 MW of external heating and 1.7 MW of external cooling. Third, the amount of recoverable heat is equal to 5.3 MW. Fourth, appropriate heat sink and sources are identified. The heat sources, i.e. waste streams, are the spray dryer exhaust and the the condensate streams from two evaporators. The supply temperatures of the exhaust and the condensate streams are respectively 77, 65 and 55◦C. The appropriate heat sinks are the spray dryer air inlet and the evaporator product inlet streams. The target temperature of the spray dryer inlet and evaporator inlet streams are respectively 190, 75 and 70◦C. Seven heat recovery setups are proposed. In terms of saved energy, the spray dryer exhaust has the most potential for heat recovery. The zeolite wheel is the best performing heat recovery technology in the spray dryer process, with a recovery of 3.5 MW. Furthermore, a heat exchanger-heat pump combination and a stand-alone heat exchanger recover respectively 1.8 and 1.6 MW. In contrast, the evaporation process has less potential for heat recovery. The best performing configuration is a heat pump, recovering 1.4 MW from the evaporator condensate. The environmental performance is strongly related with the amount of energy saved. This is because the most decisive parameter in the environmental analysis is the carbon intensity of natural gas and electricity. The best performing configurations in terms of saved CO2 emissions are the zeolite wheel (3806 ton/yr), the heat exchanger-heat pump combination (1934 ton/yr) and the stand-alone heat exchanger (1593 ton/yr) in the spray dryer process. In the evaporation section, the heat pump saves 1485 ton CO2 per year. The total annual costs are derived from the equivalent annual costs of the asset, carbon savings and utility savings/costs. The best performing configuration is the heat pump in the evaporation process. This technology has an annual return of 145 ke per year. Other configurations with a high return are the stand-alone heat exchanger (143 ke/yr), the heat exchanger-heat pump combination (128 ke/yr) and the zeolite wheel (123 ke/yr).

Over the past decades, global efforts have been made to address climate change and improve the well-being of our planet. The European Union (EU) has set ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets and strategies to combat climate change. Bio-energy, specifically biofuels produced from biomass, has gained significant attention as a crucial component in decarbonizing energy and production systems. While renewable energy sources like solar and wind are primarily used for electricity generation, bio-based processes focus on producing biofuels for heat, power, transportation, and biochemistry sectors. Therefore, biomass can play a crucial role in decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries that are challenging to electrify, such as the chemical industry, heavy road transport, and marine and aviation sectors. However, the chemical industry, a major energy consumer and emitter of CO2, relies heavily on fossil fuels as feedstock and energy sources, necessitating a shift to carbon-free alternatives. The biomass-to-syngas pathway, which involves converting biomass into bio-based syngas through gasification, has emerged as a promising solution for a more sustainable chemical industry. However, the development of this value chain faces technical and commercial challenges. Technical challenges include tar formation and product impurities, while commercial challenges include financing limitations, low market maturity, and sustainable feedstock availability. Moreover, handling and using biomass as a feedstock itself present constraints such as transportation limitations, variable composition and properties, low energy density, and high moisture and oxygen content. These challenges hinder the competitiveness of bio-based syngas production against fossil fuel alternatives and impede the development of the biomass-to-syngas value chain. To address these challenges, the integration of torrefaction technology into the value chain has been proposed as a promising approach. Torrefaction enhances biomass densification, reduces moisture content, and improves the overall viability of the biomass-to-syngas value chain. However, the commercial implementation and economic feasibility of torrefaction remain uncertain. Additionally, research primarily focuses on technological improvements and lacks a deeper understanding of system integration, practical implementations, and stakeholder perspectives. This research aims to bridge these knowledge gaps by actively engaging with stakeholders across the value chain to address the challenges of developing the biomass-to-syngas value chain and propose comprehensive solutions through stakeholder involvement. It explores the system integration of torrefaction technology, considering industry stakeholders' perspectives. The research employs a step-wise approach, focusing on an in-depth case study of the Dutch chemical industry. Data is collected through an exploratory literature review, semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, a questionnaire, and a webinar serving as a panel discussion platform. The research identifies 44 barriers hindering the development of the biomass-to-syngas value chain and the integration of torrefaction technology. These barriers primarily stem from deficiencies in innovation-specific institutions, network formation and coordination, and the production system. Stakeholders and experts agree that technological and logistical challenges can be overcome. However, addressing failures in innovation-specific institutions, such as the lack of economic and policy incentives and an unfavorable regulatory environment, is crucial for driving the development of the value chain. Based on these findings and insights obtained through expert reflection the research develops comprehensive solution statements and formulates five strategies to address the identified barriers, including cohesive policies, industry-tailored subsidies, standardized certifications and regulations, enhanced network formation, and decentralized torrefaction technology integration. In conclusion, this research underscores the significance of the biomass-to-syngas pathway as a key driver for a sustainable chemical industry. By addressing technical and commercial challenges and the integration of torrefaction technology, comprehensive strategies have been formulated to overcome barriers and unlock the value chain's full potential. These findings thereby provide actionable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders to drive the sustainable development of the biomass-to-syngas value chain.

Water is an important resource in many industries in the world. Due to emerging regulatory framework, change in consumer’s perspective and increasing costs for water, industries are forced to move towards sustainable water use. Nowadays, improvements in the brewery industry are focussed on increasing the efficiency of the processes or treating the complete wastewater stream on site. Water network optimization models can effectively decrease the fresh water flowrate and wastewater flowrate production. The water pinch is in most cases used to optimize fresh water use and wastewater production in a single industry. This thesis is the first to use the water pinch in a circularity concept of a wider network with a brewery and external user. Circularity is in this thesis defined as the percentage of water from a brewery that can be reused by an external party, after it has been used inside the brewery. Two case breweries in Egypt were used to illustrate the water pinch method, El Obour brewery and Sharkia brewery. For both breweries an orange orchard of 87 ha with a water demand of 9836 m3/month was indicated as the external user. Per brewery, a list of water using processes that produce an effluent was determined. This list contains the CIP processes in the brew house and cellars and includes every process in the packaging department. In addition, the utility department processes cooling towers, boilers and CO2 washers were part of the water network of the breweries. The initial water network of El Obour consisted of 18 brewery processes and one external user, the orange orchard. Sharkia brewery had 17 brewery processes and the orange orchard. Actual process water flowrates were used as well as UBM process water flowrates. For El Obour brewery the initial fresh water flowrate was 9755 m3/month and 8466 m3/month for UBM process water flowrates. The Sharkia brewery initial fresh water flowrate was 15695 m3/month and 14961 m3/month for UBM process water flowrates. COD, Total N and Na+ were identified as key constituents. Per key constituent, a composite curve was constructed and a new, optimized water network designed. For the El Obour brewery the water pinch steps were described in detail to show how the composite curves and the networks could be constructed. The Sharkia brewery was used to validate the method. With the composite curve and pinch point determined, processes could be indicated as source or sink. The orange orchard was always considered as a sink and was satisfied first with every possible source. The water that was flowing from the brewery to the orange orchard identified the circularity potential of the network. COD was the reference constituent for both breweries as the most restrictions occurred in this network. With the COD limiting network as basis, integrated networks were designed that complied with every constituent restriction. The results showed that for El Obour the fresh water consumption decreased with 7% to 7909 m3/month and the wastewater production decreased with 22% to 6607 m3/month. Resulting in an initial circularity potential of the El Obour brewery of 11 – 13% (depending on the used process water flowrates based on actual measurements or UBM). The fresh water consumption and wastewater production savings for Sharkia were respectively 0% and 34%. The Sharkia brewery could be 28 – 34% circular on water in the initial phase without treatment of effluents (depending on the used process water flowrates based on actual measurements or UBM). 100% circularity could not be achieved due to too high Na+ and COD concentrations. Total N caused no restrictions for reuse. The results show that the water pinch can be used to determine to what extend the case breweries can be circular on water with an external user. The water pinch is not only an optimization tool but it can help industrial sites including a brewery to identify collaboration between different users of the local watershed. Hereby increasing the circularity on water.

Due to the growing share of renewable energy sources (RESs) to counter global warming and fossil fuel depletion, the energy sector is electrifying at an increasing pace. However, not all sectors can electrify fully or at an even speed. The industry sector for instance, is heavily reliant on fossil fuelled feedstocks. Power-to-X is named in literature to resolve that dependency. A practical example of the Power-to-X principle is the electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen. The Dutch government aims to have 500MW of electrolyzers capacity installed by 2025, and 8GW by 2030. However, currently there is 1MW of capacity installed. This thesis aimed to find the rationale behind the discrepancy between the reality and the set targets. In this thesis, the Technical Innovation System (TIS) is analysed in an effort to delineate what the impact of the innovation system is on the development of the technology. With the use of a structural-functional analysis as proposed by Hekkert et al. (2011), an inductive research approach is taken, and the following research question is answered: How do the systemic functions impact the implementation and development of electrochemical synthesizes of hydrogen in the Netherlands and how can this performance be improved? The data is gathered via 13 expert interviews. The seven key processes are assessed. By doing so, the impact of the systemic functions is given. The resource mobilization scored a 2, the entrepreneurial activity, knowledge diffusion, guidance of the search, and market formation a score of 3, and knowledge development and creation of legitimacy a score of 4. In total, 36 systemic problems arose from the analysis. The systemic problems concentrate around the market uncertainty, lack or absence of institutional guidance and incentives, reluctant attitude of stakeholders, and insufficient resource availability. Systemic problems occurred in all system functions. The relevance of the seven system functions is questioned in the context of sustainable technologies since this analysis showed the extremes housing within SF4. Additionally, the use of a label score and an analysis score delivered a method for decreasing the subjective influence of the researcher with the ability to indicate weights to an argument. Both add to existing innovation literature and could be considered by future TIS analysists. Furthermore, this analysis showed the impact the innovation system has on the development of the technology. This is in contrast with existing techno-economic research on the challenges for hydrogen electrolysis, whom reason from the perspective of the technology. Further research could include adoption theory, in which the preferences of consumers are added, whilst the TIS analysis would result in the current capabilities of the system to uphold to these preferences.

Climate change is a pressing issue and risk in our current society caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reduce the GHG-emissions more renewable energy is needed instead of electricity and energy production by fossil fuels, which are high in GHG-emissions. The electricity production by renewable sources has increased in the last couple of years in the Netherlands. However, renewable energy production via wind and solar energy is supply based, i.e. can only be supplied when wind and sun is available. Energy storage is needed to overcome the energy needs during low or no renewable energy in sustainable way. However, there barely seems to be any storage in the Netherlands. The market does currently not value all the services that storage can provide. Research into the value of storage is needed to understand the lack of energy storage and the current valuation of energy. Energy storage can have different levels and services that it can provide. In this thesis the focus will be on grid-scale energy storage. In the Netherlands there are no grid-scale energy storages. In other countries there are grid-scale energy storages, often in the form of Pumped Hydro Storage. In the Netherlands there is a plan, called Delta21, that wants to expand the Delta Works and improve water safety by using pumps. In the plan the pumps can also be used for a Pumped Hydro Storage to store energy. It is important to understand the value of storages like Delta21 in the Dutch electricity system.

Green hydrogen is anticipated to be pivotal in the decarbonisation of global energy systems. For the Netherlands, both domestic production and imports of green hydrogen are believed to be needed for effective decarbonisation. Yet, significant uncertainty surrounds the cost discrepancy between domestic productions and initial imports, largely attributed to insufficient comparability of different reports. This study conducted a techno-economic assessment (TEA) to better understand these cost dynamics. To ensure that viable exporting countries are assessed a multicriteria analysis (MCA) was employed. Within this MCA, contributing factors underwent expert weighting. It was found that the earliest developing value chains might not necessarily be the most economical. Among potential initial exporters to the Netherlands, Chile, Spain, and the United States emerged as frontrunners, which led to their assessment in the TEA. The study highlighted the importance of wind availability for cost-effective hydrogen production. Even with favourable wind conditions in the Dutch North Sea, the Netherlands faces higher hydrogen costs due to the added expenses of connecting the wind with an onshore electrolyser through the grid. The costs of hydrogen transport were evaluated based on four possible hydrogen import development scenarios for transport as ammonia, liquified hydrogen and the liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) DBT. Results indicated that the costs of delivered hydrogen will likely range from similar to thrice that of domestic production across the different countries and carriers for the two scenarios where gigawatt supply chains are realised. Consequently, the study suggests that overseas imported green hydrogen will be more costly than domestically produced hydrogen in 2030.

In the Netherlands 2 million tons organic bio-waste is not fully sorted and ends up burned or landfilled. This process is unnecessarily harming the health of people, animals and our planet every year. With our waste quantities only increasing, this is an important topic on the European agenda. The creation of user-driven, self-organising, and decentralized networks is supported to make better use of the remaining value in bio-waste. The behaviour of people in these networks is critical for its environmental impact and long-term survival. This research proposes a quantitative set-up to increase the bio-waste separation rate of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To research the potential environmental benefit in a symbiotic network for bio-waste separation the following research question was posed: What is the influence of different groups of human behaviour and policy interventions in the development of bio-waste sortation networks for environmental benefit in symbiosis? The Value-Belief-Norm theory is a social theory that is based on the altruistic intentions that drives people to behave in the interest of the planet, rather than their own benefit. The set-up offers a new approach to combine the Value-Belief-Norm theory with Industrial Symbiosis. This approach is applied in an agent-based simulation model and case study of the NDSM wharf Amsterdam.

Global water-related impacts are in constant aggravation due to climate change, increased water demand, intensive human activities, and deterioration of the quality of water bodies. Under this paradigm, humanity must adapt and implement measures to ensure both the quality of water bodies and the sustainable management of resources. As a result, unexploited water resources, such as wastewater, have been a focus of attention among researchers. Wastewater Treatment (WWT) technologies stand as an important step to promote water reuse and potentially recover raw materials with added value. While WWT technologies have been assessed at the environmental and economic levels, their social repercussions are not extensively studied. Hence, the present master thesis project resorts to the Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) framework to execute an evaluation of the social performance of an innovative WWT system for resource recovery in Portugal. S-LCA was conducted at the organizational level, assessing the social performance of organizations in the value chain through the evaluation of the social effects on Workers, Consumers, Local Community, Society, and value chain actors. In addition, a generic assessment was performed to identify hotspot areas of the Portuguese water sector, following the S-LCA framework. The systems under analysis integrate a Water Mining (WM) project case study, where an innovative urban WWT technology is implemented. In the two systems defined, the wastewater is treated with the Nereda technology and safely discharged into the environment. Nevertheless, while in the reference system the sludge generated from the treatment is stored or forwarded to landfill, in the novel system a new biobased raw material is recovered. Regarding the generic assessment, a total of eleven impact subcategories were listed as critical areas regarding the operation of companies in the WWT sector. These were further investigated in the site-specific assessment conducted at the plant level. The results of the site-specific assessment indicate that the organisations included in the assessment performed well for both systems under analysis. However, organizations’ individual performances reflect that improvements are necessary mainly in the subcategories “equal opportunities/discrimination” and “community engagement”. Other subcategories where organizations need to improve are “promoting social responsibility”, “social benefits/social security”, “local employment”, “health and safety of consumers”, “safe and healthy living conditions” and “public commitment to sustainability issues”. For each organization that did not reach a satisfactory performance level in a certain subcategory, improvement recommendations were proposed. In general, the novel system performs better in all impact subcategories when compared to the reference system. Nonetheless, this result is intrinsically connected to system characteristics and model decisions such as weighting factors definition and multifunctionality matters, which remain as rather abstract concepts that do not completely reflect reality. The main challenges faced during the study concern the accessibility and availability of site-specific and generic data. In terms of site-specific assessment, the high similarity of the reference and novel systems in terms of organizations involved hindered the comparison of the two systems. To conclude, the S-LCA methodology allowed the identification of social hotpots areas as well as the evaluation of the reference and novel systems' social performance, contributing to the elaboration of strategies to improve social sustainability along the value chain of innovative WWT technologies.

This thesis aimed to investigate the potential of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to promote sustainable adjustments in the production process of semiconductor machines, considering uncertainties in carbon accounting. The research combines a review of existing literature, a case study analysis of a selected semiconductor company, and a policy analysis of the EU’s CBAM to provide insights into the ability of the CBAM to promote the use of sustainable materials in the semiconductor industry. The literature review highlighted the significance of life cycle assessment (LCA) as a carbon accounting tool and its potential to assess the relevant embedded emissions for the CBAM. The review showed indeed that LCA could be useful to assess the first phases of the production of the raw materials. Additionally, the review showed that it is less useful as a decision-making tool due to the fact that decision-making regarding the CBAM requires the consideration of other parameters as well, not only the environmental ones. Additionally, the review revealed the novelty of the EU’s CBAM regarding the carbon accounting tools and the CBAM’s design. At the same time, it highlighted the relevance of this research project. The statistical sensitivity analysis (SSA) conducted as an element of the case study showed that there exists a significant variation in the total embedded emissions of the semiconductor machine depending on the kind of steel and aluminium used. This highlighted the opportunity for improvements in the embedded emissions caused by the semiconductor machines. The SSA is also used to evaluate the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) of the implementation of green steel and aluminium in semiconductor machines. The CBA showed that a high reduction in embedded emissions is required to achieve a break-even level with the costs of sustainable steel and aluminium. However, this reduction also depends on the design and implementation of the CBAM. The stakeholder analysis highlighted the actors, transactions, frictions, and games caused by the implementation of the CBAM. A concluding policy analysis was conducted to present possible implementations of the CBAM. The analysis showed that under the current circumstances for the CBAM to be successful in promoting sustainable changes in the semiconductor machine, while considering the uncertainty in the carbon reporting process, an unrealistically high carbon price is needed to break even. The analysis, however, indicated a bright spot; if global electricity production becomes less carbonintensive, the CBAM may work very well in promoting sustainable materials. Thus, this thesis concludes that for this case study the EU’s CBAM is not effective in promoting sustainable adjustments in semiconductor machines. However, this conclusion is obtained for this specific case with its specific extreme policy scenarios. Therefore, further research could be conducted in assessing other policy scenarios or carbon accounting tools and test how they evaluate the CBAM on its potential to promote the use of sustainable materials in other industries as well.

The water crisis is one of the most important global risks influencing humanity. Urbanization as well as economic, social and technological evolution have led to water overconsumption across the world and thus to water scarcity. Industry comprises one of the main water consumers along with agriculture and municipalities. At the same time, industry constitutes a significant water polluter since a large amount of its wastewater does not receive treatment prior to its disposal to the environment. One of the greatest sources of wastewater is brine effluent, a hypersaline concentrate created during the water treatment in the industries. In an effort to tackle the challenges that brine effluent imposes, both in terms of management and costs, the process industry should shift to technical solutions that foster sustainable development. There are three dimensions with respect to sustainability; the environmental, the economic and the social. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as well as Life Cycle Costing (LCC), both of which are the main axis of this thesis, are tools for identifying and analyzing environmental and economic impacts respectively. The object of this thesis is the Zero Brine (ZB) project which promotes a closed-loop approach to address the complex brine effluents by eliminating them, mitigating the effects of industrial processes while recovering materials such as water, energy, minerals, magnesium, and salts. This research is focusing on the Dutch case study where the assessment of a demineralized water production system before and after the implementation of ZB applications is taking place. The evaluation of sustainability performance comprises one of the main goals of this project. Thus, this thesis aims to assess the environmental and economic sustainability of the ZB project by implementing the LCA and LCC techniques. To that end, the parallel implementation of LCA and LCC was performed. Furthermore, the three types of LCC; conventional (cLCC), environmental (eLCC) and societal (sLCC), were also included in the analysis. The results of the analysis showed that the implementation of the ZB system has ambiguous results concerning environmental performance. On the one hand, the majority of the environmental impacts were decreased by 15% to 22%, On the other hand, global warming, acidification as well as particulate matter formation categories were sharply increased by more than 100%. From the economic assessment results, it was concluded that the application of ZB design is not financially viable since it degrades the economic performance of the current production scheme. By estimating the NPV after the implementation of ZB applications, it was observed that it is negative thus rendering the project unsustainable Overall, to enhance the environmental and economic performance of ZB applications, more research required to tackle the abovementioned issues and to render ZB project a sustainable, industrially applicable solution for the treatment of brine and the recovery of valuable resources.

This research has been performed with the goal to set up a model for the comparison of the environmental impact caused by the production of yachts. This model is created in such a way that it can be implemented in the YETI, Yacht Environmental Transparency Index, which is currently under development. The model that is created is based on a Life Cycle Assessment methodology named Fast Track LCA. This methodology consists of five steps which are further standardized to meet the requirements of the YETI. Choices are made for the functional unit, system boundaries, the quantification of materials, the assessment method, environmental database and LCA software. With a case study, the created model is validated as the results have realistic values. Some other design choices are applied on the case study to check the sensitivity of the model. The sensitivity was enough to show the effect of a different hull material and the use of batteries for the hotel load and peak shaving. It is concluded that the model can be used for the comparison of the environmental impact from production of different yachts. However, it should be noted that due to design choices for the model based on the requirement for comparison, the outcome itself is an underestimation of the environmental impact from yacht production.

Reusing water is a crucial part of the solution for addressing the growing concern regarding the risk of water scarcity in industrialized and urbanized areas. This study introduces a tool for the design of water networks, focusing on water reuse in industrial parks. Utilizing a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model developed earlier, this tool is the first in water network design models that operates with open-source software, while considering water treatment systems and multiple constituents. A literature study is conducted to discover shortcomings in water network design models and to find a foundational model to use to develop the tool. The developed tool creates a water network based on the optimization of the costs of water obtained from water sources, the costs of treatment systems, and optionally the piping costs. The treatment systems are used to regenerate the water for reuse in industrial plants and to meet environmental discharge limits. The tool develops local optimal solutions as an output. Additionally, this study is the first to integrate a water treatment systems database into a water network design model. However, this database needs to be expanded before it is usable. This study demonstrates the tool through three case studies.

Within the energy transition, green hydrogen stands as a key solution for decarbonizing sectors where direct electrification is not viable. This thesis focuses on the competitive landscape of hydrogen production in North-Western Europe, addressing the technological and geographical competition of locally produced green hydrogen. This research introduces a comprehensive analytical tool to assess the viability of various hydrogen production methods, which are competing value chains of European green hydrogen. By synthesizing institutional, economic, societal, and technical considerations, the model facilitates a direct comparison between different green hydrogen alternatives. The research commenced by applying Hekkert’s (2011) TIS analysis as a tool for structural analysis to systematically map the system. The goal was to delineate its structure and identify potential key competing value chains within the scope of Europe. This initial phase involved a literature review and interviews to select value chains. The subsequent phase, which also used the TIS as a tool, focused on identifying key drivers and barriers within the system through a functional analysis, utilizing a structured approach to examine system functions. Expert interviews played a pivotal role in this stage, providing an understanding of the system's dynamics. In the last phase, the techno-economic analysis was performed by introducing barrier-driven scenarios. Allowing for insights into the cost components and the overall comparison in the levelized cost of hydrogen for every scenario. The structural analysis showed that the European Commission set the scope with institutions, allowing for technologically mature low-carbon alternatives in this comparison. The functional analysis revealed the intricate interconnectivity of the system functions, illustrating how drivers and barriers can swiftly transform, reflecting the system's complex status. The primary barrier to green hydrogen adoption is its high cost, creating a deadlock with no demand or supply. Technological advancement and governmental intervention emerged as key solutions to this challenge. The techno-economic results show that the least cost-effective value chain is local green hydrogen, and the most cost-effective value chain is local blue hydrogen. Local green hydrogen faces challenges in competitiveness due to high energy prices and low capacity factors compared to other electrolyzer-based methods. Additionally, compared to other types, like blue hydrogen, it has higher overall investment and energy costs. The ultimate aim is to navigate through the complexities of the hydrogen system, clarifying how various variables interconnect and influence each other. Tools like the one developed in this research provide a foundation for understanding this complexity. By understanding the impact of governmental interventions and other factors on final prices, stakeholders can engage in more strategic decision-making. To deepen the understanding of the system, it is recommended to conduct further interviews and research, exploring the alternatives within and outside the European system more comprehensively. Investigating what drives prices beyond mere economic factors will offer a clearer picture of their current status and potential future developments. This broader analysis will equip users with the insights needed to make informed decisions, considering both the economic and socio-technical dimensions that shape the hydrogen market's evolution.