IEDO, alongside AMMTO, has created a repository of resources for assessing emerging technologies on the basis of their potential cost and environmental impact in the commercial marketplace. These resources - including short training videos, tools, and examples - can help users understand impact drivers and quantify the impact potential of a new technology compared to technologies currently available in the marketplace.
Techno-economic, Energy, & Carbon Heuristic Tool for Early-Stage Technologies (TECHTEST) Tool: DOE has created TECHTEST to aid users in estimating potential energy, carbon, and cost impacts of a new technology in a streamlined spreadsheet tool that integrates life cycle assessment (LCA) and technoeconomic analysis (TEA) methods. Download the current version of the Excel-based TECHTEST tool and worked examples.
Tools Library: DOE’s Strategic Analysis tools library includes additional tools that can also support LCA and/or TEA analyses.
Training Videos: IEDO’s series of short tutorial videos explains basic concepts of LCA and TEA in the context of emerging technologies and can support users in assessing impacts for low-TRL technologies and products. See the list below for short descriptions and links to each video (or view the training videos playlist on YouTube). Check back for new videos to be released in 2023.
Introduction to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA): LCA is a methodology for assessing the environmental impacts associated with the entire life cycle of a product or process.
Introduction to Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA): TEA is a method for evaluating the economic performance of a technology.
Defining Functional Units for LCA and TEA: The functional unit describes a quantity of product or product system on the basis of the performance it delivers in its end-use application.
Technology Benchmarking for Comparative LCA and TEA: The commercial benchmark technology is the primary technology in the marketplace that the new technology would displace.
Estimating Raw Material Embodied Energy & Emissions: Raw Materials Extraction and Processing is the first phase in the product life cycle, and energy and emissions associated with raw input materials are “embodied” into manufactured products.
Estimating Manufacturing Costs for Pre-Commercial Technologies: Manufacturing costs can be broken down into two main categories: capital expenses and operating expenses.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology for assessing the environmental impacts associated with the entire life cycle of a particular product or process. This video introduces LCA methodologies and explains how LCA techniques can be used to assess the environmental impacts of a manufactured product holistically. Three different LCA approaches are introduced: attributional LCA, consequential LCA, and a hybrid (benchmarking) LCA approach.
Download a static PDF version of this tutorial video that includes key schematic illustrations from the video and the corresponding transcript.
Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) is a method for evaluating the economic performance of a technology. This video introduces TEA analysis concepts and estimation methods, describing a cost benchmarking approach that focuses on comparing an emerging technology to an existing commercial benchmark.
Download a static PDF version of this tutorial video that includes key schematic illustrations from the video and the corresponding transcript.
The functional unit describes a quantity of product or product system on the basis of the performance it delivers in its end-use application. This video describes the purpose of the functional unit in LCA and TEA analyses, provides examples of functional units for different products and technologies, and discusses considerations for selecting the best functional unit.
Download a static PDF version of this tutorial video that includes key schematic illustrations from the video and the corresponding transcript.
The commercial benchmark technology is the primary technology in the marketplace that the new technology would displace. This video discusses best practices for identifying commercial benchmarks for use in LCA or TEA analyses.
Download a static PDF version of this tutorial video that includes key schematic illustrations from the video and the corresponding transcript.
Manufacturing costs can be broken down into two main categories: capital expenses (one-time facility costs such as equipment, buildings and construction) and operating expenses (recurring costs such as materials, labor, and energy). This video describes techniques for estimating manufacturing costs in each of these categories, focusing on methods that can be used to support techno-economic analysis of early-stage technologies. Techniques are demonstrated through an example.
Download a static PDF version of this tutorial video that includes key schematic illustrations from the video and the corresponding transcript. Access the Excel-based Labor Estimator Mini-Tool as an example of a “rule of thumb” approach for estimating labor requirements based on process type and complexity.
Embodied energy (or cumulative energy demand) is the sum of all energy inputs required to create a product, and embodied emissions (global warming potential) is the sum of all CO2 (or CO2-equivalent) emissions. This video focuses on estimating these quantities for the first phase in the product life cycle: raw materials extraction and processing.
Download a static PDF version of this tutorial video that includes key schematic illustrations from the video and the corresponding transcript. Access the free Materials Flows through Industry (MFI) tool and a simple Excel-based mini-tool to extract embodied energy and embodied emissions values from an MFI data output file.