ME Seminar Jennifer Dunn

Life Cycle Assessment as a Lighthouse: GuidanceTowards a Sustainable Harbor and Away From Peril


Jennifer B. Dunn
Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University
Director, Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience
Associate Director, Northwestern-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering

Abstract
Lighthouses guide ships toward a safe harbor and provide warnings of shallow water and rocky coasts. Life cycleassessment (LCA) and companion analysis tools like material flow analysis have a similar role to play in guidingtechnology and policy developers toward solutions that move society toward sustainability. But, most of thesetransitions have potential pitfalls that LCA can help us anticipate and possibly mitigate. This seminar will address threeexamples of LCA as a lighthouse. The first addresses the role of biofuels as complementary to electrification in thetransportation sector. How can we use biofuels to a greater extent without incurring substantial land use changegreenhouse gas emissions that might negate their benefit? Our work in this area encompasses a dynamic scenarioanalysis of biofuel deployment towards hard-to-decarbonize transportation modes and development of machine learningalgorithms to detect land use change in high resolution imagery. The second addresses the role of critical minerals inelectrification. What is life cycle assessment missing in addressing the social and environmental effects of theseminerals, and how can it improve? The final example addresses the approach to reducing plastic waste. Pyrolysis isbecoming a mainstream chemical recycling method but what can LCA tell us about whether it is better to use pyrolysisto produce fuels or new plastics? Taken together, these examples highlight the potential of life cycle assessment but alsosome of its weaknesses and needs for further development.


Bio
Jennifer studies emerging technologies, their energy and environmental impacts, and their potential to influencegreenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, water consumption, and energy consumption at the economy-widelevel. Particular technologies of interest include biofuels and bioproducts, automotive lithium-ion batteries, wasteplastics recycling and utilization, advanced manufacturing, and fuels and chemicals made from natural gasliquids. Techno-economic, life cycle, and material flow analyses are primary tools in her research. Furthermore, sheapplies machine learning techniques to gain insights into land use and land use change, which drive the sustainabilitydebate surrounding biofuels.Jennifer holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, where she was introduced to life cycleanalysis through earning her Master’s degree in Sustainable Chemical Engineering Systems. Her undergraduate degreein Chemical Engineering is from Purdue University. Prior to joining Northwestern, she led the Biofuels Analysis groupat Argonne National Laboratory.

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