The Sustainable Twin as a building block for a sustainable industry

In order to be able to make decisions as an industrial company in the sense of ecological sustainability, a certain transparency about the status quo is indispensable. This is where the concept of the Sustainable Twin comes in, which represents an extension of the idea of the digital twin to include aspects of sustainability. Thus, the Sustainable Twin collects information about a real product as a virtual spitting image over the entire product life cycle, which in turn can then be used in later "life phases."

Artificial Intelligence for the Circular Economy (KICE)

With this in mind, the webinar "the Sustainable Twin as a building block for a sustainable industry" took place in September 2022 as part of the Cross-Cluster Project AI for the Circular Economy (KICE). This is briefly introduced at the beginning by Dr. Eva Schichl, Projects Officer, Trägerverein Umwelttechnologie-Cluster Bayern e.V.. The aim of the project launched by the Environmental Cluster Bavaria is to combine the methods of artificial intelligence with the potentials of a sustainable circular economy. Also on board are the Mechatronics and Automation Cluster, the AI Production Network and the Digital Production & Engineering theme platform of Bayern Innovativ. Small and medium-sized enterprises in particular are to benefit from the joint collaboration, which is intended to support them in their transformation toward a circular economy through the use of digital technologies. One example of this is the introduction of a digital product passport, which is intended, among other things, to optimize the recovery of recyclable materials.

Digital product passport (DPP) interoperable - central catalyst for digital and green transformation

Mr. Johannes Benjamin Helfritz, head of the Digital Quality theme, explains the contribution made by the German Institute for Standardization, or DIN, to the digital product passport. Norms and standards are the basis for rolling out the idea of the product passport. This is because they ensure data comparability, quality and security, as well as the interoperability of product passports across all sectors and technical systems. In the spirit of the circular economy, norms and standards thus pave the way to greater sustainability. They are particularly important for medium-sized companies, as they provide orientation and guidance for implementation.

Origins of the DPP and access to the European market

The origins for the emergence of digital product passports - DPPs for short - are manifold. They serve the desire to provide access to product information digitally. Albeit under different names, such as Digital Twin, Digital Lifecycle File, Digital Calibration Certificate, etc., DPP are thus first of all a logical consequence of digitization efforts - digitization efforts of product-related business processes as well as quality assurance (quality infrastructure), etc. Currently, DPPs are also being demanded as a political concept from various directions. For example, through the Battery Regulation and the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) with regard to the topics of circularity, climate mathematics and traceability. But product passports are also being discussed in terms of product information on safety and security, the declaration of conformity together with the CE marking. At the latest with it DPP become a condition, in order to be able to bring products on the European market.

The manifold possibilities of digital information

If all relevant information is mapped digitally, important advantages will result. For example, consumers, recyclers, market monitors, integrators, etc. would have all the information they need at a glance without having to print out or read extensive user manuals. At end-of-life, the product could be meaningfully recycled or put to another use. The possibilities are almost limitless. In the future, however, the main task will be to regulate how this data is handled. Here, the institute is partly drawing on existing modules and solutions. For example, a standardization research project currently underway is already addressing more than 100 standards (ISO, IEC, ISO/IEC), especially in the areas mentioned by the EU so far. These include, for example, data generation, data security, access rights, data storage, data structure and interfaces, and thus interoperability.

Using synergies sensibly

In addition, there are various activities that are directly related to the DPP. Mr. Helfritz mentions here, for example, the building resource passport, the digital nameplate and Industry 4.0 or the already mentioned CV file. DIN's goal here is to build on existing standards, prevent duplication and establish interoperability. Whether metrology and metrology, standardization, conformity assessment, accreditation and market surveillance - the DPP is also about digitizing the quality infrastructure. After all, it will ultimately become the backbone of a DPP. Thus, for example, it also means developing digital certificates and machine-readable and -executable standards. The QI digital initiative was launched for this purpose. In order to be able to roll out the DPP sustainably, innovatively and with an international impact, the next two to three years will now be about achieving the cross-application, cross-system and cross-sector implementation of the DPP. This does not require one single technology. Rather, a metastructure must be defined that regulates which points in the DPP must be fulfilled interoperably across the various sectoral manifestations of a product. And yes, the introduction of the digital battery passport, which is described in the following presentation, should also be part of this approach.

The battery passport as an enabler of circular economy

With the increasing number of energy storage devices and electric vehicles on Europe's roads, the number of batteries required is also rising. The introduction of a digital battery passport should succeed in ensuring that batteries are produced, used and recycled as sustainably as possible. So begins the presentation by Dr. Johannes Simböck, scientific officer and team leader at acatech, the German Academy of Science and Engineering. As a consortium partner of the "Battery Pass" project, he presents the goals of the collaboration between various companies from industry and research and development.

In the project, which started in 2022 and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK), a guideline for content and a technical model for a battery pass are to be drafted and implemented in a pilot project. In the process, there is close exchange with other stakeholders and consortia, including the Global Battery Alliance (GBA), to ensure a uniform level and to exploit synergies.

Huge potential for resource savings

By documenting all relevant data of a battery over its entire life cycle, it is hoped to support the sustainable and circular management of batteries.  This already starts with the high-tech metals used and the security of supply. Whether cobalt, lithium or nickel - the demand for the raw materials used will increase massively in the future. However, according to calculations, the Circular Economy could save up to 70% of resources by 2050. This can be achieved on the one hand by extending and intensifying the useful life and on the other hand by increasing the recycling rate. To this end, it is important to know what proportion of raw materials each individual battery contains in order to be able to recycle it accordingly.

Guidelines of the EU battery regulation

The amended EU battery regulation is due to come into force in 2026 at the earliest, the present drafts of which provide for a battery passport for all newly acquired batteries in vehicles, stationary storage systems and larger industrial batteries in Germany and Europe. It contains guidelines on this and defines a variety of data points, such as proof of carbon footprint or information on battery condition during use, but often still leaves considerable room for interpretation. In its current focus, the Battery Pass consortium is addressing precisely this issue in its work: Starting with regulation, relevant data points are analyzed and, where it seems useful, supplemented. In the topic area of circularity, for example, this concerns product and process design, which should facilitate maintenance, repair or reusability.  In terms of performance and durability, more than 50 individual parameters have already been identified from regulation.

The consortium is also creating a non-proprietary prototype by the end of the 2025 project that will process the data points according to the battery regulation specifications. The battery passport will have what is expected to be a decentralized, digital infrastructure that will allow role-based access to the documented data and the exchange of important information. The stakeholders involved will then be able to access the data relevant to them in the digital product passport of a battery used for electromobility or industrial purposes. This will make it much easier for companies as well as end consumers, for example, to decide in the future on an application in the second life of a battery. And that is an essential factor for a circular and thus sustainable economy.

DIBICHAIN: Digital mapping of closed-loop systems using blockchain technology

As Dr. Simböck's presentation showed, the battery passport is primarily about collecting relevant data. Frauke Hänel, project manager for research and innovation projects at iPoint systems GmbH, described how these can be obtained and evaluated using suitable software solutions for the entire product life cycle. These are directly related to the digital product passport via the iPoint suite.

Software solutions in the iPoint suite

The suite bundles software solutions for compliance, sustainability, supply chain transparency and digital circular economy and follows the so-called CARE principle. This stands for Collect, Analyze, Report, Evolved. So data is collected, analyzed, reported and then used for business development. By applying this principle, companies can, for example, identify substances of concern, qualify and approve suppliers, and take control of their environmental, social and economic impact.

The importance of blockchain technology

The process is concretized using the DIBICHAIN project. It stands for Digital Imaging of Circular Systems using Blockchain Technology. The aim of the project, which was launched in 2019 and has since been completed, as part of the BMBF funding measure "Resource-efficient circular economy - innovative product cycles" was to develop a cross-industry concept that maps a product cycle using a blockchain. This is intended to promote the circular economy, increase the recyclability of products, and create optimization opportunities for the ecological footprint in production.

Testing on the model

The project was implemented with various partners and the "Bionic Partition" use case. This is an aircraft partition produced by the project partner Airbus using a special 3D printing process. This served as a model for tracking the product over its lifecycle and determining what data is actually generated, how it can be mapped in a blockchain, and in what formats the data is available. Standardization was and is an important issue here, so that the data can flow into a common system. At the same time, the question arose of how to create transparency while maintaining confidential information. This is where blockchain comes into play. It chains data together through cryptographic processes. This allows players within the supply chain to secure their competitive advantage by having the blockchain act as a kind of distributed product registry. References to a product or its information are stored on the blockchain, but without actually exposing product or manufacturer information. Actors can anonymously search product information on the blockchain and find participants in the supply chain and also request further information. This could be assembly instructions, recycling information or carbon footprint reports. Requests can then be accepted or rejected. Thus, each actor retains data sovereignty over its contribution to the product. To enable this exchange, a demonstrator was developed that can enable transparency, integrity and data protection in the exchange of product data and can also be used holistically. Further steps, according to Ms. Hänel, will now be the identification of companies for implementation, an expansion of functionalities and integration into existing corporate IT environments, as well as a scaling of the environment to be able to map more complex supply chains.

Contact details of speakers

Dr. Eva Schichl , Umweltcluster Bayern

Johannes Benjamin Helfritz , DIN German Institute for Standardization

Dr. Johannes Simböck , acatech - German Academy of Science and Engineering

Frauke Hänel , iPoint systems GmbH

Further information

>> The Project KICE