SCIAR model: the first roadmap from source materials to recycling
The chemical industry is facing major changes, with its future being shaped by electrification and the greening of raw materials. To achieve large-scale industrial application of alternative, circular raw materials and related disruptive electrical processes by 2050, it is crucial that we start scaling up innovations now. But how do you know which path to choose? How do we make the right choices? Brightsite’s SCIAR model can help, by providing a rational basis for making these choices. This ‘roadmap’ clarifies the routes to the future and shows the transition paths to climate neutrality.
To achieve the long-term goals, we will need renewable resources such as biomass (e.g. wood and sugar) and waste (recycling stream plastic), as well as innovative green electricity-based processes. “Scaling up these types of solutions will require a systemic transition, which requires us to formulate comprehensive transition paths. We need to know where to invest our scarce resources. If we want to use sugar from sugar beets and wood as bioresources for materials, we need to know how much of these resources will be available in the future, and how much plastic we can collect, and how, in order to optimize the recycling process. During this time of transition in the chemical industry, we need to think rationally and weigh up each of the various options. This will provide us with insight into the potential impact and costs of different transition paths that can be used to realistically map the transition from a fossil-based to a sustainable industry,” says Brightsite Director Arnold Stokking.
In order to make informed choices, we need to be able to compare the various sources and processing routes. SCIAR – Source, Commodity, Intermediate, Application and Resource – can help with this. “SCIAR is a way of depicting the complex system transition in the same way that roadmaps depict the road network. We map the entire spectrum and can zoom in or out to the desired level. We can then map a new technological innovation onto this flexible concept for shaping a transition and see what happens, or what needs to happen to make it a success.” says Paul Brandts, Intelligence Officer at Brightsite. “It works circularly: from raw material to use, and back again from waste to raw material.”
