NFOK24003U Sustainable Processing and Production Systems

Volume 2025/2026
Education

MSc Programme in Biosolutions

Content

This is a theoretical course that will give the students' knowledge about sustainability assessments of production systems.

Students will learn life cycle assessment methodology and principles of sustainability assessment and how to use it to understand and address major societal challenges in relation to processing and production systems and use the knowledge to reflect on how to redesign our production systems to respect the planetary boundaries. 

The students will learn to analyze, design, and address possible solutions for more sustainable management, processing and exchange of resources with natural systems.
  
The course also addresses topics such as:

  • Assessment of sustainability in relation to size and scale of production
  • Local vs global resources
  • Upcycling and downcycling 
  • Circular (zero waste) systems 
  • Environmental perspectives and assessments
  • Applications of sidestreams
  • Legislation of relevance to real-life cases 
  • Consumer acceptance and preferences

 

The students will work in groups on real-life industry cases and examples throughout the course.  

Learning Outcome

The course aims at introducing students to assess and improve sustainability of production systems. 

Knowledge
The student will obtain knowledge of:

  • Identify major environmental impacts of biological production systems
  • Show overview of the theory of life cycle assessment (LCA)
  • Outline the definition of scope, goal, inventory analysis and impact assessment
  • Describe how LCA can be used for improving production systems
  • Basic insight into regulation, ethics, and consumer preferences

 
Skills
The student will be able to:

  • Use LCA methodology and software to model real-life production systems
  • Be able to perform a prospective LCA and economic viability assessment
  • Analyse factors that influence the environmental and economic performance
  • Assess and relate critically to exiting LCA studies
  • Critically reflect upon the contribution of different technologies to a sustainable future


Competences
The student will be able to:

  • Discuss potential environmental challenges associated with different resource management and technology systems
  • Suggest changes to existing production systems that improve sustainability performance

See Absalon for a list of course literature

Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree is recommended.

We recommend the students have a Windows based operating system for the LCA calculations.
Lectures and exercises followed by class discussions and group work with case materials.
The students will work with cases during the course and document their progress in a project portfolio.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 39
  • Preparation
  • 44
  • Theory exercises
  • 30
  • Project work
  • 86
  • Guidance
  • 6
  • Exam
  • 1
  • Total
  • 206
Oral
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral exam on basis of previous submission, 15 minutes
Type of assessment details
The exam is an individual oral exam (15 minutes) without preparation time based on both previous submissions and the course curriculum.

Written assignments are done in groups.
Students will work on case studies throughout the course and document their
progress in four project assignments, covering the four steps of an LCA

In order to access the oral exam the submissions (written assignments) must be
submitted during the course.
Aid
No aids allowed

No aids allowed at the oral exam.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Several internal examiners
Re-exam

Same as ordinary exam.

In order to access the oral exam the submissions (written assignments) must be submitted two weeks before the oral examination.

Any previously submitted submissions (written assignments) will be reused.

Criteria for exam assesment

See Learning Outcome