Nano-technology is considered as a key technology or as an enabling technology to overcome technical limitation and barriers in various technology sectors. Since nano-technology might both enable new technologies and improve existing technologies there are expectations that it can contribute to some of the grand challenges of mankind. In contrast it must be considered that positive and intended effects of nano-technology might be accompanied by unwanted side effects. It might not be sufficient, to assess the environmental, economic and social sustainability of nano-enabled technology only after the technology is already developed, because the result will so have little or no further influence on the fully developed product. Therefore, it should be aimed for a new development-paradigm on nano-technologies that involves system analysis and technology assessment as early as possible. Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) can be used as a tool to increase the success of nano-enabled technologies and to ensure the contribution to sustainability goals. The idea is to broaden the perspective of developers beyond pure technological high performance and production costs already in the design phase. This aims at the identification of promising, more sustainable design corridors for such technologies. Existing tools like Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costing or qualitative Fate Analysis are applied and methods are developed to mitigate data gaps in this early phase of technology development.  On different examples it will be illustrated how CTA could integrated in the development phase of new technologies. A major focus will be ob electrochemical/ electrostatic energy storage systems.

Constructive technology assessment (CTA) for nano-enabled technologies

247th National Meeting (2014)

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