Methods and systems for monitoring the environmental impact of mixtures

Abstract

The disclosure relates to the field of sustainable industrialization, in particular the monitoring of environmental impact in the production process of mixtures and products produced by using such mixtures. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses, and computer elements for determining input environmental property data of input materials used to produce mixtures and to generate environmental property data associated with the produced mixtures based on the determined input environmental property data.

Description

[0001] BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0002] 1

[0003] METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF MIXTURES

[0004] TECHNICAL FIELD

[0005] The disclosure relates to the field of sustainable industrialization, in particular the monitoring of environmental impact in the production process of mixtures and products produced by using such mixtures. The disclosure relates to methods, apparatuses and computer elements for determining input environmental property data associated with input material(s) used to produce the mixture(s), an input material associated with the determined input environmental property data and a use of the determined input environmental property data associated with input material(s) for generating environmental property data associated with mixture(s) at least in part produced from the input material(s). The disclosure further relates to methods, apparatuses and computer elements for monitoring an environmental impact of at least one mixture by generating mixture environmental property data associated with such mixture(s) at least in part based on the determined input environmental property data, a mixture associated with the generated mixture environmental property data and a use of the determined mixture environmental property data for generating environmental property data associated with product(s) at least in part produced from the mixture(s).

[0006] TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

[0007] The present disclosure relates in general terms to environmental impact tracking in production processes of mixtures produced from at least two input materials by a production as well as to environmental impact tracking in production processes using such mixtures as input material(s) to produce one or more product(s).

[0008] SUMMARY

[0009] In one aspect disclosed is a method, in particular a computer-implemented method executed by computing node(s) associated with an input material producer or an input material user, for monitoring an environmental impact of the input material to a production and / or product(s) to be produced from the input material by the production, the method comprising:

[0010] - providing input material data associated with the input material, wherein the input material data includes an input material identifier, input composition data associated with the chemical composition of the input material and input production data associated with the production of the input material,

[0011] - providing target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials, wherein the target chemical material data includes target chemical material composition data, target environmental property data associated with the chemical materials and generation data associated with the generation of the target environmental property data,

[0012] - mapping the input material data to at least a part of the target environmental property data by determining quality score(s) indicating at least a degree of chemical correlation and optionally a degree of geographical correlation and / or temporal correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data,

[0013] - selecting - based on the determined quality score(s) - target environmental property data mapped to the input material data as input environmental property data,

[0014] - linking the selected input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s) to the input material identifier. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0015] 2

[0016] In one aspect disclosed is an apparatus for monitoring an environmental impact of an input material to a production and / or product(s) to be produced from the input material by the production, the apparatus comprising:

[0017] - an input material provider configured to provide

[0018] • input material data associated with the input material, wherein the input material data includes an input material identifier, input composition data associated with the chemical composition of the input material and production data associated with the production of the input material, and

[0019] • target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials, wherein the target chemical material data includes target chemical material composition data, target environmental property data associated with the chemical materials and generation data associated with the generation of the target environmental property data,

[0020] - a mapping engine configured to map the input material data to at least a part of the target environmental property data by determining quality score(s) indicating at least a degree of chemical correlation and optionally a degree of geographical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data, and to select - based on the determined quality score(s) - target environmental property data mapped to the input material data as input environmental property data,

[0021] - a digital asset generator configured to link the selected input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s) to the input material identifier.

[0022] In yet another aspect disclosed is an input material associated with input environmental property data generated by the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

[0023] In yet another aspect disclosed is a use of input environmental property data associated with input material(s) generated by the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein for generating environmental property data associated with mixture(s) at least in part produced from the input material(s).

[0024] In yet another aspect disclosed is a method, in particular a computer-implemented method executed by computing node(s) associated with an input material producer or an input material user, for monitoring an environmental impact of at least one mixture, wherein the at least one mixture is produced by a production from at least two input materials, the method comprising:

[0025] - providing mixture data associated with the at least one mixture, wherein the mixture data includes mixture identifier(s) associated with the at least one mixture and mixture composition data indicating input materials and input material amounts used to produce the at least one mixture,

[0026] - gathering - based on the provided mixture composition data - input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to input materials used to produce the at least one mixture, and production data associated with the production of the at least one mixture, wherein at least a part of the input environmental property data is generated by the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

[0027] - determining - based on the provided mixture data and the gathered data - mixture environmental property data and optionally a quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data,

[0028] - linking the determined mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score to the mixture identifier(s).

[0029] In yet another aspect disclosed is an apparatus monitoring environmental impact of at least one mixture, wherein the at least one mixture is produced by a production from at least two input materials, the apparatus comprising: BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0030] 3

[0031] - a data providing interface configured to provide mixture data associated with the at least one mixture, wherein the mixture data includes mixture identifier(s) associated with the at least one mixture and mixture composition data indicating input materials and input material amounts used to produce the at least one mixture,

[0032] - an environmental property generator configured to

[0033] • gather - based on the provided mixture composition data - input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to input materials used to produce the at least one mixture, and production data associated with the production of the at least one mixture, wherein at least a part of the input environmental property data is generated by the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

[0034] • determine - based on the provided mixture data and the gathered data - mixture environmental property data and a quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data,

[0035] - a digital asset generator configured to link the determined mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score to the mixture identifier(s).

[0036] In yet another aspect disclosed is a mixture associated with mixture environmental property data generated by the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

[0037] Use of mixture environmental property data associated with at least one mixture generated by the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein for generating environmental property data associated with product(s) at least in part produced from the at least one mixture

[0038] In yet another aspect disclosed is a computer element, such as a computer program product or a machine-readable medium, with instructions, which when executed on one or more computing node(s) or processor(s) is configured to carry out the steps of the method(s) disclosed herein or configured to be carried out by the apparatus(es) disclosed herein.

[0039] Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the systems, apparatuses, uses, input materials, mixtures, products and computer elements lined out above and below. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples.

[0040] Embodiments

[0041] In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be outlined by ways of embodiments and / or examples. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to said embodiments and / or examples.

[0042] The invention relates to the field of sustainable industrialization, in particular the monitoring of environmental impact in processes for producing mixtures and products produced by using such mixtures. Production processes undergo dynamic change to reduce environmental impact. In particular such production processes are exposed to dynamic changes with regard to the input materials fed to such processes. Since the input material contribute to the environmental impact of the processes and produced mixtures, monitoring of the environmental impact is challenging.

[0043] To reliably monitor the environmental impact of such production processes, the environmental impact of input materials fed to such processes needs to be provided. This may be done by aggregating the environmental impact associated with the BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0044] 4 production of the input material. However, such environmental impact is not always available for input materials due to missing data required for the determination of the environmental impact or due to the complexity of determining such environmental impact. Such missing data negatively impacts the quality and reliability of the environmental impact of mixtures produced from such input materials and hence also the monitoring the environmental impact of the production of mixtures using such input materials.

[0045] By mapping the input material data associated with the input materials to the target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials based at least on a chemical correlation and optionally based on a geographical correlation and / or a temporal correlation, input environmental property data can be determined in a reliable and efficient manner for input materials entering the production. By replacing or filling missing input environmental property data with existing environmental property data of chemical materials based on the mapping, the environmental impact of input material(s) for the production of the product, such as a mixture, can be considered. This enhances the quality and reliability of environmental property data associated with the product and determined using such input environmental property data, since the environmental impact of all input material(s) used to produce the product can be considered when determining the environmental impact of the product. This way, the input material streams to the production producing the product(s) can be reliably monitored with respect to their environmental impact on the product(s) despite the lack of environmental property data associated with the input materials.

[0046] By using quality score(s) associated with the determined input environmental property data, the quality of input environmental property data determined based on the mapping may be rendered transparent. This way, the reliability of the determined input environmental property data may be indicated, allowing to determine the quality and reliability of further environmental property data determined using the input environmental property data, such as mixture environmental property data associated with mixtures produced using the input materials associated with the input environmental property data. By using a quality score indicating the quality and reliability of the respective environmental property data, data user(s) can easily and reliably judge the quality and reliability of determined environmental property data. This way, a transparency on the quality and reliability of the input environmental property data may be achieved within the value chain. Such transparency may aid in improving the overall transparency with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem including the value chain. Moreover, such transparency may aid in reducing or mitigating the use of unreliable environmental property data or environmental property data having low data quality to improve the environmental impact of input material(s) and / or product(s) produced from such input material(s). This allows to provide more reliable environmental impact data with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by avoiding missing environmental property data or the use of unreliably environmental property data.

[0047] By validating the determined input environmental property data associated with input material(s), the reliability of the input environmental property assigned to the input material in a data-driven manner may be improved. This way, the reliability of environmental property data determined using such input environmental property data may also be improved. More reliable input environmental property data may aid in improved monitoring of the environmental impact of the production as well as product(s) produced from the input material(s).

[0048] By determining mixture environmental property data associated with the mixtures at least in part based on the determined input environmental property data associated with input material(s) used to produce the mixture, the environmental impact of BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0049] 5 all input materials used to produce the mixture can be considered, allowing a more reliable monitoring of the environmental impact of the production and the mixtures. By using a quality score, the quality of the mixture environmental property data may be indicated based on the quality of the input environmental property data used for its generation. This way, the reliability of the input environmental property data used for the generation of the mixture environmental property data may be reflected, allowing to compare different mixture environmental property data associated with given mixture(s) with respect to their quality and reliability. This transparency allows to steer or control mixture streams to the production producing the product(s) with respect to their mixture environmental property, allowing to reduce the environmental impact of the production. In addition, such transparency enhances control over the environmental property of products produced from such mixtures, since mixtures can be provided to the production based on reliable environmental property data. Such transparency may aid in improving the overall transparency with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem including the value chain. Moreover, such transparency may aid in reducing or mitigating the use of unreliable input environmental property data or input environmental property data having low data quality to improve the environmental impact of mixtures produced from such input material(s). This allows to provide more reliable environmental impact data with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by avoiding missing environmental property data or the use of unreliably environmental property data.

[0050] Various units, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as “configured to” perform a task or tasks. Configured to shall recite structure meaning “having circuitry that” performs the task or tasks on operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components can be configured to perform the task even when the unit / circuit / component is not operating. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components that form the structure corresponding to “configured to” may include hardware circuits and / or memory storing program instructions executable to implement the operation. The units, circuits, entities, nodes or other computing components may be described as performing a task or tasks, for convenience in the description. Such descriptions shall be interpreted as including the phrase “configured to.”

[0051] In general, the methods, apparatuses, systems, computer elements, nodes or other computing components described herein may include memory, software components and hardware components. The memory can include volatile memory such as static or dynamic random-access memory and / or nonvolatile memory such as optical or magnetic disk storage, flash memory, programmable read-only memories, etc. The hardware components may include any combination of combinatoric logic circuitry, clocked storage devices such as flops, registers, latches, etc., finite state machines, memory such as static randomaccess memory or embedded dynamic random-access memory, custom designed circuitry, programmable logic arrays, etc.

[0052] The input material may comprise any indiscrete material, e.g., may be a continuous volume of solid or liquid material. The input material may be a chemical intermediate product or a chemical product. The input material may comprise any discrete material, e.g. may be a component or part or a component assembly. The input material may include a starting material used in any process performed in the production to produce a product, such as a mixture or a product produced from the mixture. The input material may be a virgin material, e.g. an input material that has not undergone a previous production-and-use cycle, in particular, has not been processed and / or used. The input material may be a recycled material having undergone at least one recycling step. The input material may comprise or be any input material entering a production producing the mixture or the product and provided at any entry point of the production . The input material may be any material entering the system boundary of the production producing the mixture or the product. The input material may be used as feedstock to produce the mixture. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0053] 6

[0054] The mixture(s) may be produced via one or more intermediate product(s). Hence, the input material may be directly or indirectly used to produce the mixture(s) or the product(s).

[0055] Mixture may include any product produced or producible from at least two different input materials. The input materials may include solids, liquids and / or gases. The mixture may include a physical combination of at least two different chemical input materials in which the chemical identities of the input materials are retained, e.g. which can be separated by can be separated by physical methods. Mixtures may include solutions, suspensions and colloids. The mixtures may be homogeneous or a heterogeneous mixture. Homogeneous mixtures may exhibit uniform composition and all components of the mixture are present in the same phase, whereas components of heterogeneous mixtures can be easily identified. Mixtures may be produced or producible by mechanical blending of the input materials. Mechanical blending processes may include physical agitation, such as stirring, shaking, or milling, dissolving solutes in solvents to form solutions, emulsification, dispersion, extrusion or the like.

[0056] Product may include any product produced or producible from one or more mixture(s). Produced product(s) may be physical entity / ies of product(s) having been produced by the production. Producible product(s) may not yet have been produced by the production but may be producible by one or more production process(es) performed within the production. Producible product(s) may include product(s) planned to be produced, for example based on demand data received from downstream participant(s) (e.g. product consumer(s)). Producible product(s) may include product(s) which can be produced by one or more process step(s) performed within the production. The product may be produced or producible via one or more process steps. The process steps may involve chemical reactions and / or physical processes and / or assembly processes and / or coating processes. The mixture(s) may be used in one or more of such production step(s). The product may comprise or be any product produced or producible by a production and provided at any exit point of the production. The product may be used as input material to produce one or more further product(s).

[0057] The input material(s), mixture(s) and / or product(s) may be associated with a respective identifier. The identifier may be a digital or virtual identifier. The identifier may uniquely identify the input material(s), mixture(s) or product(s), respectively, within the entity producing the input material(s), mixture(s) or product(s). The identifier may be associated with an identifier element physically connected to the input material(s), mixture(s) or product(s), respectively. The identifier element may encode the digital identifier. The identifier may include a name, a number, a LOT number, a batch number, a serial number, or a combination thereof.

[0058] The input material(s), mixture(s) and product(s) may be part of a product ecosystem. The product ecosystem may include chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce a product. The product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly or an end-product. The product ecosystem may include processing chains to process used products resulting from the use of produced products. Processing chains may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of the used product or a component thereof. Processing chains may include re-use chains to re-use the used product. The product ecosystem may include various participants, such as raw input material producers, chemical product producers, chemical product users, end-product producers, end-product users, EOL product collectors and recyclers. The product ecosystem may allow to use of recycled materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life end products to produce new products, such as chemical products. The product ecosystem may be associated with the BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0059] 7 production and / or re-use and / or recycling of physical products. At least a part of the participants of the product ecosystem may be connected via the decentral network.

[0060] The production may be any production producing mixtures or products. The production may include one or more process steps. The process steps may involve chemical reactions and / or physical processes and / or assembly processes involving the assembly of different discrete input material(s) and / or processes involving chemical input materials and discrete input materials, such as filling processes. The process steps may involve collection and / or sorting steps(s). The process step(s) may include repair, refurbish, repurpose and / or maintenance steps(s). The process step(s) may include recycling step(s). The production may be a discrete production. The discrete production may produce discrete output product(s), such as component(s), part(s), component-assemblies and end product(s). The production may be a chemical production. The chemical production may produce chemical output product(s). The chemical production may be a chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple interlinked processing steps. The chemical production network may be an integrated chemical production network with connected or interconnected production chains. The chemical production network may include multiple different production chains that have at least one intermediate product in common. The chemical production network may include multiple stages of the chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include the production, refining, processing and / or purification of chemical products. The chemical production network may include multiple production chains that produce from one or more input material(s) that enter the chemical production network multiple chemical products that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple tiers of a chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include physically connected or interconnected supply chains and / or production sites. The production sites may be at the same location or at different locations. In the latter case, the production sites may be connected or interconnected by means of dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles, like trucks, ships or other cargo transportation means. The chemical production network may chemically convert input materials via chemical intermediates to one or more chemical product(s) that exit the chemical production network. The chemical production network may convert input material(s) by way of chemical conversion to one or more chemical product(s). The production may be a discrete production.

[0061] Target chemical materials may include a plurality of chemical materials which are associated with target composition data and target environmental property data. The chemical materials may include chemical raw materials, chemical intermediate product(s), recycled chemical materials, virgin chemical materials and / or chemical product(s). The target chemical materials may include defined chemical compounds or mixtures of chemical compounds. The target chemical materials may hence be chemical materials associated with available target composition data and target environmental property data, e.g. target composition data and target environmental property data stored in one or more databases. The databases may be publicly available databases. The databases may be access-restricted databases. The databases may be associated with or accessible by an entity determining the input environmental property data.

[0062] The input environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of the input material. The input environmental property data may include one or more environmental properties of the input material. The input environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of the input material. The input environmental property may relate to properties of the production of the input material. The input environmental property may relate to one or more characteristic(s) BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0063] 8 that are attributable to environmental impact of the input material. The input environmental property may include environmental characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input material. Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact. Environmental characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more input material(s). Environmental characteristics may be determined at any stage of the input material lifecycle and may characterize the environmental impact of the input material for such stage or up to such stage. Environmental characteristic(s) may for example include carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, resource usage, air emissions, ozone depletion potential, water pollution, noise pollution or eutrophication potential. The input environmental properties may relate to the product carbon footprint of the input material(s).

[0064] Likewise, the target environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of a plurality of different chemical materials. The target environmental property data may include one or more environmental properties of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may relate to properties of the production of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may relate to one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may include environmental characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the chemical materials. Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact as previously described. The target environmental properties may relate to the product carbon footprint of the target chemical materials.

[0065] The mixture environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of the mixture. The mixture environmental property data may include one or more environmental properties of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may relate to properties of the production of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may relate to one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may include environmental characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the mixture. Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact as previously described. The mixture environmental properties may relate to the product carbon footprint of the mixture.

[0066] The quality score(s) indicating a degree of the chemical correlation may correspond to a measure of the chemical similarity between the input material and at least one of the target chemical materials. The quality score(s) indicating a degree of the geographical correlation may correspond to a measure of the similarity of the location associated with the production of the input material and the target chemical materials mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation. The quality score(s) indicating a degree of the temporal correlation may correspond to a measure of the time difference between age of the input material and the age of the target environmental property data mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation and optionally the geographical correlation.

[0067] The input material may be provided to the production for producing the product(s). In an embodiment multiple input materials are to be provided to the production. The input material data may be provided per input material. The input environmental property data may be determined per input material and may be linked to the respective input material identifier associated with each input material. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0068] 9

[0069] In an embodiment the input material is selected from recycled material(s), raw materials, chemical intermediate product(s) or chemical product(s). Raw materials may include virgin materials not having undergone at least one re-use or recycling process. In an embodiment the product is selected from chemical product(s), component(s), part(s) part assembly / ies and / or end- product(s). The product may be a mixture produced by mixing at least two input materials.

[0070] In an embodiment the input material data does not include input environmental property data associated with the input material. Hence, the input environmental property data may not yet have been determined for the input material. The input material data may not include emission data, such as product carbon footprint data associated with the product carbon footprint of the input material. The product carbon footprint of the input material may depend on the inputs used to produce the input material as well as the input material production.

[0071] In an embodiment input material is gathered via a decentral network under control of a data owner of the input material data based on a decentral identifier associated with the input material. The data owner may be the input material producer. Access to the input material data may be controlled by the data owner via the decentral identifier. The input material data may be gathered from one or more decentral network node(s) associated with the data owner of the input material data. The data owner of the input material data may be the input material producer. The decentral identifier may be provided via an input material identifier associated with the input material. The input material identifier may be associated with or encoded in an identification element physically attached to the input material. The input material identifier may be provided by a sensor reading the identification element. The input material identifier may be a digital identifier. The input material identifier may include a batch number, a LOT number or a combination thereof. The input material identifier may include letters, numbers, symbols or any combination thereof. The decentral identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID) or Digital Identifier(s) (DID). Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the input material and input material data access to input material data may be controlled by the data owner of the input material data, such as the input material producer. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the input material or the physical entity of the input material, e.g. as packaged for transportation to the input material user. Via the decentral identifier and its unique association with the input material data, the input material data may be provided in a secure yet reliable manner within the decentral network, allowing to reliably access the input material data for determination of input environmental property data of associated input materials. This way, monitoring of the environmental impact of the input materials may be improved by allowing reliable access to input material data required for determination of the input environmental property data.

[0072] In an embodiment the input material data is stored in a database associated with the data owner of the input material data for access by data consumers. The input material data may be stored in a data base associated with the input material production for transfer to the input material user e.g. when accessed or on providing the input material. Data consumer(s) may include entity / ies associated with computing nodes determining input environmental property data and associated quality score(s). Data consumer(s) may include input material user(s). Data consumer(s) may include service(s) configured to determine the input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) as described herein. The service(s) may be decentral service(s) accessible via decentral network node(s) of the decentral network. Access to database may be controlled by the data owner, for example based on the decentral identifier associated with the input material. The database may be under control of the data owner. The database may be owned by the data owner. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0073] 10

[0074] In an embodiment the input material data is associated with a digital representation of the input material data. The digital representation(s) may point to the input material data. The digital representation(s) may be uniquely associated with the decentral identifier. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the input material data. The representation may point to the decentral network node associated with the data owner of the input material data. The decentral network node may be configured to provide the input material data. The decentral network node may be associated with the database storing the input material data. The representation may point to the database storing the input material data. By using such representation, the input material data can be stored in a database associated with the data owner while still allowing data consumer(s) to reliably locate input material data available for access within the decentral network based on the digital representations. This way, data sovereignty may be implemented while ensuring reliable sharing of input material data.

[0075] In an embodiment the input material data relates to one or more indicators that signify the correlation of the input material to one or more target chemical material(s). The input material data may relate to at least a chemical correlation of the input material to the target chemical material(s). The input material data may further relate a geographical and / or a temporal correlation of the input production data to the generation data associated with the generation of the target environmental property data. The one or more indicators may include at least a chemical quality indicator and optionally at least a geographical and / or a temporal quality indicator. The input material may relate to or indicate any combination of the quality indicators, which are not to be considered limiting and further indicators may be used.

[0076] In an embodiment the input material data relates to a chemical quality indicator. In embodiment the input material data relates to or indicates input material being identical to at least one of the target chemical materials, input material sharing identical structural feature(s) with at least one of the target chemical materials, input material sharing identical chemical property / ies and / or functional group(s) with at least one of the target chemical materials, input material being identical to a target chemical material proxy selected for such input material, input material sharing identical structural feature(s) with at least one target chemical material proxy, and / or input material being identical to at least one generic target chemical material. Input material may be identical to at least one of the target chemical materials if such input material has the same chemical structure, the same unique identifier for a specific chemical substance, such as a CAS number and / or the same chemical name than at least one of the target chemical materials. Structural features may include functional chemical group(s). Functional chemical group(s) may include substituent(s) or moiety / ies of the input material that causes the input material’s characteristic chemical reactions. Examples of functional chemical groups include hydroxyl groups (-OH), carboxyl groups (- COOH), amino groups (-NHZ), and phosphate groups (-P043-), carbonyl groups (C=O), alkene groups (C=C), alkyne groups (C=C), ether groups (-O-), ester groups (RCOOR'), amide groups (C0NH2), nitrate groups (-N03), thiol groups (-SH), sulfide groups (R-S-R'), sulfoxide groups (R-S(=O)-R'), sulfone groups (R-S(=0)2-R'), nitrile groups (-C=N), imine groups (C=N), isocyanate groups (-N=C=O), phenyl groups (C6H5-) and / or allyl groups (H2C=CH-CH2-). The target chemical material proxy may be a pre-defined target chemical material. The proxy may be defined based on a degree of chemical correlation between the input material and the target chemical material defined as proxy. Depending on the chemical compound(s) included in the input material or depending on the chemical compound(s) the input material consists of, the chemical correlation may be determined. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

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[0078] In an embodiment the chemical correlation relates to a relation between the input composition data included in the input material data and the target composition data included in the target chemical material data. The chemical correlation may relate to a relationship between the chemical compound(s) included in the input material or the chemical compound(s) the input material consists of and target chemical compound(s) included in the target chemical material(s) or target chemical compound(s) the target chemical material(s) consists of.

[0079] In an embodiment the chemical correlation is based on identifier(s) included in the input material data and identifier(s) included in the target chemical material data and / or structural features of the input material and the target chemical materials and / or chemical properties and / or functional groups of the input material and the target chemical materials. By using identifier(s), the chemical correlation between the input material and the target chemical materials may be determined in an efficient yet reliable way. The identifier(s) may include CAS numbers, IUPAC names, SMILES representations, InChi identifiers, InChlKeys, PubChem CIDs, EC numbers such as EINECS or ELINCS numbers and / or UNII identifiers.

[0080] In an embodiment the input material data relates to a geographical quality indicator. In an embodiment the input material data relates to or indicates input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) identical to production location(s) used to produce target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation, input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) different to production location(s) used to produce target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation, and / or input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) producing the input material under production conditions different to the one or more production locations producing target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation. Depending on where the generation data used to generate the target environmental property associated with target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation was gathered, the geographical correlation may be determined .

[0081] In an embodiment the geographical correlation relates to a relation between the production data included in the input material data and the generation data used to generate the target environmental property data. The geographical correlation may relate to a relationship between the location of the production of the input material and the location of the production of the target chemical materials associated with the target environmental property data.

[0082] In an embodiment the geographical correlation relates to a location of production process(es) and / or the production condition(s) used to produce the input material and the location of production process(s) and / or production process(es) used to generate the target environmental property data.

[0083] In an embodiment the degree of geographical correlation is determined after mapping the input material data mapped to target chemical material data based on the chemical correlation. By determining the degree of geographical correlation after determining the degree of chemical correlation, the candidate target chemical materials resulting upon determining the chemical correlation may be refined based on the degree of geographical correlation. This way, it can be avoided that target chemical materials are determined as candidate target chemical materials based on the geographical correlation which have no or only a very small degree of chemical correlation with the input material. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0084] 12

[0085] In an embodiment the input material data relates to a temporal quality indicator. In an embodiment the input material data relates to or indicates a time period and / or a point in time the input material was produced with respect to the age of the target environmental property data associated with target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation and / or the geographical correlation. The input material data may relate to the time period the generation data used for determining the target environmental property data was collected. The time period may signify the age of the target environmental property data. For example, at input material data may relate to the time range the generation data used for determining the target environmental property covers. The time range may signify the range over which the generation data was collected. Depending on the age or point in time and / or the time range or period of the generation data used to generate the target environmental property data, the temporal correlation may be determined.

[0086] In an embodiment the target environmental property data is determined based on production data associated with the production of the target chemical materials and / or based on modelling data associated with production processes producing the target chemical materials and / or from environmental property data of chemical materials of a same chemical hierarchy than the given target chemical material and / or wherein the target environmental property data is assigned to target chemical materials.

[0087] In an embodiment at least the degree of chemical correlation and optionally the degree of geographical correlation and / or temporal correlation is determined by providing a mapping rule set including one or more mapping rule(s) configured to map the input material data to the target chemical material data based at least on chemical correlation(s) and optionally on geographical correlation(s) and / or temporal correlation(s) between the input material data and the target chemical material data.

[0088] In an embodiment the mapping rule(s) are configured to determine the quality score(s), to select - based on the determined quality score(s) - target environmental property data as input environmental property data and to link the selected input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s) to the input material identifier. The mapping rule(s) may hence be configured to determine input environmental property data based on the input material data and the target chemical materials data. The mapping rule(s) may include a scoring system assigning quality score(s) per degree of correlation. By assigning quality score(s) per degree of correlation, target environmental property data may determined that is associated with the highest overall degree of correlation or is at least associated with a high degree of chemical correlation. The quality score(s) per degree of geographical and / or temporal correlation may be used to refine target environmental property data associated with a quality score(s) indicating a high degree of chemical correlation. This way, further quality indicators apart from the chemical correlation may be used to determine input environmental property data, allowing more reliable determination of the input environmental property data and hence more reliable monitoring of the environmental impact of the input materials and mixtures produced from such input materials.

[0089] The mapping rule(s) may be configured to determine the chemical similarity between the input material and the target chemical materials associated with the target chemical material data. The mapping rule(s) may be configured to assign a quality score indicating a degree of chemical correlation between the input material and the target chemical material(s) to the input material identifier based on the chemical similarity. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0090] 13

[0091] The mapping rule(s) may be configured to determine a geographical similarity between the input production data included in the input material data and the generation data included in the target chemical material data. The mapping rule(s) may be configured to determine a geographical similarity between the input production data mapped to the generation data based on the chemical correlation.

[0092] The mapping rule(s) may be configured to assign a quality score indicating a degree of geographical correlation between the input production data associated with the input material and the generation data included in the target chemical material data to the input material identifier based on the chemical similarity and the geographical similarity.

[0093] By using different quality indicators, input environmental property data may be more reliably determined using target chemical materials data, allowing more reliable determination of the input environmental property data and hence more reliable monitoring of the environmental impact of the input materials and mixtures produced from such input materials. This way, the environmental impact of the input materials may be reliable monitored despite the lack of input environmental property data associated with input materials provided to a production.

[0094] In an embodiment selection of the target environmental property data includes determining the target environmental property data mapped to the input material data and being associated with quality score(s) indicating the highest degree of chemical and / or geographical and / or temporal correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data and selecting such target environmental property data as input environmental property data. This way, lack of input environmental property data associated with input materials may be compensated by determining target chemical materials and associated target environmental property data best matching to the input material data associated with the input material.

[0095] In an embodiment selection of the target environmental property data includes selecting target environmental property data mapped to at least two chemical compounds included in the input material based on the associated quality scores and aggregating the selected target environmental property data. This may allow to reliably determine input environmental property data for input materials comprising a mixture of different chemical compound(s).

[0096] In an embodiment selecting target environmental property data further includes determining an average quality score associated with the selected target environmental property based on the quality scores associated with the chemical correlation and the geographical correlation and optionally the temporal correlation. The average score may be a weighted average score. This way, the quality indicators may be weighted differently upon generation of the average score, allowing to reflect the relevance of each quality indicator on the determination of the input environmental property data.

[0097] In an embodiment linking the input material identifier to the selected input environmental property data and optionally the quality score(s) includes generating a digital asset including the input material identifier, the input environmental property data and the quality score(s). The digital asset may be used to generate mixture environmental property data as described later on.

[0098] In an embodiment the method further includes a step of providing the selected input environmental property data and the quality score(s) linked to the input material identifier for access by data consumer(s), in particular under control of the data owner of the input environmental property data and associated quality score(s). Providing the digital asset may include storing the digital asset in a database associated with or under control of the data owner of the digital asset. The data owner may be BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0099] 14 the input material producer. Providing the digital asset may include linking the digital asset with the decentral input material identifier and providing the digital asset for access by data consumers via the decentral network. This way, input environmental property data may be shared in a secure yet reliable manner within the decentral network, enabling downstream participants, such as input material consumers, to use the input environmental property data for generating mixture environmental property data associated with mixtures produced using the input material.

[0100] In an embodiment the method further includes the steps of providing the input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to the input material identifier(s) for display, receiving a user input indicating validation or rejection of at least a part of the displayed input environmental property data, based on the received user input, linking data indicating validation or rejection of the input environmental property data to the input material identifier(s).

[0101] By validating the determined input environmental property data, the reliability of the input environmental property data assigned to the input material in a data-driven manner may be improved. In addition, the supply of input material streams may be controlled based on validated input environmental property data. For instance, sourcing of input material associated with a validated high environmental impact data may be reduced while souring of input material associated with a low validated environmental impact may be increased.

[0102] In an embodiment the input material data is provided by a network node associated with the production of the input material to a network node associated with the production of the product. In an embodiment the input material data is provided from a network node associated with the production of the input material to mapping rule(s) provided by a network node associated with an environmental property calculator configured to determine the input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) based on the provided in put material data, wherein the input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) are provided by a network node associated with the environmental property calculator to a network node associated with the production of the product.

[0103] In an embodiment the production data associated with the production of the at least one mixture includes mixture identifier(s) associated with the at least one mixture, process data associated with production process(es) and / or production apparatus(es) used to produce the at least one mixture and energy data associated with the production of the at least one mixture. Process data may include production process identifier(s) and associated environmental property data, such as carbon footprint data, and / or production apparatus identifier(s) and associated environmental property data. Process data may include environmental property data associated with the production of the mixture.

[0104] In an embodiment determining the mixture environmental property data includes determining total input environmental property data by multiplying the input environmental property data associated with the input materials with input material amounts of the input materials and summing up the result of the multiplications, determining environmental property data associated with the production of the at least one mixture based on the production data, BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0105] 15 adding the total input environmental property data to the environmental property data associated with the production of the at least one mixture.

[0106] In an embodiment the quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data is determined based on the quality scores associated with the input environmental property data. The quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data may be determined by determining an average quality score from the quality scores associated with the input environmental property data. The average quality score may include a weighted average quality. This way, the amount of input material(s) associated with a given quality score with respect to their input environmental property data may be considered during generation of the quality score of the mixture. This allows a more accurate determination of the quality score of the mixture environmental property data

[0107] In an embodiment the method further includes a step of determining a fraction of validated input environmental property data used to determine the mixture environmental property data and linking the determined fraction of validated input environmental property data to the mixture identifier(s). The fraction of validated input material data may refer to the fraction of validated input environmental data with respect to the total input environmental data used to determine the mixture environmental data. By indicating the fraction of validated input environmental property data used to determine the mixture environmental property data, the reliability of the determined mixture environmental property data may be indicated. This may allow mixture users to control mixture streams used as input material to produce the product based on such data indicating the fraction of validated input environmental property data, hence allowing to reduce the environmental impact of the production using the mixtures as input material.

[0108] In an embodiment linking the mixture identifier(s) to the determined mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score includes generating a digital asset including the mixture identifier(s), the mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score.

[0109] In an embodiment the method further includes a step of providing the mixture environmental property data and optionally the associated quality score linked to the mixture identifier(s) for access by data consumer(s), in particular under control of the data owner of the mixture environmental property data and the quality score. The data owner may be the mixture producer. Providing the digital asset may include storing the digital asset in a database associated with or under control of the data owner of the digital asset. Providing the digital asset may include linking the digital asset with the decentral identifier and providing the digital asset for access by the data consumers via the decentral network. The decentral identifier may be associated with a digital representation of the digital asset. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the digital asset stored in the database of the data owner for access by data consumers.

[0110] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0111] In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to refer to the same or like elements, components, and / or parts. The description of drawings is provided for illustrative purposes and shall not be considered limiting. The embodiments and examples are illustrative embodiments and examples to further line out the concepts lined out herein. The figures include BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0112] 16 schematic illustrations and shall not be considered limiting. Other embodiments and examples that fall under the concepts lined out herein are possible and may not be explicitly described herein.

[0113] FIG. 1A illustrates an example of connected production sites with multiple input and output material flows.

[0114] FIG. 1 B illustrates another example of connected production sites with multiple input and output material flows.

[0115] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to- peer network for transfer of data associated with input materials and produced products used within the product ecosystem.

[0116] FIG. 3 illustrates schematically an example of a system for accessing input material data associated with input materials by downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the input materials to produce one or more products.

[0117] FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a system of determining input environmental property data associated with input material(s) at one production stage of a value chain.

[0118] FIG. 4B illustrates another example of a system of determining input environmental property data associated with input material(s) at one production stage of a value chain.

[0119] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method for determining input environmental property data associated with input material(s) provided to a production.

[0120] FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of the method of FIG. 5.

[0121] FIG. 7A illustrates an example of a data structure resulting from mapping input material data associated with a given input material provided to a production to target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials.

[0122] FIG. 7B illustrates an example of a data structure resulting from selecting environmental property data mapped to input materials provided to a production based on a quality score associated with the mapped environmental property data.

[0123] FIG. 8 illustrate examples of mapping rule(s) for mapping input material data associated with input material(s) provided to a production to environmental property data associated with chemical materials.

[0124] FIG. 9 illustrates an example flow chart for determining a quality score associated with input environmental property data based on a degree of chemical correlation, temporal correlation and / or geographical correlation between environmental property data associated with chemical materials and input material data associated with input material(s) provided to a production. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0125] 17

[0126] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a method for validating input environmental property data mapped to input material(s) provided to a production.

[0127] FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a data structure resulting from validating input environmental property data associated with input material(s) provided to a production.

[0128] FIG. 12 illustrates an example system and associated methods for monitoring an environmental impact of at least one mixture produced by a production from at least two input materials.

[0129] FIG. 13 illustrates an example method for monitoring an environmental impact of at least one mixture produced by a production from at least two input materials.

[0130] DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0131] FIG. 1A and FIG. 1 B illustrate different examples of connected production sites with multiple input and output material flows. The production sites may include a chemical production producing a mixture. The mixture may include at least two different compounds, such as chemical compounds. The mixture may be produced by mixing at least two different input material(s), such as two different chemical compounds. Mixing may be achieved using commonly known mixing gear.

[0132] The production sites 102, 110, 116, 126, 130 and 134 illustrated in FIG. 1A may include a chemical production 124 and upstream production sites 102, 110, 116 producing input material for the chemical production. The upstream production sites 102, 110, 116 may produce input material for the chemical production through recycling processes, refinery processes, chemical processes, physical processes and / or other process setups used to produce input material for chemical productions. The input materials may include chemical intermediate products. The input materials may include virgin materials (e.g. material not having undergone a recycling step). The input materials may include recycled input materials (e.g. material having undergone at least one recycling step). The input materials may include chemical products.

[0133] The chemical production 124 may produce mixture 136 from multiple input materials 108, 114, 118 provided to the chemical production 124. The chemical production 124 may be operated by a chemical producer (see for example FIG. 2). The chemical production 124 may be controlled by an operating system associated with the chemical production (see for example FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B). The chemical production 124 may form part of a discrete product supply chain, wherein the discrete product is produced from the mixture provided by the chemical production 124. The chemical production 124 may include one or more production sites 126, 130, 134 which may be connected to form a network with multiple production chains interrelated via their material flow. The chemical production 124 may include intermediate productions 126, 130 producing one or more intermediate products 128, 132. The intermediate products 128, 132 may be used by mixture production 134 to produce mixture 136. The mixture 136 may be produced by mixing the intermediate products 128, 132. The intermediate products 128, 132 may be mixed using mixing equipment. Mixing equipment may include agitators, static mixers, high shear mixers, planetary mixers, homogenizers, drum mixers and / or extruders. The intermediate products 128, 132 may be mixed until a homogeneous mixture is achieved. The mixture 136 produced by chemical production 124 may be provided to downstream participants (see for example FIG. 2). BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0134] 18

[0135] For production of the input materials 108, 114, 118 to be provided to the chemical production 124, the upstream production systems 102, 110, 116 use input materials 104, 106, 112, 120, 122 and one or more production processes (e.g. production steps). The use of input materials 104, 106, 112, 120, 122 and the production processes of the upstream production systems 102, 110, 116 are associated with an environmental impact. One non limiting example is greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of input materials 104, 106, 112, 120, 122 and the production processes of the upstream production systems 102, 110, 116. As a results, the output products 108, 114, 118 to be provided as input materials to the chemical production 124 are associated with an environmental impact that stems from the use of input materials 104, 106, 112, 120, 122 and the production processes of the upstream production systems 102, 110, 116. The use of output products 108, 114, 118 by the chemical production 124 effect the environmental impact of such chemical production 124.

[0136] Similarly, production of intermediate products 128, 130 produced by intermediate production 126, 130 of the chemical production 124 effect the environmental impact of the chemical production 124 and the mixture 136 it produces. To reliably monitor the environmental impact across producers participating in the value chain, environmental impact associated with the input materials 108, 114, 118 provided to the chemical production 124 may be required by an operating system of the chemical production 124 in the form of environmental impact data. The environmental impact data may include greenhouse gas emission data, recycled content data, bio-based content data, biogenic carbon content data and / or any other suitable data associated with the use of input materials 104, 106, 112, 120, 122 and the production processes of the upstream production systems 102, 110 and 116. The greenhouse gas emission data may include the product carbon footprint of the input materials 108, 114 and 118 to be provided to the chemical production 124. Based on the environmental impact of the input materials 108, 114, 118, environmental impact data of the mixture 136 produced by the chemical production 124 may be determined. Hence reliable environmental impact data of input materials 108, 114, 118 is important to monitor the environmental impact across participants of the supply chain. However, suppliers producing at least a part of the input materials 108, 114, 118 may not provide environmental impact data associated with such input materials 108, 114, 118. In addition, the environmental impact of the input materials 108, 114, 118 depends on the production processes and raw materials 104, 106, 112, 120, 122 used to produce the input materials 108, 114, 118. Similar input materials 108, 114, 118 produced by different upstream productions may hence carry different environmental impacts. Therefore, reliable determination of the environmental impact data associated with mixture 136 produced by chemical production 124 and the monitoring of the environmental impact along the value chain including the chemical production 124 becomes challenging due to lack of environmental impact data from upstream suppliers.

[0137] The embodiments and examples described below illustrate measures to determine environmental impact data of input materials provided to the chemical production 124. The determined environmental impact data may be associated with a quality indicator indicating the quality of the determined environmental impact data. In addition, the embodiments and examples described below enable reliable monitoring of the environmental impact of the chemical production 124 or the mixture 136 produced by the chemical production 124.

[0138] In contrast to FIG. 1A, the chemical production 124 illustrated in FIG. 1 B is configured to produce the mixture 136 directly from one or more input materials 108, 118 provided by upstream production 1 102 and upstream production 3 1 16 to the chemical production 124. Hence, the chemical production 124 does not include any intermediate productions as illustrated in FIG. 1A. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0139] 19

[0140] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a participant network of a product ecosystem associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network for transfer of data associated with input materials and produced products used within the product ecosystem.

[0141] The participant network 228 of the product ecosystem associated may be associated with a decentral peer-to-peer network 232 for exchange of transferable environmental properties and / or accessible environmental properties associated with raw material(s), chemical product(s), discrete product(s), end product(s), recycled material(s) and / or their respective production. The participant network 228 may include one or more network participants 202 to 214 associated with decentral participant nodes 216 to 226. The network participants may be part of an industry or may be part of different industries. The network participants may be part of a product ecosystem including chemical products. The product ecosystem may include production chains to produce one or more end-product(s). The product ecosystem may include recycling chains to recycle at least part of an end-of-life product resulting from the use of the end product(s). The product ecosystem may include production chains and recycling chains.

[0142] The product ecosystem may include an input material supplier 204 (e.g. a raw material producer), a chemical product producer 202, a chemical product consumer 206, an end-product producer 208 (e.g. an OEM), an end-product user 210, an EOL product collector 212 and a recycler 214. The product ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 2 is a mere example and may include more or less network participants. For example, the product ecosystem may include a chain of chemical product producers instead of only one chemical product producer 202, for example as illustrated in FIG. 1A. The participant network 228 may include a chemical supply chain. The product ecosystem may allow to use materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life products to produce new products, such as chemical products. The product ecosystem may be associated with the production and / or recycling of physical products. The product may be a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a component, a component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product or a recycled material.

[0143] The participant(s) of the participant network 228 may be associated with the production of products and / or recycling of products. The decentral network participant 202 to 214 may refer to a manufacturer of physical products, such as input material supplier 204, chemical product producer 202, chemical product consumer 206, end-product producer 208, a user of physical goods, such as end-product user 210, and / or a participant of a recycling chain associated with the physical product, such as EOL product collector 212 and recycler 214. The network participant may be associated with a participant node 216 to 226 and a decentral participant identifier related to an associated participant node(s) 216 to 226. The decentral participant identifier may uniquely identify the decentral network participant and its associated decentral participant node within the decentral peer- to-peer network 232.

[0144] The participant(s) of the participant network 228 may be connected via material flows. The material flow may be a loop material flow 234. The loop material flow 234 may be a closed loop material flow. A closed loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce the same end products the recycled material is obtained from via recycling. The loop material flow 234 may be an open loop material flow. An open loop material flow may refer to a material loop where recycled material is used to produce different end products than the one the recycled material is obtained from. The material flow may be a linear material flow (e.g. not including recycling). The material flow 234 may correspond to the flow of product from one participant of the participant network 228 to the downstream participant of the participant network 228. The material flow 234 may refer to a continuous or a discontinuous flow of product. The flow of product may include any means of BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0145] 20 transportation suitable to transport the product from a participant to the downstream participant. The means of transportation may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages. The material flow 234 may be associated with raw materials used to produce the chemical product, such as virgin raw materials 108. The raw materials may be provided to chemical product producer 202 for producing chemical product(s) and / or intermediate chemical product(s) 236. The loop material flow 234 may be associated with chemical product(s) 236. The chemical product(s) may be provided from chemical product producer 202 to chemical product consumer 206 for producing further chemical products or discrete product(s). In contrast to chemical production, the discrete products being produced are distinct units sold as individual products. The loop material flow 234 may be associated with recycled material 238. The recycled material may be provided from recycler 214 to chemical product producer 202 to produce chemical product(s).

[0146] At least part of the participants of the participant network 228 may be associated with decentral participant network nodes 216 to 226. The decentral participant nodes 216 to 226 may be under control of the respective decentral participant associated with the respective decentral participant node 216 to 226. The decentral participant nodes 216 to 226 may form decentral network 232. The decentral network 232 may be a peer-to-peer communication network. The decentral peer-to-peer network 232 may be configured to perform data transactions 230 according to at least one network protocol. The data transactions 230 may be based on at least one transaction protocol including authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and / or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer communication between decentral network nodes 216 to 226 associated with network participants 202 to 214 may be established. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to the decentral identifier as described in the context of FIG. 3. The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifier may be accessible by the decentral participant nodes 216 to 226 as described in the context of FIG. 3. The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by the data owners of the decentral network by allowing for data sovereignty.

[0147] Data transactions between decentral network participant nodes 216 to 226 may be based on a decentral identifier associated with respective input material data or product data to be accessed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the input material and associated input material data. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the product and associated product data. The decentral identifier may uniquely identify the respective input material or product within the decentral network. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifier(s), such as decentral identifier(s) of input material(s) used to produce the product. This may allow to track the input material(s) used to produce a product, such as an end-product. The decentral identifier may be included in a digital access element associated with the input material or the product, for example as described in the context of FIG. 3. The digital access element may include a representation for accessing the input material data or the product data associated with the decentral identifier. The representation may point to the database of the data owner of the input material data or product data, respectively.

[0148] The data flow 230 (e.g. transactions, depicted by dashed lines) between decentral network participant nodes 216 to 226 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flow 234 (depicted by bold solid lines) between the network participants 202 to 214. For instance, data flow 230 may be directly associated with material flow 234 if data associated with an input material provided from the input material supplier 204 to the chemical product producer 202 is accessed by decentral participant BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0149] 21 node 218 associated with said chemical product producer 202. For instance, data flow 230 may be indirectly associated with material flow 234 if data associated with a chemical product produced by chemical product producer 202 is accessed by decentral participant node 226 associated with recycler 214.

[0150] The decentral participant nodes 216 to 226 may be decentral computing nodes. The decentral computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and a physical and tangible memory capable of having thereon computer-executable instructions that are executed by a processor. The memory may take any form of volatile or non-volatile storages and may depend on the nature and form of the computing node.

[0151] At least part of the decentral participant nodes 216 to 226 may be configured as decentral data providing network nodes. At least part of the participant nodes 216 to 226 may be configured as decentral data consuming network nodes. A participant of the decentral network 232 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node and / or a decentral data consuming network node depending on whether data is provided to downstream participants and / or consumed from upstream participants. For instance, input material supplier 204 may be associated with a decentral data providing network node configured to provide product data to a downstream participant (e.g. chemical product producer 202) for example as described in the context of FIG. 3. In addition to or alternatively, input material supplier 204 may be associated with a decentral data consuming network node configured to access data associated with input material produced by an upstream participant (e.g. not shown in FIG. 2).

[0152] The decentral network 232 may include further decentral network nodes (not shown in FIG. 2). The further decentral network nodes may not be associated with or operated by a participant 202 to 214 of the product ecosystem. The further decentral network nodes may provide services for network participants 202 to 214. For instance, the further decentral network nodes may provide digital marketplaces for network participants 202 to 214. The further decentral network nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes. The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide services for decentral participant nodes 216 to 226, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 216 to 226 prior to performing a data exchange. The decentral network participant nodes 216 to 226 may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certificate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with decentral infrastructure service node(s) including e.g. a certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service providing dynamic attribute tokens (e.g. OAuth Access Tokens). This way the decentral network participant nodes 216 to 226 may be associated with a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network participant node 216 to 226. The information required to verify the certificate may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and / or a dynamic provisioning service. For instance, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0 of April 2019, a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner, a Certification Authority (CA), a Dynamic Attribute Provisioning Service (DAPS) and a decentral data consuming network node associated with a data consumer may be used to verify the identity prior to performing a data exchange (not shown).

[0153] FIG. 3 illustrates schematically an example of a system for accessing input material data associated with input materials by downstream node(s) associated with downstream participant(s) using the input materials to produce one or more products. The system shown in FIG. 3 may be used to exchange data, such as input material data associated with input materials supplied to participants of the product ecosystem to produce products, within a participant network, such as the participant network described in the context of FIG. 2. What is described in the context of FIG. 3 with respect to input material data equally BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0154] 22 applies to product data associated with products produced from such input materials. The input materials may be provided to a production producing the products. The production may be a chemical production as illustrated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1 B. The chemical production may be operated by chemical product producer 202. The chemical production 124 may be associated with an operating system controlling the production of output products from the supplied input materials, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. The input materials may be produced by one or more upstream productions, for example as illustrated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1 B. The input materials may be provided from input material supplier 204 to the chemical production 124.

[0155] For exchanging input material data within the participant network illustrated for example in FIG. 2, digital twins associated with the input material 108 may be generated. The digital twin may be a digital representation of a physical entity of the input material with defined semantic description(s) of said physical entity of the input material. The digital twin of the physical entity of the input material is hence a digital version of said physical entity. Once created, the digital twin can be used to represent the physical entity of the input material in a digital representation of a real-world system. The digital twin may be uniquely linked to the physical input material via an identifier. The digital twin may be created such that it is identical in form and behavior of the corresponding input material. Additionally, the digital twin may mirror the properties of the input material, e.g. during its production and / or lifetime. For example, sensors may capture real-time (or near real-time) data, such as transport data or use data, from the physical input material to relay it back to a remote digital twin. The digital twin may then be updated to maintain its correspondence to the physical entity of the input material. Hence, the digital twin may at any time represent the current state of the physical entity of the input material.

[0156] The digital twin of the input material may include a decentral input material identifier and input material data. The input material data may include at least one measured chemical and / or physical property of the input material and / or at least one physical and / or chemical property determined from collected data associated with the production and / or the use of the input material. The data may be collected prior to, upon or after production of the respective input material. Different parts of the data to be collected may be associated with a common identifier to allow collecting of the data based on a single identifier. The input material data may further include input material identifier(s), input material producer data, input material declaration data, input material safety data, production data associated with the input material, certificate of analysis data associated with the input material, certificate data associated with the input material, life cycle data associated with the input material, storage instruction data associated with the input material, processing conditions associated with the input material or a combination thereof. The input material data may contain one or more input material data set(s) (also denoted as assets hereinafter).

[0157] The digital twin may be generated by the data owner of the input material data, such as input material supplier 204. The digital twin may be generated on behalf of the data owner of the input material data. The digital twin may be generated by gathering data associated with the input material, applying one or more data models to the gathered data to generate the input material data and linking the generated input material data to the decentral input material identifier to generate the digital twin. Via the decentral input material identifier and its unique association with the digital twin (and hence with the input material and input material data) and optionally the data owner, access to the digital twin or parts thereof generated from said data may be controlled by the data owner. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the decentral BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0158] 23 iden tifier(s) as controlled by the data owner of the data associated with such decentral identifier(s). The decentral input material identifier may include or be associated with one or more identifier(s) used in the decentral network and allowing for data exchange via the decentral network. For instance, the decentral identifier may include or be associated with data set identifier(s) of data sets included in the input material data, such as UUID(s) of twin data set(s). Any combination of UUID(s) and DID(s) may be possible. For instance, the decentral input material identifier may be a DID while the data set identifier(s) may be UUID(s). In another instance, the decentral input material identifier, and the digital twin set data identifier(s) may be UUlDs. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral input material identifier and optionally identifier(s) associated with said decentral input material identifier for participant nodes of the decentral network, authentication of participant nodes of the decentral network and / or authorization of data transfers via a peer-to-peer communication between participant nodes of the decentral network.

[0159] The digital twin may be stored in a dedicated storage (input material data DB 308) associated with a network node of the decentral network 232. The network node may be a data providing node, such as node 216. The network node may be associated with the data owner of the digital twin, such as input material supplier 204. The dedicated storage may be associated with the data owner of the digital twin. The dedicated storage may be accessible by the data owner of the digital twin. Access to the dedicated storage may be controlled by the data owner of the digital twin, for example via the decentral input material identifier. This way, the input material data may be shared within the decentral network 232 under control of the data owner of the input material data with one or more data consumer(s), such as input material consumers (e.g. chemical product producer 202).

[0160] The decentral input material identifier may be linked to other decentral identifier(s) according to a physical relation of the input material entity with other physical entities e.g. those used to produce the input material or those produced from the input material. This way decentral participant node(s) of the decentral network may be able to interpret the relation of the decentral input material identifier corresponding to the physical relation of the physical input material entity to other physical entities. The linking of the decentral input material identifier with other decentral product identifier(s) allows to determine the decentral participant node(s) storing the data associated with products produced using the input material or materials used to produce the input material. The decentral input material identifier may be digital or virtual identifier(s), e.g. may not correspond to physical identifier(s) physically attached to the input material.

[0161] The decentral input material identifier may be assigned to a physical identifier connected to the input material 108. The connection of the physical identifier with the input material 108 may be provided by means of physical connection to the physical input material 108 or physical entity. For instance, the physical identifier may be connected with the physical entity of the input material 108. The physical identifier may have one-to-one correspondence to a virtual identity or to a physical identity by means of a physical connection to the physical entity. The physical identifier may be physically attached to the input material 108 via an identifier element. Physical identifier or physical identifier element may refer to any virtual or physical arrangement that associates the decentral identifier with the input material 108. The physical identifier may be any identifier for the produced input material 108, such as a batch number or a part number. The physical identifier element may comprise a passive or active element, e.g. QR-code, RFID-tag, but is not limited thereto. The physical identifier element may be a physical identifier BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0162] 24 physically connected to the input material. The identifier element may include markers embedded in the input material, a bar code, a QR-Code, a tag like a RFID tag or similar physical arrangement that allows to digitally identify the input material.

[0163] Digital access element(s) may be generated to allow access to the input material data or parts thereof via the decentral network 232. A digital access element may be generated per data set (e.g. asset) included in the digital twin. This may allow to control access to the input material data on a more granular asset level. The digital access element may include a decentral access element identifier and access data. The decentral access element identifier may be associated with the decentral input material identifier. The decentral access element identifier may correspond to the decentral input material identifier. The access data may include a representation for accessing the digital twin or parts thereof. The decentral input material identifier may be associated with the representation for accessing the digital twin or parts thereof. The access data may include a representation pointing to the database storing the digital twin or parts thereof. The representation pointing to the database may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service Endpoint), that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. The representation may be regarded as locator directly or indirectly indicating the location or database(s) where the digital twin is stored. The digital access element may further include or relate to authentication and / or authorization information linked to the decentral access element identifier. The authentication and / or authorization information may be provided for authentication and / or authorization of the decentral network node / decentral data consuming network nodes and decentral data providing network nodes. The digital access element may be provided to a decentral registry node, such as decentral registry 310. The decentral registry node may store decentral access element identifier(s) and associated access data. Access to the decentral registry 310 may be controlled by the data owner of the input material data associated with such access elements. Access to the decentral registry 310 may be controlled via decentral data providing network node 216. Access to the decentral registry 310 may be controlled based on decentral participant identifiers related to data consuming nodes associated with data consumers. This way, data consuming node(s) requesting access to decentral registry 310 may be filtered.

[0164] Policy data may be generated to control access to the digital twin or parts thereof and / or usage of the input material data contained in digital twin or the part thereof (e.g. assets of the digital twin). The policy data may define decentral participant identifier(s) associated with decentral participant(s) allowed to access the digital twin or parts thereof. This way, decentral participants requesting access to the digital twin or a part thereof can be filtered based on the associated decentral participant identifier. The policy data may further define permissions, prohibitions and / or obligations of data consumers with respect to the consumed digital twin or a part thereof. This way, the data owner of the digital twin can control usage of the provided digital twin or a part thereof by the data consumer.

[0165] The physical entity of the input material 108 as produced by an input material supplier 204 may be physically provided from the input material supplier 204 to the chemical product producer 202. The input material may be provided in association with the digital twin or a part thereof to chemical product producer 202. The chemical product producer 202 may use the supplied input material to produce product(s) (e.g. output product(s)), for example as described in the context of FIG. 1 A, FIG. 1 B, FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. Output products may include mixture 136. The input material 108 may be connected to a code, such as a bar code or QR-code. The code may encode the input material identifier. The code may encode the decentral input material identifier. The code may further encode the representation for accessing the input material data or a part thereof and / or the BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0166] 25 decentral participant identifier associated with the data owner of the input material data, such as input material supplier 204. The code may further encode a representation pointing to a server, such as backend 312. The chemical product producer 202 receiving input material 108 may read the code through code reader 318. The code reader 318 may be a smartphone running a code reading application, such as a QR code reader app. The code reading application may be configured to determine the input material identifier. The code reading application may be configured to determine the decentral input material identifier. The code reading application may further be configured to determine the representation for accessing the input material data or a part thereof or the server. The code reading application may be configured to display the data, such as the identifier(s) and / or the representation(s). The code reading application may be configured to provide the data, such as the input material identifier or decentral input material identifier and optionally the representation and / or decentral participant identifier, to backend 312.

[0167] Backend 312 may be in a client-server relationship with code reader 318, where code reader 318 functions as client and backend 312 functions as server. Backend 312 may be configured to provide data to code reader 318, such as gathered decentral input material identifiers and / or gathered digital twins or parts thereof. Code reader 318 may be configured to display such data, for example within a graphical user interface. Backend 312 may be connected to a decentral data consuming network node being part of a decentral network 232, such as node 218. Node 218 may be associated with a chemical production producing one or more chemical product(s) using the input material 108 (not shown, see for example FIG. 1 A, FIG. 1 B, FIG. 4A, FIG. 4B). Node 218 may be associated with the entity operating the chemical production, such as chemical product producer 202. Node 218 may be configured to determine - based on the data received from backend 312 - provider node(s) being associated with the producer of the input material 108 , such as node 216. For instance, node 218 may be configured to query infrastructure node(s) 316 of decentral network 232 using the input material identifier to determine decentral participant identifier(s) of data provider(s) associated with the input material identifier. The determined decentral participant identifier(s) may then be used by node 218 to query the infrastructure node(s) to determine endpoints of provider node(s), such as node 216, associated with said decentral participant identifier(s).

[0168] Backend 312 may be configured to generate query data to query decentral registries, such as decentral registry 310, associated with the obtained endpoint(s) of the provider node(s), such as node 216 (see step [2] in FIG. 3). The query data may include the input material identifier. The query data may include key value pair(s), where at least one value may be the input material identifier. The backend 312 may be configured to generate a request for gathering the decentral input material identifier(s) associated with said input material identifier(s). The request may include at least a part of the received end point(s) of provider node(s) and the query data. The request may be provided to node 218. Consumer node 218 may be configured - in response to the request from the backend 312 - to query the decentral registries of decentral network 232. The queries may include the query data and a decentral participant identifier associated with the consumer node 218.

[0169] Consumer node 218 may be configured to send such queries to the endpoint(s) of provider node(s), such as node 216, included in the request received from backend 312 (see step [2] of FIG. 3). The queries may be authenticated. Such authentication may be based on data related to an authentication mechanism. The authentication mechanism may be based on certificate(s) and / or token(s), for example a device certificate (X.509v3), a TLS connection certificate (X.509v3) and a 'Dynamic Attribute Token’ (OAuth Access Token), associated with the respective decentral participant nodes, e.g. consumer node 218 and provider node BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0170] 26

[0171] 216. If authentication fails, no query results may be provided by respective data provider(s). The queries may further be authorized. Such authorization may be based on or related to an authorization mechanism. The authorization mechanism may be based on access data defining decentral data consuming network nodes allowed to request data stored in decentral registry 310 associated with such provider node(s), such as node 216 and one or more usage rule(s) associated with the usage of the data stored within the decentral registry 310. The authorization mechanism may further be based on acceptance of the policy data by the consumer node(s), such as node 218, as described later on. Such access data may be provided to consumer node(s), such as node 218, in response to requesting data stored in decentral registry 310.

[0172] If authentication fails, the peer-to-peer connection between node 218 will terminate the peer-to-peer connection with node 216. If authentication is successful, provider node(s), such as node 216, may be configured to query associated decentral registry(ies), such as decentral registry 310, to determine whether the associated decentral registry includes decentral identifier(s) (e.g. decentral input material identifiers) related to the query data contained in the query from the consumer node 218 (see steps [3], [4] in FIG. 3). Provider node(s) not having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may send a respective response to consumer node 218. Provider node(s), such as node 216, not having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may not send any response to consumer node 218. Provider node(s) 216 having determined decentral identifier(s) related to the query data may return such decentral identifier(s) to consumer node 218(see step [5] in FIG. 3). Consumer node 218 may provide such decentral identifier(s) to backend 312.

[0173] In response to receiving decentral identifier(s) from providing node(s) 216, consuming node 218 may be configured to request policy data associated with such decentral identifier(s) (e.g. input material identifier(s)) from provider node(s) 216 (see step [6] in FIG. 3). Provider node 216 may provide policy data associated with such decentral identifier(s) to requesting consumer node 218. The policy data may include obligations, permissions and / or prohibitions associated with the usage of the input material data. Consumer node 218 may provide such policy data to backend 312. Backend 312 may be configured to validate the policy data and to provide data indicating acceptance to consumer node 218. In response to such acceptance data, consumer node 218 may generate offer data including the decentral input material identifier and at least a part of the policy data and may provide such data offer to provider node 216. The offer data may be accepted by provider node 218. This way, an electronic contract can be agreed upon between network nodes of the decentral network 232, the electronic contract including the policy data agreed upon by the nodes. Backend 312 may forward data being indicative of rejecting the policy data to consumer node 218. In response to such rejection data, consumer node 218 may indicate termination of the negotiation on the policy data to provider node 216. In response to such termination, provider node 216 may terminate the peer-to-peer connection to consumer node 216 and may not provide any further data, in particular may not provide input material data. This way, it can be ensured that input material data is only provided to data consumers which agree to the permissions, obligations and / or prohibitions defined within the policy data associated with the input material data.

[0174] Backend 312 may be configured to generate a request to gather access element(s) associated with the decentral input material identifier(s) upon receiving an indication that the offer data was accepted by provider node 216. The request may include an agreement identifier associated with the electronic contract negotiated between the nodes and the input material identifier. The request may be provided to consumer node 218. Consumer node 218 may be configured to request respective access element(s) from provider node(s) 216 having provided decentral input material identifier(s) in step [5]) (see step [6] of FIG. 3). BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0175] 27

[0176] The request to respective provider node(s) 216 may include the decentral input material identifier(s) and the decentral participant identifier associated with consumer node 218. Upon receiving the request, provider node(s) 216 may gather access element(s) from associated decentral registry 310 based on the decentral input material identifier(s) contained in the received request. The gathered access element(s) may then be provided to consumer node 218. Consumer node 218 may provide the received access element(s) to backend 312. Backend 312 may store the access elements in a storage associated with the server, such as storage 314.

[0177] Backend 312 may be configured to parse the received access element(s) (e.g. the received access element data). The access element(s) may include decentral input material identifier(s) and associated access data. Backend 312 may be configured to match access data contained in received access elements with data provided by code reader 318, such as input material identifier(s) to determine decentral identifiers and associated access data matching the provided data. Backend 312 may be configured to generate a respective request to retrieve such asset(s) associated with such decentral input material identifier(s). The request may include the decentral input material identifier(s), the associated access data and the respective agreement identifier. The request may be generated upon determining a match between input material identifier(s) provided by code reader 318 and input material identifier(s) included in the access element(s) provided by consumer node 218. The request may be forwarded to consumer node 218. Consumer node 218 may generate a request to gather the respective input material data associated with the decentral input material identifier from respective provider node(s) 216. The request may include the decentral input material identifier and the agreement identifier included in the request received from backend 312. The request may further include the decentral participant identifier associated with consumer node 218. The request may be sent by consumer node 218 to the endpoint defined in the access data gathered from provider node 216. Consumer node 218 and provider node 216 may be authenticating as previously described.

[0178] Provider node 216 may determine whether consumer node 218 is authorized to access the requested input material data. Provider node 216 may match the decentral participant identifier provided by consumer node 218 to policy data associated with the respective input material data. This may allow to filter consumer nodes requesting access to such input material data based on associated decentral participant identifiers, hence improving security to ensure that no unauthorized consumer nodes can access the input material data. Provider node 216 may gather the requested input material data from input material data DB 308 based on the decentral input material identifier(s) received from consumer node 218 (see steps [7], [8] of FIG. 3). Provider node 216 may gather the requested input material data upon successful authorization of consumer node 218. Provider node 216 may provide the gathered input material data to consumer node 218 (see step [9] in FIG. 3). Provider node 216 may apply policy data to the gathered input material prior to providing such data to consumer node 218. Consumer node 218 may provide the received input material data to backend 312. Backend 312 may be configured to store such data in storage 314 (see steps

[0010] ,

[0011] in FIG. 3).

[0179] Through the decentral input material identifier, the input material data can be uniquely associated with the input material. Through the decentral network, the input material data may be transferred between an input material producer and an input material consumer in a standardized and secure way, allowing the input material producer to control access to the input material data by multiple decentral data consuming network nodes existing within the decentral network via the decentral input BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0180] 28 material identifier. This way, the input material data can be shared with unique association to the input material and without central intermediary directly between the participants of the product ecosystem in a secure and reliable manner.

[0181] By using policy data associated with such decentral input material identifier, access to the input material data by multiple data consumer nodes within the decentral network and / or usage of the provided input material data by data consumers may be reliably controlled by the data owner of the input material data. This way, the input material data can be shared in a secure yet reliable way within the decentral network, allowing users of the input material to consume input material data associated with such input material, for example to control the production of chemical products using such input materials.

[0182] FIG. 4A illustrates an example of a system of determining input environmental property data associated with input material(s) at one production stage of a product ecosystem. For the sake of simplification, the following description will focus on the chemical production 124 illustrated in FIG. 1A and FIG. 1 B. This should not be considered limiting. The concepts described are similarly applicable to other participants of the product ecosystem, such as the product ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 2.

[0183] The input material(s) may include chemical intermediate product(s) and / or chemical product(s) and / or discrete product(s). The input materials 108 may be produced by upstream participants of the product ecosystem, for example as illustrated in FIG. 1A, FIG. 1 B and FIG. 2. The input material(s) 108 may be provided to the production, such as chemical production 124, for production of one or more product(s). Product(s) produced by the production may include chemical product(s), such as mixtures 136, or discrete products, such as components / parts, part assemblies or end-products.

[0184] The production 204 may be associated with a decentral network participant, such as the chemical product producer 202 described in the context of FIG. 2. For producing one or more output products, such as mixtures 136, different input(s) 108 (also called input material(s) 108 hereinafter) may be provided as physical inputs from material providers or suppliers. The physical inputs provided to the production 124 may include chemical raw materials and / or chemical intermediate products and / or chemical products. The input material 108 may be fed into the production 124 at any entry point. The input material 108 may be fed into the production 124 at the start of the production 124. The input materials may be considered input for the production 124.

[0185] The production 124 may include multiple production steps (see also FIG. 1A). The production steps included in the production 124 may be defined by the system boundary 414 of the production 124. The system boundary 414 may be defined by location or control over production processes. The system boundary 414 may be defined by the site of the production 124. The system boundary may be defined by production processes controlled by one entity or multiple entities jointly. The system boundary may be defined by value chain with staggered production processes to an end product, which may be controlled by multiple entities separately.

[0186] The production 124 may convert inbound material 108 to one or more material(s) that exit the production 124. The conversion may be a chemical reaction or any other processing step, such as physical processing. Physical processing may include mixing using mixing equipment, such as described in the context of FIG. 1 A and FIG. 1 B. Such conversion may require input materials 108, energy supply to run the production processes and production process conditions to transform the input materials 108 to output materials, such as mixtures 136. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0187] 29

[0188] The production may be a chemical production 124. The chemical production may be a chemical production network. The chemical production network may include multiple interlinked processing steps. The chemical production network may be an integrated chemical production network with interrelated production chains. The chemical production network may include multiple different production chains that have at least one intermediate product in common. The chemical production network may include multiple stages of the chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include multiple production chains that produce from one or more inbound material(s) as input chemical products as output. The chemical production network may include multiple tiers of a chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include a physically interconnected arrangement of production sites. The production sites may be at the same location or at different locations. In the latter case, the production sites may be interconnected by means of dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles, like trucks, supply chain ships or other cargo transportation means.

[0189] Production 124 may be associated with an operating system, such as production operating system 420. Production operating system 420 may be associated with backend 312 illustrated in FIG. 3. Backend 312 may be part of production operating system 420. Production operating system 420 may monitor and / or control the production 124 based on operating parameters associated with the different processes performed by the production 124 . One process step monitored and / or controlled may be the feed of input materials 108 or the release of produced output products, such as mixtures 136. Another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the determination of environmental property data associated with input materials 108 entering the system boundary of the production 124, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5.

[0190] Production operating system 420 may include registration unit 402. Registration unit 402 may be configured to gather input material data associated with input materials 108 entering the production 124. The input material data may include input material identifier(s), input composition data associated with the chemical composition of the input material and input production data associated with the production of the input material. The input material data may not include input environmental property data associated with the input material. The input composition data may include input material identifier(s), identifier(s) of chemical compounds and associated amounts present within the input material and / or chemical properties of the chemical compounds. The input material identifier(s) and / or the identifier(s) of chemical compounds may include CAS numbers, IUPAC names, IUPAC identifiers (e.g. InChlKey, InChi), EINECS numbers, ELINCS numbers or a combination thereof. Chemical properties may include the molecular formula and / or the molecular weight of the input material and / or the chemical compound(s) included in the input material. The input production data may include production location data associated with the location of the production producing or having produced the input material and / or production condition data associated with production condition(s) used to produce the input material. The production location data may include coordinates of the production location, the country of the production location, the region of the production location or a combination thereof. The input material data may include further data described in the context of FIG. 2. The input material data may not include environmental property data. The input material data may not include emission data, such as carbon footprint data.

[0191] Registration unit 402 may gather input material data based on respective input material identifier associated with the input materials. Registration unit 402 may be configured to gather input material data from a decentral network 232, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. Registration unit 402 may include backend 312. Registration unit 402 may be in BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0192] 30 communication with code reader 318. Registration unit 402 may be configured to gather input material data from one or more data sources. Data sources may include user interfaces allowing users to enter input material data, files and / or databases storing input material data. Registration unit 402 may be configured to store the gathered input material data in a database (not shown, see for example FIG. 3). Registration unit 402 may be configured to provide the gathered input material data to mapping engine 418. Registration unit 402 may be configured to provide environmental property data included in the gathered input material data to a validation engine configured to validate the environmental property data, for example as described in unpublished European patent applications EP23199840.2 and EP23199855.0.

[0193] Mapping engine 418 may be configured to determine input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) for at least a part of the input material(s) 108 based on the input material data gathered by registration unit 402 and target chemical material data associated with chemical materials. The input environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of the input material. The input environmental property data may include one or more environmental properties of the input material. The input environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of the input material. The input environmental property may relate to properties of the production of the input material. The input environmental property may relate to one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the input material. The input environmental property may include environmental characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the input material. Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact. Environmental characteristic(s) may be or may be produced from measurements taken during the lifecycle of one or more input material(s). Environmental characteristics may be determined at any stage of the input material lifecycle and may characterize the environmental impact of the input material for such stage or up to such stage. Environmental characteristic(s) may for example include carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, resource usage, air emissions, ozone depletion potential, water pollution, noise pollution or eutrophication potential. The input environmental properties may relate to the product carbon footprint of the input material(s).

[0194] The target chemical material data may include target chemical material identifiers, target composition data associated with the chemical composition of the target chemical materials, target environmental property data associated with the target chemical materials and generation data associated with the generation of the target environmental property data. The target composition data may include chemical material identifiers, identifiers of chemical compounds and associated amounts present within the target chemical materials and / or chemical properties of the chemical compounds. Chemical properties may describe the change of the chemical material’s chemical composition given a specific set of conditions. Chemical properties may include flammability, (eco-)toxicity, acidity, reactivity, combustibility, concentrations of components including contaminants or the like. Property data may relate to physical properties. Physical properties may be used to describe the physical characteristics of the chemical materials. Physical properties may be observed or measured without changing the identity of the material. Physical properties may include color, density, hardness, a boiling point or boiling range, flashpoint, melting point, and / or pour point or the like. This way, environmental property data may be identified for a given chemical material based on the chemical material data and optionally the production data.

[0195] Target environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of a plurality of different chemical materials. The chemical materials may include raw materials, chemical intermediate product(s), chemical product(s), parts, BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0196] 31 component(s), component assemblies and / or end products. The target environmental property data may include one or more environmental properties of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may relate to properties of the production of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may relate to one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may include environmental characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the chemical materials. Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact as previously described.

[0197] Mapping engine 418 may be configured to determine quality score(s) indicating at least a degree of chemical correlation and optionally a degree of geographical correlation and / or temporal correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data by mapping the input material data, such as the input composition data and input production data, to the target chemical material data, such as the target composition data and target environmental property data respectively, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 to FIG. 9. The quality score(s) may indicate a reliability and / or quality of the determined input environmental property data. For instance, a high quality score may indicate a low reliability and / or quality of the determined input environmental property data while a low quality score may indicate a high reliability and / or quality of the determined input environmental property data or vice versa. Based on such determined quality score(s), input material property data mapped to the input material data may be selected. Target environmental property data may be stored in a database, such as database 430. The database 430 may be associated with the production operating system 420, for example via a communication interface (not shown in FIG. 4A). The database 430 may be included in production operating system 420. Mapping engine 418 may have access to database 430, for example via a communication interface. Mapping engine 418 may be configured to link selected input environmental property data and associated quality score(s). Mapping engine 418 may be configured to store the input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to the material identifier(s) in a database, such as database 432. This way, input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) of input material(s) may be gathered from database 432 based respective input material identifier(s).

[0198] By mapping the input material data to the target chemical material data based on at least the chemical correlation and optionally the geographical correlation and / or the temporal correlation, the input material streams to the production producing the mixtures can be reliably monitored with respect to their environmental impact on the mixture(s) despite the lack of environmental property data of input materials. This way, missing environmental property data can be substituted with existing environmental property data of chemical materials, avoiding that the environmental impact of input material(s) used to produce a given output product, such as a mixture, is not considered due to the lack of environmental property data associated with such input materials. This enhances control over the mixture environmental property data of the produced mixtures, since input environmental property data is available for all input materials used to produce the mixture.

[0199] By using quality score(s) associated with the determined input environmental property data, the quality of the mapping of input material data to target environmental property data may be rendered transparent. This way, the reliability of the determined input environmental property data may be indicated, allowing to determine the quality and reliability of further environmental property data determined using the input environmental property data, such as mixture environmental property data associated with mixtures produced using the input materials associated with the input environmental property data. By using a quality BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0200] 32 score indicating the quality and reliability of the respective environmental property data, data user(s) can easily and reliably judge the quality and reliability of determined environmental property data. This way, a transparency on the quality and reliability of the input environmental property data may be achieved within the value chain. Such transparency may aid in improving the overall transparency with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem including the value chain. Moreover, such transparency may aid in reducing or mitigating the use of unreliable environmental property data or environmental property data having low data quality to improve the environmental impact of input material(s) and / or product(s) produced from such input material(s). This allows to provide more reliable environmental impact data with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by avoiding missing environmental property data or the use of unreliably environmental property data.

[0201] In contrast to FIG. 4A, FIG. 4B illustrates an embodiment in which the mapping service 422 described in the context of FIG. 4A is part of a decentral network, such as decentral network 232 illustrated in FIG. 2. The production operating system 420 may include the registration unit 40 described in the context of FIG. 4A. In contrast to FIG. 4A, registration unit 402 may be configured to provide gathered input material data via a data providing node 216A associated with production operating system 420 to a data consuming node 228B associated with the mapping service 422. Data consuming node 228B may be configured to provide the received input material data to mapping engine 418 of mapping service 422. Mapping engine 418 may be configured to determine input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) of input materials based on received input material data and target chemical material data as described in the context of FIG. 4A and FIG. 5. The input environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of the input material as described in the context of FIG. 4A.

[0202] Mapping service 422 may be configured to provide the determined input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to the input material identifier(s) associated with the input material(s) via associated data providing node 228A to data consuming node 216B associated with production operating system 420. Production operating system 420 may be configured to store the received data in database 432.

[0203] The mapping service 422 shown in FIG. 4B may be used by different participants of the product ecosystem (see FIG. 2). While FIG. 4B illustrates the use of the mapping service 422 by the chemical product producer 202, the mapping service 422 may likewise be used by upstream participants of the chemical product producer 202, such as input material supplier 204. This way, upstream participants may provide input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) of input material(s) to downstream participants using such input materials within their production. By using the quality score, the input material consumer(s) may be able to judge the quality and reliability of the input environmental property data associated with the consumed input materials. This way, more reliable environmental property data associated with product(s) produced by such input material consumer(s) using such input material(s) can be determined, improving the overall reliability and quality of the environmental impact of the product ecosystem including the input material(s) and product(s). The environmental property data may be provided as digital asset via a decentral network 232 (see FIG. 2) to the downstream participants.

[0204] FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of an example of a method for determining input environmental property data associated with input material(s) provided to a production. The input material(s) may be used to produce a product, such as a mixture, by the production. The input material(s) may be chemical intermediate products, chemical products and / or discrete products. The BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0205] 33 product may be a chemical product or a discrete product. The chemical product may be a mixture. The production may include one or more production steps. The production may be a chemical production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 1A, FIG. 1 B, FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. The method illustrated in FIG. 5 may be performed by production operating system 420 described in the context of FIG. 4A. The method illustrated in FIG. 5 may be performed by mapping service 422 described in the context of FIG. 4B.

[0206] The input environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of the input material as described in the context of FIG. 4A.

[0207] The input materials may be associated with input material data. The input material data may include input material identifier(s), input composition data associated with the chemical composition of the input material and input production data associated with the production of the input material. The input material data may include further data, for example as listed in the context of FIG. 2. The input material data may not include input environmental property data associated with the input material. The input material may be associated with the input material data via one or more digital identifier(s), such as the input material identifier and / or the decentral input material identifier. The input material data may be provided as data entries to a digital user interface such as a display or a computing interface and the provided information may be associated with the digital identifier. This way the input materials may be characterized and uniquely linked to digital identifiers. The input material data may be gathered via a decentral network, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. This way, input material data may be gathered from the data owner, such as the input material supplier 204, in a secure yet reliable way without requiring any manual data entries.

[0208] The input material data may relate to one or more quality indicators of the input material that signify the correlation of the input material to one or more target chemical material(s). The one or more quality indicators may include at least a chemical indicator and optionally a geographical and / or a temporal quality indicator.

[0209] The input material data may relate to a chemical similarity indicator. The chemical correlation may relate to one or more quality indicators of the input material data that signify the degree of chemical similarity between the input material and the target chemical materials. The input material data may relate to or indicate input material being identical to at least one of the target chemical materials, input material sharing identical structural feature(s) with at least one of the target chemical materials, input material sharing identical chemical property / ies and / or functional group(s) with at least one of the target chemical materials, to input material being identical to a target chemical material proxy selected for such input material, input material sharing identical structural feature(s) with at least one target chemical material proxy, and / or input material being identical to at least one generic target chemical material.

[0210] The input material data may relate to a geographical quality indicator. The input material data may relate to or indicate input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) identical to production location(s) used to produce target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation, input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) different to production location(s) used to produce target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation, and / or input production data being gathered from one or more BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0211] 34 production location(s) producing the input material under production conditions different to the one or more production locations producing target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation.

[0212] The input material data may relate to a temporal quality indicator. The input material data may relate to or indicate a time period and / or a point in time the input material was produced with respect to the age of the target environmental property data associated with target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation and / or geographical correlation.

[0213] Based on the provided input material data, it may be determined whether input environmental property is available for the input materials associated with the input material data. Determining whether input environmental property data is available may include querying a database storing input environmental property data associated with input material(s) based on the provided input material data. This way, a recursive mapping of target environmental property data to provided input material data may be avoided, hence improving the efficiency of the determination of input environmental property associated with input material(s) provided to the production.

[0214] Target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials may be provided. The target chemical material data may be provided from one or more databases storing such data. The target chemical material data may be provided via a communication interface to the system implementing the method illustrated in FIG. 5. The target chemical material data may include target composition data associated with the chemical composition of the chemical materials, target environmental property data associated with the chemical materials and generation data associated with the generation of the target environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4A. The generation data may indicate the generation or determination of the target environmental property data. The generation may be associated with the use of generation data to determine the target environmental property data, the use of modelling data to determine the target environmental property data, the use of average target environmental property data and / or the assignment of target environmental property data. This way, a quality score may be assigned to the target environmental property data. For example, use of an average target environmental property data and / or use of assigned target environmental property data may be associated with a lower quality and hence a quality score indicating a lower quality and / or reliability compared to the use of target environmental property data determined from generation data.

[0215] The target environmental property data may be determined based on the production data associated with the production of the chemical materials. The target environmental property may be determined based on modelling data associated with production processes producing the chemical materials. The target environmental property data for a given chemical material may be determined from environmental property data of chemical materials of the same chemical hierarchy than the given chemical material (e.g. based on given structural features of the chemical material). The target environmental property data may be assigned to a given chemical material, for example by a life cycle assessment expert.

[0216] The provided input material data may be mapped to at least a part of the provided target chemical material data by determining quality score(s) indicating at least a degree of chemical correlation and optionally a degree of geographical correlation and / or a temporal correlation between the input material data and the chemical material data. The mapping may be performed based on a hierarchy associated with the chemical correlation, the geographical correlation and / or optionally the temporal correlation. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0217] 35

[0218] The geographical correlation may be determined based on target chemical material data mapped to the input material data based on the chemical correlation. The temporal correlation may be determined based on target chemical material data mapped to the input material data based on the chemical correlation and the geographical correlation.

[0219] The chemical correlation may relate to a relation between the input composition data included in the input material data and the target composition data included in the target chemical material data. For example and with reference to FIG. 8, the chemical correlation may be based on:

[0220] • identifier(s) included in the input material data and identifier(s) included in the target chemical material data,

[0221] • structural features of the input material and the target chemical materials (e.g. chemical hierarchy),

[0222] • chemical properties and / or functional groups of the input material and the target chemical materials (e.g. chemical substance group match),

[0223] • proxy / ies of target chemical material(s) selected for given input material(s),

[0224] • proxy / ies of target chemical material(s) sharing structural feature(s) with the input material,

[0225] • generic proxy / ies of target chemical material(s).

[0226] Depending on the input material data, such as the input composition data, the chemical correlation may be determined. The chemical correlation may be associated with a hierarchy. The hierarchy may define the quality of the match between the input composition data and the target composition data included in the provided target chemical material data. A high hierarchy may be associated with a good match between the data while a lower hierarchy may be associated with a lower match between the data. The hierarchy may be defined by quality scores. A high quality score may indicate a low degree of correlation or a low hierarchy while a lower quality score may indicate a higher degree of correlation or a higher hierarchy. Likewise, a low quality score may indicate a high degree of correlation or a high hierarchy while a higher quality score may indicate a lower degree of correlation or a lower hierarchy. The higher the chemical correlation, the higher the reliability of the determined input environmental property data.

[0227] The geographical correlation may relate to the relation between the input production data included in the input material data and the generation data used to generate the target environmental property data. The geographical correlation may relate to a location of production process(es) and / or the production condition(s) used to produce the input material and the location of production process(s) and / or production process(es) used to generate the target environmental property data. For example and with reference to FIG. 8, the target environmental property data may be generated based on generation data gathered from

[0228] • one or more production locations used to produce the input material provided to the production,

[0229] • multiple production locations including the location used to produce the input material provided to the production,

[0230] • different production locations than used to produce the input material but using production conditions that correspond to the production conditions of the production location used to produce the input material provided to the production,

[0231] • from one or more production locations including the location used to produce the input material but using production conditions being different to the one or more production locations producing the input material provided to the production,

[0232] • from one or more production locations being different to the one or more production locations producing the input material provided to the production. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0233] 36

[0234] The geographical correlation may be determined based on a determined chemical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data, e.g. based on a chemical similarity of the input material to at least one target chemical material. The geographical correlation may be determined from input production data associated with the input material and the generation data related to target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation.

[0235] Depending on where the generation data used to generate the target environmental property data was gathered, the geographical correlation may be determined. The geographical correlation may be associated with a hierarchy as previously described. The hierarchy may define the quality of the match between the production data included in the input material data and the generation data used to generate the environmental property data associated with chemical materials. A high hierarchy may be associated with a good match between the data while a lower hierarchy may be associated with a lower match between the data. The hierarchy may be defined by quality scores. A high quality score may indicate a low degree of correlation or a low hierarchy while a lower quality score may indicate a higher degree of correlation or a higher hierarchy. Likewise, a low quality score may indicate a high degree of correlation or a high hierarchy while a higher quality score may indicate a lower degree of correlation or a lower hierarchy. The higher the geographical correlation, the higher the reliability of the determined input environmental property data.

[0236] The temporal correlation may be determined based on a determined chemical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data, e.g. based on a chemical similarity of the input material to at least one target chemical material. The temporal correlation may be determined based on a determined chemical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data and based on a determined geographical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data. The temporal correlation may relate to the age of the input material compared to the age of the target environmental property data associated with target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material or input material data based on the chemical and / or geographical correlation. Depending on age difference, the temporal correlation may be determined. The lower the age difference, the higher the temporal correlation also from statistical perspective.

[0237] With reference to FIG. 6 and FIG. 8, the degree of at least the chemical correlation and optionally the degree of geographical correlation and / or temporal correlation may be determined by providing a mapping rule set including one or more mapping rule(s) configured to map the input material data to the target chemical material data based at least on chemical correlation(s) and optionally on geographical correlation(s) and / or temporal correlation(s) between the input material data and the target chemical material data. The mapping rule(s) may be configured to determine the chemical similarity between the input material and the target chemical materials associated with the target chemical material data. The mapping rule(s) may be configured to determine the chemical similarity based on the input material identifier(s) and / or the input composition data included in the input material data and the target chemical material identifier(s) and / or the target composition data included in the target chemical material data. The mapping rule(s) may be configured to assign a quality score indicating a degree of chemical correlation between the input material and the target chemical material(s) to the input material identifier based on the chemical similarity. The mapping rule(s) may be configured to determine a geographical similarity between the input production data included in the input material data and the generation data included in the target chemical material data. The mapping rule(s) are configured to determine a geographical similarity between the input production data mapped to the generation data based BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0238] 37 on the chemical correlation. The mapping rule(s) may be configured to assign a quality score indicating a degree of geographical correlation between the input production data associated with the input material and the generation data included in the target chemical material data to the input material identifier based on the chemical similarity and the geographical similarity.

[0239] At least one mapping rule may be selected from the mapping rule set for at least a part of the input material data and the input material data may be mapped to the provided environmental property data associated with the chemical materials by applying the at least one mapping rule to the input material data and the environmental property data. Per mapping category at least one mapping rule from the mapping rule set may be selected. The mapping categories may include a check on the input data provided, the chemical correlation, the geographical correlation and the data completeness. The mapping categories may further include a temporal correlation indicating an age or point in time and / or the time range or period of the generation data used to generate the target environmental property data. This may allow to compare mapped target environmental property data with respect to the age of said target environmental property data. Older target environmental property data may be rated lower than younger or more actual target environmental property data. The mapping rule set may include one or more mapping rule(s) per mapping category. The selection may be dynamic and / or static based on mapping category and mapping rule pairs. For example, mapping category and mapping rule pairs may be pre-defined. The one or more mapping rules may be configured to generate a degree of correlation per mapping category, for example as described in the context of FIG. 7A.

[0240] Returning to FIG. 5, target environmental property data mapped to the input material data may be selected as input environmental property data based on the quality score(s). Selection of the target environmental property data may include determining the target environmental property data mapped to the input material data and being associated with the quality score(s) indicating the highest degree of chemical and / or geographical and / or temporal correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data and selecting such target environmental property data as input environmental property data. Selection of the target environmental property data may include determining an average quality score from all determined quality score(s) and selecting the target environmental property data associated with the lowest or the highest average quality score. Selection of the target environmental property data may include determining the distance between the average quality scores associated with each mapped target environmental property data and a predefined value and selecting the target environmental property data associated with the greatest distance to the predefined value. The average quality score may be determined from the quality score for the chemical correlation and the quality score of the geographical correlation and / or temporal correlation associated with each target environmental property data mapped to the input material data.

[0241] Selecting the target environmental property data may include selecting target environmental property data and associated quality scores mapped to at least two chemical compounds included in the input material based on the associated quality scores and aggregating the selected target environmental property data. For example, the input material may include a mixture of different chemical compounds and target environmental property data may be mapped to at least a part of the chemical compounds based on the input material data. The mapped target environmental property data may be selected based on the quality scores and the selected target environmental property data may be aggregated to generate the input environmental property data. This way, input environmental property data may be determined based on the chemical correlation of the input material with target chemical materials associated with given target environmental property data and / or based on the BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0242] 38 geographical correlation of the production of the input material with generation data used to generate the target environmental property data associated with the target chemical materials. Determining the environmental property data may further include determining a total degree of correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data.

[0243] Selecting target environmental property data may further include determining an average quality score associated with the selected target environmental property based on the quality scores associated with the chemical correlation and the geographical correlation and optionally the temporal. A weighting factor may be used for determining the average quality score to consider different weights for the chemical correlation and the geographical correlation. This way, one quality score may be weighted higher than the other one when determining the average quality score. The data set resulting from mapping input material data to target chemical material data based on quality scores and selecting target environmental property data as input material property data based on the quality scores is illustrated in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B.

[0244] The selected input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s) may be linked to the input material identifier. The quality score(s) may correspond to the chemical correlation and / or the geographical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data. The quality score may correspond to the average quality score. Linking the input material identifier to the selected input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) may include generating a digital asset including the input material identifier, the input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s). The generated digital asset may be used to generate mixture environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12 and FIG. 13. The generated digital asset may be provided. Providing the digital asset may include providing the digital asset for access by data consumers. Access by data consumers may be controlled by the data owner of the digital asset. Providing the digital asset may include storing the digital asset in a database associated with or under control of the data owner of the digital asset. Providing the digital asset may include linking the digital asset with the decentral input material identifier and providing the digital asset for access by data consumers via the decentral network. The decentral input material identifier may be associated with a digital representation of the digital asset. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the digital asset stored in the database of the data owner for access by data consumers. The data owner may control access to such database via the decentral input material identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3.

[0245] FIG. 7A illustrates an example of a data structure resulting from mapping input material data associated with a given input material provided to a production to target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials.

[0246] In the example of FIG. 7A, a data structure 702 resulting from the application of the mapping rule(s) to the respective input material data and at least a part of the target chemical material data is illustrated for a given input material per mapping category. The mapping categories include the chemical correlation, the geographical correlation, the temporal correlation and the data completeness of the input material data. Data completeness of the input material data may apply rule(s) to check whether the input material data includes input composition data and production data associated with the production of the input material. This ensures that target environmental property data can be determined. The data structure 702 may be obtained by applying one or more mapping rule(s) to the input material data and the target chemical material data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0247] 39

[0248] Each mapping category may be associated with a quality score indicating the degree of chemical correlation, geographical correlation and temporal correlation. In this example, different target environmental property data 702 may be mapped to the given input material using the method described in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. Each target environmental property data may be associated with quality score(s) indicating the chemical correlation, geographical correlation and temporal correlation between the input material data associated with the input material and the target chemical material data as well as an average quality score. A low value for the correlation score may indicate a high correlation while a high value for the correlation score indicates a low correlation. The average quality score may be determined from the chemical correlation score, geographical correlation score and temporal correlation score. Based on the quality score, one target environmental property data mapped to the input material data may be selected as input environmental property data for the given input material. In this example, the best average quality score is associated with 1 (indicating a perfect chemical correlation, geographical correlation and temporal correlation between the input material data and at least a part of the target chemical materials data) and the worst with 6 (indicating no chemical correlation, geographical correlation and temporal correlation), hence the target environmental property data associated with an average quality score of 1 .25 was selected as input environmental property for the input material with input material identifier ID1 since this target environmental property data is associated with the highest degree of chemical, geographical and temporal correlation in relation to the input material data associated with the input material as indicated by the best average quality score.

[0249] By determining quality scores during mapping of at least a part of the target chemical material data to the input material data, the degree of correlation for each mapping category may be determined and may be used to identify the best matching target environmental property data from the target environmental property data mapped to a given input material based on its associated input material data. This way, missing input environmental property data may be reliably replaced by best matching target environmental property data, allowing to use such target environmental property data as input environmental property data to determine the environmental impact of products, such as mixtures, produced from such input material(s) and hence also the environmental impact of the production producing such products.

[0250] FIG. 7B illustrates an example of a data structure resulting from selecting target environmental property data mapped to different input materials provided to a production based on an associated quality score as input environmental property data.

[0251] In the example of FIG. 7B, a data structure 708 resulting from selecting target environmental property data mapped to different input materials based on an associated quality score is illustrated. The mapping of the target environmental property data to input material data associated with different input materials may be performed using different mapping categories, such as the chemical correlation, the geographical correlation, the temporal correlation and the data completeness of the input material data. Data completeness of the input material data may apply rule(s) to check whether the input material data includes input composition data and production data associated with the production of the input material. This ensures that target environmental property data can be determined. The data structure 708 may be obtained by applying one or more mapping rule(s) to the input material data and the target chemical material data and selecting target environmental property data as input material property data per input material based on associated quality scores, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0252] 40

[0253] Each selected input environmental property data may be associated with quality scores indicating the degree of chemical correlation, geographical correlation and temporal correlation as described in the context of FIG. 7A. In this example, input material data associated with input material ID1 to ID3 passed the data completeness check while input material data associated with input material ID4 failed the data completeness check. This resulted in the lowest possible scores for the chemical, geographical and temporal correlation, hence resulting in a rather bad average quality score. The rather low carbon footprint assigned to the material with ID4 is hence associated with a quality score indicating a rather low reliability and data quality.

[0254] FIG. 8 illustrates examples of mapping rule(s) used to map input material data associated with input material(s) provided to a production to target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials. The mapping rule(s) may be associated with mapping categories, such as chemical correlation and geographical correlation.

[0255] The mapping rule(s) may be used to determine a chemical correlation and / or a geographical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. The mapping rule(s) may define the degree of chemical similarity and / or the degree of geographical similarity between the input material data and the target chemical material data. The degree of correlation may be associated with a quality score indicating the degree of correlation. In the example of FIG. 8, a high chemical and / or geographical similarity is associated with a low quality score while a low chemical and / or geographical similarity is associated with a high quality score. Hence, a low value for the quality score indicates a high reliability and data quality of the selected input environmental property data while a high value for the quality score indicates a low reliability of the determined environmental property data.

[0256] FIG. 9 illustrates an example flow chart for determining a degree of chemical correlation, temporal correlation and / or geographical correlation between environmental property data associated with chemical materials and input material data associated with input material(s) provided to a production.

[0257] The input material data may be provided as for example described in the context of FIG. 5 to FIG. 8. For validation of the input material data different mapping categories may be provided. The mapping categories may include the chemical correlation, the geographical correlation, the temporal correlation and the data completeness. The mapping rule set may include one or more mapping rule(s) per mapping category, for example as described in the context of FIG. 8.

[0258] As illustrated in FIG. 4A to FIG. 6, the input material data and the target chemical material data may be provided for the mapping. In addition, one or more flags may be set based on the provided input material data. For example, if the input material identifier data is incomplete the validation may fail. Further for example, if no input composition data is provided the validation may fail. Further for example, if no production data associated with the input material is provided the validation may fail. Further for example, if incomplete input material data is provided the mapping may still be possible depending on the input material data that is missing and if such data is mandatory or optional. The data completeness flag may be set to pass if the input material data is complete or if mapping is possible. The data completeness flag may be set to fail if the input material data is incomplete or no mapping is possible. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0259] 41

[0260] Quality score(s) may be determined based on the provided data, for example as illustrated in FIG. 7A and FIG. 7B. Quality score(s) may be determined for a chemical correlation between the input composition data included in the input material data and the target composition data included in the target chemical material data. The chemical correlation may relate to the input composition data and the target composition data. This allows to score the degree of chemical similarity between the input material and target chemical materials. The scoring may be defined by the degree to which the input material or chemical compound(s) contained therein is similar to target chemical material(s) or chemical compound(s) contained in such target chemical materials. For example, the score may indicate a high chemical similarity if the input composition data matches target composition data. The score may indicate a low chemical similarity, if the input material is different from the chemical materials in terms of its chemical structure and / or its chemical composition. The scoring may include different score levels to cover different degrees of chemical similarity. Examples of different score levels for chemical similarity are illustrated in FIG. 8.

[0261] The geographical correlation may relate to the relation between the location of production process(es) and / or the production condition(s) used to produce the input material and the generation data used to generate the target environmental property data associated with the target chemical materials. This allows to score to what degree the target environmental property data represents the geography of the processes used to produce the input material. The scoring may be defined by the degree to which the target environmental property data represents the geography of the processes used to produce the input material. For example, the score may indicate a high geographical correlation if the generation data was gathered at the location(s) or region(s) the input material is produced. The score may indicate a lower geographical correlation if the generation data was gathered at the location(s) or region(s) with corresponding production conditions to the location(s) or region(s) the input material is produced. The score may indicate an even lower geographical correlation if the generation data was gathered at the location(s) or region(s) with differing production conditions to the location(s) or region(s) the input material is produced or if the location(s) generation data was gathered are not known. Examples of such different score levels are illustrated in FIG. 8.

[0262] The temporal correlation may relate to the age of the generation data and / or the time range covered by the generation data. This allows to score to what degree the target environmental property data represents the actual time. For example, if the target environmental property data is no older than 3, 6 or 10 years with respect to the age of the input material data, the score may indicate a high degree of temporal correlation. If the target environmental property data is older than 10 years with respect to the age of the input material data or the age of the target environmental property data is not known, the score may indicate a low temporal correlation.

[0263] The results of the mapping rules per mapping category may be provided to determine an overall quality score either based on individual score(s) or based on aggregated quality score(s) as described for example in the context of FIG. 5. For example, for a given input materials the quality scores per mapping category may be provided as described in the context of FIG. 7A. The quality scores may be aggregated to determine an average quality score. The average score may be used to select a target environmental property data from the plurality of target environmental property data mapped to a given input material as input environmental property data for such input material, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 7A.

[0264] FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a method for validating input environmental property data mapped to input material(s) provided to a production. The input material(s) may be used to produce a product, such as a mixture, by the production. The input BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0265] 42 material(s) may be chemical intermediate products, chemical products and / or discrete products. The product may be a chemical product or a discrete product. The chemical product may be a mixture. The production may include one or more production steps. The production may be a chemical production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 1 A, FIG. 1 B, FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B. The method illustrated in FIG. 10 may be performed by production operating system 420 described in the context of FIG. 4A. The method illustrated in FIG. 10 may be performed by a computing system associated with or coupled via a communication interface to the production operating system 420 described in the context of FIG. 4A.

[0266] The input environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of the input material as described in the context of FIG. 4A.

[0267] Input material data associated with the input material(s) may be provided for display. The input material data may include input material identifier(s), input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to such input material identifier(s). The input material data may further include a valuation flag indicating the validation of the input environmental property data. The input material data may be provided for display based on such validation flag. This way, recursive provision of validated input environmental property data for display may be avoided, improving the efficiency of the validation process. The input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to the input material identifier(s) may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 4A to FIG. 9. Providing the input material data for display may include providing such input material data via a communication interface to a display device configured to display the input material data. The input material data may be displayed on the display device within a graphical user interface. Input material data may be provided in response to a received request for such input material. The request may include input material identifier(s). The input material data may be provided from a database storing the input material data.

[0268] User input indicating validation or rejection of at least a part of the displayed input environmental property data may be received. The user input may be received after a user validating the displayed input environmental property data and associated quality score(s). The user may validate the mapping of the input material data to the target environmental property data by validating the quality score(s) associated with the input environmental property data. Upon successful validation by the user, the user may provide a user input indicating validation of such input environmental property data via an interaction element to the display device. Upon non-validation of the input environmental property data, the user may indicate rejection of such input environmental property data via the interaction element to the display device. The interaction element may be a physical interaction element, such as an input device or input / output device, in particular a mouse, a keyboard, a trackball, a touch screen or a combination thereof. The interaction element may be a projection area in which a user input in the form of a gesture, such as a finger gesture or motion of the hand, is received. The detected user input may be forwarded to the computing system performing the method illustrated in FIG. 10. The detected user input may include the input material identifier(s) and data indicating validation or rejection of the associated input environmental property data.

[0269] Data indicating validation or rejection of the input environmental property data may be linked to the input material identifier(s) based on the received user input. Linking the data indicating validation or rejection of the input environmental property data to the input material identifier(s) may include updating the input material data associated with such input material identifier(s) with the data indicating validation or rejection of the input environmental property data. An example of a data structure 1106 generated by linking the data indicating validation or rejection to input material identifier(s) and associated input environmental BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0270] 43 property data 710 is illustrated in FIG. 11. With reference to FIG. 11 , different value(s) may be linked to the input material identifier to indicate the validation of input environmental property data associated with such input material identifiers. For instance, different validation flags may be linked to such input material identifiers. With reference to the example illustrated in FIG. 11 , the flag “not yet evaluated” may indicate that the input environmental property data associated with input material identifier ID1 has not yet been validated. The flag “validated” may signify that data indicating validation of input environmental property data associated with input material identifier ID2 and ID4 has been received. Likewise, the flag “rejected” may signify that data indicating rejection of input environmental property data associated with input material identifier ID3 has been received. By linking the validation result to the input material identifier, non-validated or rejected input environmental property data may be determined in an efficient and reliable manner. This may allow to provide input material data for display which has not yet been validated based on the flag included in the input material data.

[0271] Rejection of the input environmental property data may trigger the method described in the context of FIG. 5. Rejection may trigger generation of message data indicating rejection of input environmental property data. The message data may be provided to a graphical user interface for display. This may allow to initiate manual assignment of input environmental property data to the respective input material.

[0272] By validating the determined input environmental property data associated with input material(s), the reliability of the input environmental property assigned to the input material in a data-driven manner may be improved. This way, the reliability of environmental property data determined using such input environmental property data may also be improved. More reliable environmental property data may aid in improved monitoring of the environmental impact of the production as well as product(s) produced from the input material(s). In addition, the supply of input material streams may be controlled based on validated input environmental property data. For instance, sourcing of input material associated with a validated high environmental impact data may be reduced while souring of input material associated with a low validated environmental impact may be increased. This way, the environmental impact of the production using the input material may be further reduced.

[0273] FIG. 12 illustrates an example system and associated methods for monitoring an environmental impact of at least one mixture produced by a production from at least two input materials. The input materials may include chemical raw materials, virgin chemical materials, recycled chemical materials, chemical intermediate products and / or chemical products or a combination thereof. The mixture may be produced from a at least three or more different input materials. The mixture may be a coating material including at least one polymer and at least one solvent. The coating material may further include at least one pigment and / or at least one crosslinking agent. The coating material may be a transparent, a semi-transparent or an opaque coating material. The coating material may be an electrocoating material, a primer, a primer-surfacer, a basecoat or a clearcoat. The input materials 108 may be produced by upstream participants of the product ecosystem, for example as illustrated in FIG. 1 A, FIG. 1 B and FIG. 2. The input material(s) 108 may be provided to the production for production of the mixture 136.

[0274] The production 204 may be associated with a decentral network participant, such as the chemical product producer 202 described in the context of FIG. 2. For producing mixtures 136 different input(s) 108 (also called input material(s) 108 hereinafter) may be provided as physical inputs from material providers or suppliers as described int he context of FIG. 4A. . BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0275] 44

[0276] The production 124 may include multiple production steps (see also FIG. 1A) as described in the context of FIG. 1A. The production steps included in the production 124 may be defined by the system boundary 414 of the production 124 as described in the context of FIG. 4A. The production 124 may convert inbound material 108 to mixtures 136 that exit the production 124. The conversion may be a chemical reaction and / or any other processing step, such as physical processing. Physical processing may include mixing using mixing equipment, such as described in the context of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1 B. Such conversion requires input materials 108, energy supply to run the production processes and production process conditions to transform the input materials 108 to mixtures 136.

[0277] The production may be a chemical production 124. The chemical production may be a chemical production network as described in the context of FIG. 4A.

[0278] Production 124 may be associated with an operating system, such as production operating system 420. Production operating system 420 may be associated with backend 312 illustrated in FIG. 3. Backend 312 may be part of production operating system 420. Production operating system 420 may monitor and / or control the production 124 based on operating parameters associated with the different processes performed by the production 124 . One process step monitored and / or controlled may be the feed of input materials 108 or the release of produced mixtures 136. Another process step monitored and / or controlled may be the determination of mixture environmental property data associated with mixtures 136 leaving the system boundary of the production 124, for example as described in the context of FIG. 13.

[0279] Production operating system 420 may be associated with or may include a database 432 storing input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to input material identifiers associated with input materials 108 provided to the production. Database 432 may also store data indicating validation, rejection and / or pending validation associated with the input environmental property data. The input environmental property data may be generated and provided to database 432 as described in the context of FIG. 4A to FIG. 9. The database 432 may further store data indicating validation or rejection of the input environmental property data linked to at least a part of the input material identifiers.

[0280] Production operating system 420 may be associated with or include process data provider 1218. Process data provider 1218 may be configured to gather process data associated with the processing of the input material(s) 108 to produce the mixture(s) 136. The process data provider 1218 may be configured to gather energy data associated with the energy consumption of the processing. The process data provider 1218 may be configured to provide the process data and the energy data to the CF generator 1212. The process data and the energy data may be gathered over time.

[0281] The CF generator 1212 may be configured to generate and provide mixture environmental property data, such as the carbon footprint, of the mixtures 136 produced by the production 124. The CF generator 1212 may be configured to generate and provide the mixture environmental property data upon request for such data. The request may be received from requestor 1236. The requestor 1236 may be configured to generate the request. The requestor 1236 may be included in a labelling device configured to generate one or more label(s) for mixture(s) 136. The request may contain data related to the mixture, such as a batch number. The request may be provided to CF generator 1212. In response to the request, CF generator 1212 may be configured to generate and provide the mixture environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 13. In response to the request, CF generator 1212 may be configured to gather process data and energy data from BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0282] 45 process data provider 1218. CF generator 1212 may further be configured to gather input environmental property data from database 432, for example as described in the context of FIG. 13.

[0283] The mixture environmental property data, such as the carbon footprint, of the mixtures 136 may be determined based on the process data, the energy data and the input environmental property data of the input material(s) 204 used to produce the output product. The input environmental property data may be stored in database 432. The mixture environmental property data may be generated from the process data and the energy data associated with the production of the mixtures 136 and the input environmental property data of the input material(s) 108. The mixture environmental property data may hence be an aggregated time value determined from historical process data and energy data. Such time aggregated mixture environmental property data may be provided for all mixtures 136. In other word the mixture environmental property data may not be derived from real time process and energy data for each mixture 136 but may be derived from historic process and energy data and aggregated over a time range. The mixture environmental property data may be stored in a data base, such as database 1232.

[0284] CF generator 1212 may further be configured to determine a quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data based on the quality score(s) of input environmental property data used to generate the mixture environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 13. CF generator 1212 may further be configured to determine the fraction of validated input environmental property data used to generate the mixture environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 13.

[0285] On mixtures 136 exiting the chemical production 124 or after production of the mixtures 136 by the chemical production 124, ID provider 1234 may be configured to generate and provide mixture identifiers associated with the mixtures 136 produced by the chemical production 124 and provided at the exit point of chemical production 124. The mixture identifier(s) generated and provided by ID provider 1234 may include decentral identifier(s). ID provider 1234 may be configured to provide generated mixture identifiers to CF generator 1212. ID provider 1234 may be configured to provide generated mixture identifiers to assignor 1236 configured to assign the mixture identifiers received from ID provider 1234 to the respective mixtures 136. The mixture identifiers may be requested by CF generator 404 prior to, upon and / or after generation of the mixture environmental property data. ID provider 1234 may provide the generated mixture identifiers to CF generator 1212. CF generator 1212 may be configured to link the mixture identifiers received by ID provider 1234 to the generated mixture environmental property data.CF generator 1212 may further be configured to link the mixture identifiers received by ID provider 1234 to quality score(s) associated with the generated mixture environmental property data and / or to a fraction of validated input environmental property data used to generate the mixture environmental property data. CF generator 1212 may be configured to provide the mixture environmental property data linked to the mixture identifiers to a database for storage, such as database 1232. CF generator 1212 may further be configured to provide the quality score(s) associated with the mixture environmental property data linked to the mixture identifiers and / or the fraction of validated input environmental property data used to generate the mixture environmental property data linked to the mixture identifiers to a database for storage, such as database 1232. This way, the mixture environmental property data, quality score(s) and or the fraction of validated input environmental property data may be provided, based on the mixture identifier. Mixture environmental property data, quality score(s) and / or the fraction of validated input environmental property data may be provided, for example via a decentral network as described in the context of FIG. 3 in response to a request received via the decentral network from a data consuming node associated with an entity BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0286] 46 consuming the mixture, for example by producing one or more product(s), such as discrete products and / or further chemical product(s).

[0287] By determining mixture environmental property data associated with mixtures produced by a production based on input environmental property data associated with input material(s) used to produce the mixture, the environmental impact associated with the production as well as the mixtures can be reliably monitored by avoiding missing input environmental property data. This way, generation of incorrect mixture environmental property data can be mitigated or circumvented. By using quality score(s), the quality of the mixture environmental property data may be indicated based on the quality of the input environmental property data used for its generation. This way, the reliability of the mixture environmental property data may be indicated, allowing to determine the quality and reliability of further environmental property data determined using the mixture environmental property data, such as environmental property data associated with discrete products and / or further chemical products produced using the mixtures associated with the mixture environmental property data. This way, a transparency on the quality and reliability of the mixture environmental property data may be achieved within the value chain. Such transparency may aid in improving the overall transparency with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem including the value chain. Moreover, such transparency may aid in reducing or mitigating the use of unreliable input environmental property data or input environmental property data having low data quality to improve the environmental impact of mixtures produced from such input material(s). This allows to provide more reliable environmental impact data with respect to the environmental impact of the product ecosystem by avoiding missing environmental property data or the use of unreliably environmental property data.

[0288] FIG. 13 illustrates an example method for monitoring an environmental impact of at least one mixture produced by a production from at least two input materials. The input materials may include chemical raw materials, virgin chemical materials, recycled chemical materials, chemical intermediate products and / or chemical products or a combination thereof. The mixture may be produced from a at least three or more different input materials. The mixture may be a coating material including at least one polymer and at least one solvent. The coating material may further include at least one pigment and / or at least one crosslinking agent. The coating material may be a transparent, a semi-transparent or an opaque coating material. The coating material may be an electrocoating material, a primer, a primer-surfacer, a basecoat or a clearcoat. The input materials 108 may be produced by upstream participants of the product ecosystem, for example as illustrated in FIG. 1 A, FIG. 1 B and FIG. 2. The mixture may be produced from the input materials by a production. The production may be a chemical production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12. The method illustrated in FIG. 13 may be implemented by an operating system of the production, for example as described in the context of FIG. 12.

[0289] The mixture environmental property data may relate to any measure of the environmental property of the mixture. The mixture environmental property data may include one or more environmental properties of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may indicate an environmental performance of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may relate to properties of the production of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may relate to one or more characteristic(s) that are attributable to environmental impact of the mixture. The mixture environmental property may include environmental characteristics(s) associated with the environmental impact of the mixture. Environmental characteristic(s) may specify or BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0290] 47 quantify ecological criteria associated with the environmental impact, for example as described in the context of FIG. 4A. The mixture environmental properties may relate to the product carbon footprint of the mixture.

[0291] Mixture data associated with the mixture may be provided. The mixture data may include mixture identifier(s) associated with the mixture and mixture composition data indicating input materials and associated input material amounts used to produce the mixture. Mixture identifier(s) may include a mixture name, a batch number, a LOT number or a combination thereof. Mixture composition data may include input material identifier(s) and associated input material amount data. The input material amount data may include the amount of respective input material. The amount may be associated with a weight or a volume of input material. The mixture composition data may represent a production recipe used to produce the mixture. Mixture data may be stored in a database. Mixture data may be gathered based on mixture identifier(s) associated with the mixture.

[0292] Input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to the input materials and production data associated with the production of the mixture may be gathered based on the mixture composition data. In addition, data indicating validation of the input environmental property data, rejection of the input environmental property data or validation to be performed on the input environmental property data may be gathered. The input environmental property data, the quality score(s) associated with the input environmental property data and / or the data indicating validation or rejection may be gathered based on input material identifier(s) included in the mixture composition data. The input environmental property data, the quality score(s) and / or the data indicating validation, rejection or validation to be performed may be gathered from a database storing such data linked to input material identifiers. The input environmental property data and the quality score(s) may be generated and provided to such database as described in the context of FIG. 4A to FIG. 9. Data indicating validation or rejection may be generated and provided to the database as described in the context of FIG. 11.

[0293] Production data associated with the production of the mixture may include mixture identifier(s), process data associated with production process(es) and / or production apparatus(es) used to produce the mixture and energy data associated with the production of the mixture. Process data may include production process identifier(s) and associated environmental property data, such as carbon footprint data, and / or production apparatus identifier(s) and associated environmental property data. Process data may include environmental property data associated with the production of the mixture. The environmental property data may be determined based on emissions generated by each process step used to produce the mixture. Energy data may include the amount of energy consumed for production of the mixture. Energy data may further include the type of energy consumed, e.g. whether energy source from renewable sources and / or energy from non-renewable sources is consumed. The energy data may further include energy mix data indicating the proportion or fraction of different energy sources used for the production. The energy data may include environmental property data associated with the amount, type and energy mix used to produce the mixture. The process data and energy data may include aggregated historic process and energy data aggregated over a given time range as described in the context of FIG. 12.

[0294] Mixture environmental property data and optionally a quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data may be determined based on the provided mixture data, the gathered input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) and the gathered production data. Mixture environmental property data may be determined based on the amount of input materials and associated input environmental property data as well as on the production data. Determining mixture environmental property data may include determining total input environmental property data by multiplying the input BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0295] 48 environmental property data associated with the input materials with respective input material amounts of such input materials used to produce the mixture and summing up the result of the multiplications and by adding environmental property data associated with the production to the total input environmental property data. Determining mixture environmental property data may include determining environmental property data associated with the production of the mixture based on the production data. Such environmental property data of the production process may be added to the total input environmental property data associated with input materials used to produce the mixture.

[0296] The quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data may be determined based on the quality scores associated with the input environmental property data. Determining the quality score of the mixture environmental property data may include determining an average quality score from the quality scores associated with the input environmental property data. Determining the quality score of the mixture environmental property data may include determining a weighted average quality score from the quality scores of the input environmental property data. This way, the amount of input material(s) associated with a given quality score with respect to their input environmental property data may be considered during generation of the quality score of the mixture. This allows a more accurate determination of the quality score of the mixture environmental property data.

[0297] A fraction or portion of the validated input environmental property data used to determine the mixture environmental property data may be determined. This step may be generally optional. The fraction or portion may refer to the amount of input environmental property data that is linked to data indicating validation of such input environmental property data compared to the fraction of input environmental property data linked to data indicating rejection or data indicating that validation has not yet been performed. A high fraction of validated input environmental property indicates a high reliability of the resulting mixture environmental property data while a low fraction indicates a low reliability and hence also quality of the mixture environmental property data.

[0298] The determined mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score and / or the fraction of validated input environmental property data may be linked to the mixture identifier(s) included in the provided mixture data. Linking the mixture identifier(s) to the mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score and / or the fraction of validated input environmental property data may include generating a digital asset including the mixture identifier(s), the mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score and / or the fraction of validated input environmental property data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 with relation to the digital asset including input environmental property data and associated quality score(s). The generated digital asset may be provided. Providing the digital asset may include providing the digital asset for access by data consumers. Access by data consumers may be controlled by the data owner of the digital asset, such as the mixture producer. Providing the digital asset may include storing the digital asset in a database associated with or under control of the data owner of the digital asset. Providing the digital asset may include linking the digital asset with a decentral mixture identifier and providing the digital asset for access by data consumers via a decentral network. The decentral mixture identifier may be associated with a representation for accessing the digital asset stored in the database of the data owner for access by data consumers. The data owner may control access to such database via the decentral input material identifier, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001

[0299] 49

[0300] The present disclosure has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments and examples as well. However, other variations can be understood and effected by those persons skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from the studies of the drawings, this disclosure and the claims.

[0301] Any steps presented herein can be performed in any order. The methods disclosed herein are not limited to a specific order of these steps. It is also not required that the different steps are performed at a certain place or in a certain computing node of a distributed system, i.e. each of the steps may be performed at different computing nodes using different equipment / data processing.

[0302] As used herein ..determining" also includes ..initiating or causing to determine", “generating" also includes ..initiating and / or causing to generate" and “providing” also includes “initiating or causing to determine, generate, select, send and / or receive”. “Initiating or causing to perform an action” includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform the respective action.

[0303] In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” or “including” or similar wording does not exclude other elements or steps and shall not be construed limiting to the elements or steps lined out. The indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfil the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation or further elements may be included.

[0304] Providing in the scope of this disclosure may include any interface configured to provide data. This may include an application programming interface, a human-machine interface such as a display and / or a software module interface. Providing may include communication of data or submission of data to the interface, in particular display to a user or use of the data by the receiving entity.

Claims

BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W00150CLAIMS1. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring an environmental impact of an input material to a production and / or product(s) produced from the input material by the production, the method comprising:- providing input material data associated with the input material, wherein the input material data includes an input material identifier, input composition data associated with the chemical composition of the input material and input production data associated with the production of the input material,- providing target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials, wherein the target chemical material data includes target chemical material composition data, target environmental property data associated with the chemical materials and generation data associated with the generation of the target environmental property data,- mapping the input material data to at least a part of the target environmental property data by determining quality score(s) indicating at least a degree of chemical correlation and optionally a degree of geographical correlation and / or temporal correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data,- selecting - based on the determined quality score(s) - target environmental property data mapped to the input material data as input environmental property data,- linking the selected input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s) to the input material identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the input material data does not include input environmental property data associated with the input material.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the input material data relates to one or more quality indicators of the input material that signify the correlation of the input material to one or more target chemical material(s).

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the input material data relates to or indicates input material being identical to at least one of the target chemical materials, input material sharing identical structural feature(s) with at least one of the target chemical materials, input material sharing identical chemical property / ies and / or functional group(s) with at least one of the target chemical materials, input material being identical to a target chemical material proxy selected for such input material, input material sharing identical structural feature(s) with at least one target chemical material proxy, and / or input material being identical to at least one generic target chemical material.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the input material data relates to or indicates input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) identical to production location(s) used to produce target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation, input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) different to production location(s) used to produce target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation, and / or input production data being gathered from one or more production location(s) producing the input material under production conditions different to the one or more production locations producing target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation.BASF Coatings GmbH 240552W001516. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the input material data relates to or indicates a time period and / or a point in time the input material was produced with respect to the age of the target environmental property data associated with target chemical material(s) mapped to the input material based on the chemical correlation and / or the geographical correlation.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the mapping rule(s) are configured to determine the quality score(s), to select - based on the determined quality score(s) - target environmental property data as input environmental property data and to link the selected input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s) to the input material identifier.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein at least the degree of chemical correlation and optionally the degree of geographical correlation and / or temporal correlation is determined by providing a mapping rule set including one or more mapping rule(s) configured to map the input material data to the target chemical material data based at least on chemical correlation(s) and optionally on geographical correlation(s) and / or temporal correlation(s) between the input material data and the target chemical material data.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the mapping rule(s) include a scoring system assigning quality score(s) per degree of correlation.

10. The method of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein selection of the target environmental property data includes determining the target environmental property data mapped to the input material data and being associated with quality score(s) indicating the highest degree of chemical and / or geographical and / or temporal correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data and selecting such target environmental property data as input environmental property data.

11. The method of any one of claims 1 to 10, further including the steps of- providing the input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to the input material identifier(s) for display,- receiving a user input indicating validation or rejection of at least a part of the displayed input environmental property data,- based on the received user input, linking data indicating validation or rejection of the input environmental property data to the input material identifier(s).

12. An apparatus for monitoring an environmental impact of an input material to a production and / or product(s) produced from the input material by the production, the apparatus comprising:- an input material provider configured to provide input material data associated with the input material, wherein the input material data includes an input material identifier, input composition data associated with the chemical composition of the input material and production data associated with the production of the input material, andBASF Coatings GmbH 240552W00152• target chemical material data associated with target chemical materials, wherein the target chemical material data includes target chemical material composition data, target environmental property data associated with the chemical materials and generation data associated with the generation of the target environmental property data,- a mapping engine configured to map the input material data to at least a part of the target environmental property data by determining quality score(s) indicating at least a degree of chemical correlation and optionally a degree of geographical correlation between the input material data and the target chemical material data, and to select - based on the determined quality score(s) - target environmental property data mapped to the input material data as input environmental property data,- a digital asset generator configured to link the selected input environmental property data and the associated quality score(s) to the input material identifier.

13. Use of input environmental property data associated with input material(s) generated by the method of any one of claims 1 to 11 or by the apparatus of claim 12 for generating environmental property data associated with mixture(s) at least in part produced from the input material(s).

14. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring an environmental impact of at least one mixture, wherein the at least one mixture is produced by a production from at least two input materials, the method comprising:- providing mixture data associated with the at least one mixture, wherein the mixture data includes mixture identifier(s) associated with the at least one mixture and mixture composition data indicating input materials and input material amounts used to produce the at least one mixture,- gathering - based on the provided mixture composition data - input environmental property data and associated quality score(s) linked to input materials used to produce the at least one mixture, and production data associated with the production of the at least one mixture, wherein at least a part of the input environmental property data is generated by the method of any one of claims 1 to 27 or by the apparatus of claim 28,- determining - based on the provided mixture data and the gathered data - mixture environmental property data and optionally a quality score associated with the mixture environmental property data,- linking the determined mixture environmental property data and optionally the quality score to the mixture identifier(s).

15. Use of mixture environmental property data associated with at least one mixture generated by the method of claim 14 for generating environmental property data associated with product(s) at least in part produced from the at least one mixture.

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