Safer End of Engineering Life, sometimes abbreviated to SEEL, is a concept that focuses on the importance of considering the entire lifecycle of a product or system. Currently there is a lot of focus on the decommissioning or retirement in particular industries. This includes but is not limited to

plastic waste Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...

, electronic waste (sometimes shorted to e-waste), and construction and

industrial waste Industrial waste is the waste produced by industrial activity which includes any material that is rendered useless during a manufacturing process such as that of factories, mills, and mining operations. Types of industrial waste include dirt and ...

. Recently, SEEL is becoming more of a focus in fields such as

software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

, and infrastructure development.

Background

The idea behind SEEL is to mitigate risks and ensure safety not only during the active use phase of a product but also during its end-of-life processes, such as disposal, recycling, or decommissioning. This approach recognises that even after a product has served its intended purpose, it can still pose risks to the environment, public health, or safety if not managed properly. In

, SEEL may involve designing systems with built-in mechanisms for secure data deletion, ensuring that sensitive information is properly erased when software or hardware reaches the end of its useful life. It could also involve planning for software updates and patches to be maintained and deployed until the end-of-life date to address any security vulnerabilities that may arise over time. In

and manufacturing, SEEL may include considerations for recyclability, ease of disassembly, and the use of environmentally friendly materials. By designing products with end-of-life considerations in mind, manufacturers can facilitate the

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

or repurposing of components, reducing waste and minimizing environmental impact.

Recent milestones

The

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

launched a global review in January 2021 into the further study of SEEL, as well as the impacts the lack of action was having, with potential goals and aims in the future. An international workshop was held online in May 2022 with experts from 15 countries. The workshop aimed to reflect on the progress related to the safety challenges on how to ensure the global fleet of 50,000 ships and 10,000 offshore structures can be decommissioned in an environmentally friendly way. During the same year, the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

also published a report into findings on offshore decommissioning. The

Lowy Institute The Lowy Institute is an independent think tank founded in April 2003 by Frank Lowy to conduct original, policy-relevant research regarding international political, strategic and economic issues from an Australian perspective. It is based in ...

also published reports into the dangers of how reliant the oil and gas industries were on aging infrastructure.

Application & challenges

A main focus in recent years has been the decommissioning of offshore structures and ships.

Oil rig An oil rig is any kind of apparatus constructed for oil drilling. Kinds of oil rig include: * Drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construc ...

s as one example have a complex decommissioning process. Even after decommissioning, there may still be infrastructure remaining on the seafloor, such as well casings or pipelines. Decommissioning

oil rig An oil rig is any kind of apparatus constructed for oil drilling. Kinds of oil rig include: * Drilling rig A drilling rig is an integrated system that Drilling, drills wells, such as oil or water wells, or holes for piling and other construc ...

s presents numerous challenges due to technical complexity, environmental concerns, regulatory compliance, cost, legacy infrastructure, and stakeholder interests. These structures are intricate and contain various components, which requires specialised knowledge. Removal of hazardous materials can also be difficult and costly.

References

{{reflist, 2 Engineering