Using a Life Cycle Assessment Approach to Estimate the Net Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Bioenergy (original) (raw)

Life Cycle Assessment in the Bioenergy Sector

2008

Operating at the cusp of research and policy-making, the UK Energy Research Centre's mission is to be the UK's pre-eminent centre of research, and source of authoritative information and leadership, on sustainable energy systems.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to Evaluate Environmental Impacts of Bioenergy Projects

The utilization of biomass for energy, particularly power and transportation fuels, is being promoted in many countries for various reasons such as use of local materials and the apparent environmental benefits. However, biomass utilization is not renewable and sustainable unless certain conditions are satisfied. The evaluation of environmental impacts requires the consideration of the entire life cycle to ensure that the impacts from one phase are not simply displaced to another, showing undue environmental advantages. Using the examples of three biomass chains -sugarcane, oil palm and jatropha -experiences are drawn from studies conducted on energy and environmental assessment using a life cycle approach. The results show that importance of using life cycle assessment (LCA) as the tool for evaluating environmental impacts of bioenergy systems. The LCA studies also reveal that for the utilization of biomass resources to be sustainable, it is important that all the by-products are efficiently utilized. The development of biomass conversion facilities in the form of biorefineries is highlighted as a means to this end.

Brief on the use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate environmental impacts of the bioeconomy

2019

This brie f is based on the JRC Science for Policy report "Biomass production, supply, uses and flows in the European Union. First re sults from an integrated assessment" (Camia e t al. , 2018), unless stated otherwise. Key messages 1. Potential environmental impacts of bioeconomy sectors and the use of bio-based commodities must be monitored, evaluated and forecast in order to ensure that the bioeconomy operates within safe ecological limits (see section 1).

Life cycle assessment of biofuels: Energy and greenhouse gas balances

Bioresource Technology, 2009

The promotion of biofuels as energy for transportation in the industrialized countries is mainly driven by the perspective of oil depletion, the concerns about energy security and global warming. However due to sustainability constraints, biofuels will replace only 10 to 15% of fossil liquid fuels in the transport sector. Several governments have defined a minimum target of GHG emissions reduction for those biofuels that will be eligible to public incentives, for example a 35% emissions reduction in case of biofuels in Members States of the European Union. This article points out the significant biases in estimating GHG balances of biofuels stemming from modelling choices about system definition and boundaries, functional unit, reference systems and allocation methods. The extent to which these choices influence the results is investigated. After performing a comparison and constructive criticism of various modelling choices, the LCA of wheat-to-bioethanol is used as an illustrative case where bioethanol is blended with gasoline at various percentages (E5, E10 and E85). The performance of these substitution options is evaluated as well. The results show a large difference in the reduction of the GHG emissions with a high sensitivity to the following factors: the method used to allocate the impacts between the co-products, the type of reference systems, the choice of the functional unit and the type of blend. The authors come out with some recommendations for basing the estimation of energy and GHG balances of biofuels on principles such as transparency, consistency and accuracy.

The changing nature of life cycle assessment

Biomass and Bioenergy, 2015

LCA has evolved from its origins in energy analysis in the 1960s and 70s into a wide ranging tool used to determine impacts of products or systems over several environmental and resource issues. The approach has become more prevalent in research, industry and policy. Its use continues to expand as it seeks to encompass impacts as diverse as resource accounting and social well being. Carbon policy for bioenergy has driven many of these changes. Enabling assessment of complex issues over a life cycle basis is beneficial, but the process is sometimes difficult. LCA's use in framing is increasingly complex and more uncertain, and in some cases, irreconcilable. The charged environment surrounding biofuels and bioenergy exacerbates all of these. Reaching its full potential to help guide difficult policy discussions and emerging research involves successfully managing LCA's transition from attributional to consequential and from retrospective to prospective. This paper examines LCA's ongoing evolution and its use within bioenergy deployment. The management of methodological growth in the context of the unique challenges associated with bioenergy and biofuels is explored. Changes seen in bioenergy LCA will bleed into other LCA arenas, especially where it is important that a sustainable solution is chosen.

Maximizing the greenhouse gas reductions from biomass: The role of life cycle assessment

Biomass and Bioenergy, 2015

Biomass can deliver significant greenhouse gas reductions in electricity, heat and transport fuel supply. However, our biomass resource is limited and should be used to deliver the most strategic and significant impacts. The relative greenhouse gas reduction merits of different bioenergy systems (for electricity, heat, chemical and biochar production) were examined on a common, scientific basis using consistent life cycle assessment methodology, scope of system and assumptions. The results show that bioenergy delivers substantial and cost-effective greenhouse gas reductions. Large scale electricity systems deliver the largest absolute reductions in greenhouse gases per unit of energy generated, while medium scale wood chip district heating boilers result in the highest level of greenhouse gas reductions per unit of harvested biomass. However, ammonia and biochar systems deliver the most cost effective carbon reductions, while biochar systems potentially deliver the highest greenhouse gas reductions per unit area of land.

Developing a sustainability framework for the assessment of bioenergy systems

Energy Policy, 2007

The potential for biomass to contribute to energy supply in a low-carbon economy is well recognised. However, for the sector to contribute fully to sustainable development in the UK, specific exploitation routes must meet the three sets of criteria usually recognised as representing the tests for sustainability: economic viability in the market and fiscal framework within which the supply chain operates; environmental performance, including, but not limited to, low carbon dioxide emissions over the complete fuel cycle; and social acceptability, with the benefits of using biomass recognised as outweighing any negative social impacts. This paper describes an approach to developing a methodology to establish a sustainability framework for the assessment of bioenergy systems to provide practical advice for policy makers, planners and the bioenergy industry, and thus to support policy development and bioenergy deployment at different scales. The approach uses multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and decision-conferencing, to explore how such a process is able to integrate and reconcile the interests and concerns of diverse stakeholder groups.

Roadmap Towards a Bioenergy Model of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

Bulletin of University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca: Horticulture, 2021

The emergent life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, techniques and models were punctuated by divergences concerning the system expansion, allocation rules and causation modeling. Moreover, the unification of the economic, social and ecological perspectives in the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) should be addressed by abstract models providing coherence and normalization. The purpose of this study was to identify, in the context of biomass waste processing into biofuels, some of the most representative generic and specific issues and theoretical gaps encountered in LCA and LCSA modeling, and to synthesize a list of requirements by analyzing some of the most consistent state of the art solutions, in order to develop an abstract LCSA model. The literature review covered selected studies on LCSA and biomass to biofuels and lignocellulosic agricultural waste valorization LCA techniques. A list of requirements resulted from the significant approaches, in support of a formal ...