Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Chinese energy chains for Shandong electricity scenarios

Dones, Roberto; Zhou, Xin; Tian, Chunxiu

doi:10.1504/ijgei.2004.005894

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One of the biggest causes of the large variation in supply chain emissions estimates is due to the assumed estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of gas wells [16,23,54,134,135]. The EUR is the measure of economically feasible gas extraction and is dependent on the size of the well, the ease of extraction (i.e.…”

Section: Estimated Ultimate Recovery Of Wellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Natural Gas Supply Chain: The Importance of Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Balcombe

Anderson

Speirs

et al. 2016

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

124

128

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Natural gas is typically considered to be the cleaner-burning fossil fuel that could play an important role within a restricted carbon budget. Whilst natural gas emits less CO2 when burned than other fossil fuels, its main constituent is methane, which has a much stronger climate forcing impact than CO2 in the short-term. Estimates of methane emissions in the natural gas supply chain have been the subject of much controversy, due to uncertainties associated with estimation methods, data quality and assumptions used. This paper presents a comprehensive compilation of estimated CO2 and methane emissions across the global natural gas supply chain, with the aim of providing a balanced insight for academia, industry and policy makers by summarising the reported data, locating the areas of major uncertainty and identifying where further work is needed to reduce or remove this uncertainty. Overall, the range of documented estimates of methane emissions across the supply chain is vast amongst an aggregation of different geological formations, technologies, plant age, gas composition and regional regulation, not to mention differences in estimation methods. Estimates of combined methane and CO2 emissions ranged from 2 -42 g CO2 eq./ MJ HHV, whilst methane-only emissions ranged from 0.2% -10% of produced methane. The methane emissions at the extraction stage are the most contentious issue, with limited data available but potentially large impacts associated with well completions for unconventional gas, liquids unloading and also from the transmission stage. From the range of literature estimates, a constrained range of emissions was estimated that reflects the most recent and reliable estimates: total supply chain GHG emissions were estimated to be between 3.6 and 42.4 g CO2 eq./ MJ HHV, with a central estimate of 10.5. The presence of 'super emitters', a small number of facilities or equipment that cause extremely high emissions, is found across all supply chain stages creating a highly skewed emissions distribution. However, various new technologies, mitigation and maintenance approaches, and legislation are driving significant reductions in methane leakage across the natural gas supply chain.

show abstract

Section: Estimated Ultimate Recovery Of Wellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Natural Gas Supply Chain: The Importance of Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Balcombe

Anderson

Speirs

et al. 2016

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

124

128

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The process for coal power was, moreover, based upon a study only describing 300 MW power plants in the Shandong province, with a thermal efficiency of 34.8% [11087] (Dones et al 2004). Ecoinvent also estimates a sulphur content of 0.9% (calculated using 1.7 kg SO 2 emission tonne -1 coal and 5% retained in the abatement of fly ashes) and NOx emissions of 9 kg tonne -1 coal combusted (Dones et al 2004). However, according to Zhao et al (2008) the national average sulphur content was 1.01% in 2005, with great spread amongst regions.…”

Section: Coal Miningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Asian Aquaculture Products by Use of Statistically Supported Life Cycle Assessment

Henriksson

Rico

Zhang

et al. 2015

Environ. Sci. Technol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We investigated aquaculture production of Asian tiger shrimp, whiteleg shrimp, giant river prawn, tilapia, and pangasius catfish in Bangladesh, China, Thailand, and Vietnam by using life cycle assessments (LCAs), with the purpose of evaluating the comparative eco-efficiency of producing different aquatic food products. Our starting hypothesis was that different production systems are associated with significantly different environmental impacts, as the production of these aquatic species differs in intensity and management practices. In order to test this hypothesis, we estimated each system's global warming, eutrophication, and freshwater ecotoxicity impacts. The contribution to these impacts and the overall dispersions relative to results were propagated by Monte Carlo simulations and dependent sampling. Paired testing showed significant (p < 0.05) differences between the median impacts of most production systems in the intraspecies comparisons, even after a Bonferroni correction. For the full distributions instead of only the median, only for Asian tiger shrimp did more than 95% of the propagated Monte Carlo results favor certain farming systems. The major environmental hot-spots driving the differences in environmental performance among systems were fishmeal from mixed fisheries for global warming, pond runoff and sediment discards for eutrophication, and agricultural pesticides, metals, benzalkonium chloride, and other chlorine-releasing compounds for freshwater ecotoxicity. The Asian aquaculture industry should therefore strive toward farming systems relying upon pelleted species-specific feeds, where the fishmeal inclusion is limited and sourced sustainably. Also, excessive nutrients should be recycled in integrated organic agriculture together with efficient aeration solutions powered by renewable energy sources.

show abstract

“…This analysis corrects the life cycle estimates based on the list of qualified life cycle studies developed by Sovacool (2008) by combining or eliminating redundant studies (Tables 1 and 2). A median emission per kWh of 38 g CO 2 /kWh is thereby obtained with upper and lower quartiles of 71 and 19 g CO 2 /kWh, respectively Table 4 of Sovacool (2008) was adjusted for redundant studies by averaging results for multiple studies by Dones et al (2003Dones et al ( , 2004Dones et al ( , 2005, averaging results for light and heavy water reactors by ISA (2006), and by using the more recent and more comprehensive study by Storm van Leeuwen and Smith (2007).…”

Section: Life Cycle Considerations For Adjusted Lag Timementioning

confidence: 99%

Estimated Lag Time in Global Carbon Emissions and Co2 Concentrations Produced by Commercial Nuclear Power Through 2009 With Projections Through 2030

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examines the past and future impact of nuclear reactors on anthropogenic carbon emissions to the atmosphere. If nuclear power had never been commercially developed, what additional global carbon emissions would have occurred? More than 44 y of global nuclear power have caused a lag time of at least 1.2 y in carbon emissions and CO2 concentrations through the end of 2009. This lag time incorporates the contribution of life cycle carbon emissions due to the construction and operation of nuclear plants. Cumulative global carbon emissions would have been about 13 Gt greater through 2009, and the mean annual CO2 concentration at Mauna Loa would have been ~2.7 ppm greater than without nuclear power. This study finds that an additional 14–17 Gt of atmospheric carbon emissions could be averted by the global use of nuclear power through 2030, for a cumulative total of 27–30 Gt averted during the period 1965–2030. This result is based on International Atomic Energy Agency projections of future growth in nuclear power from 2009–2030, modified by the recent loss or permanent shutdown of 14 reactors in Japan and Germany

show abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Chinese energy chains for Shandong electricity scenarios

Cited by 18 publications

References 6 publications

The Natural Gas Supply Chain: The Importance of Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

The Natural Gas Supply Chain: The Importance of Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Comparison of Asian Aquaculture Products by Use of Statistically Supported Life Cycle Assessment

Estimated Lag Time in Global Carbon Emissions and Co2 Concentrations Produced by Commercial Nuclear Power Through 2009 With Projections Through 2030

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About