Life cycle assessment of bio-based ethanol produced from different agricultural feedstocks

Muñoz, Iván; Flury, Karin; Jungbluth, Niels; Rigarlsford, Giles; Canals, Llorenç Milà i; King, Henry

doi:10.1007/s11367-013-0613-1

Cited by 131 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…CC emissions for the production of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil and corn in the US considering dLUC at the national level were estimated at 825 kg CO2 eq·m −3 for both feedstocks. Expansion of forest culture was identified for sugarcane, and no dLUC was verified for corn [19]. In the state of Sao Paulo, dLUC are responsible for 1.40 t CO2 eq·m −3 sugarcane ethanol [20].…”

Section: Climate Changementioning

confidence: 98%

“…The remaining emissions (360 kg CO2 eq·m −3 ) took place mainly in the form of fossil CO2 and N2O in the same process used for corn ethanol. The choice of the dLUC estimation method has a marked effect on CC results [19]. Other studies evaluating the production of ethanol used the same models to calculate dLUC emissions, but with different geographic coverage [19,20].…”

Section: Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The choice of the dLUC estimation method has a marked effect on CC results [19]. Other studies evaluating the production of ethanol used the same models to calculate dLUC emissions, but with different geographic coverage [19,20]. CC emissions for the production of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil and corn in the US considering dLUC at the national level were estimated at 825 kg CO 2 eq·m −3 for both feedstocks.…”

Section: Considerations About the Carbon Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental and Energy Performance of Ethanol Production from the Integration of Sugarcane, Corn, and Grain Sorghum in a Multipurpose Plant

et al. 2016

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Abstract:Although in the last 40 years only sugarcane has been harnessed for the production of ethanol in Brazil, corn production has grown strongly in certain areas, and may serve as a supplementary feedstock for ethanol production in integrated plants during the sugarcane off-season. The aim of this study is to evaluate the environmental and energy performance of ethanol production from sugarcane, corn, and grain sorghum in a Flex Mill in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. A life cycle assessment was carried out to survey the production of ethanol from each individual feedstock, and the integration of two of these to increase production during a one-year period. Results indicate that the environmental and energy performance are greatly influenced by agricultural activities, highlighting the importance of sugarcane cultivation. Still, there was an increasing trend of Climate Change impacts, Human Toxicity (carcinogenic) and Ecotoxicity, as well as reduced impact of Photochemical Oxidant Formation and Energy Return on Investment (EROI) as the proportion of ethanol from starchy sources in integration scenarios increases.

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Section: Climate Changementioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Considerations About the Carbon Balancementioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental and Energy Performance of Ethanol Production from the Integration of Sugarcane, Corn, and Grain Sorghum in a Multipurpose Plant

et al. 2016

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“…It thus aims for a qualitative change of material flows by way of fundamental structural change (e.g. Braungart et al 2007;Huber 2000;McDonough and Braungart 2002). The idea of the "cradle-to-cradle" thinking of eco-effectiveness is the abdication of using (finite) natural resources and/or of generating waste by creating non-polluting production and consumption processes in which each end-product of a consumption or production process serves as a basis for other processes.…”

Section: Eco-effectivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Markets, Sustainability Management and Entrepreneurship

et al. 2017

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“…Moreover, the relatively small number of case studies that actually test proposed methods (e.g. Cintas et al (2015), Helin et al (2014), Koponen and Soimakallio (2015), Milà et al (2013), Muñoz et al (2014)) implies that LCA practitioners are not familiar with these methods yet and that they are thus not in wide-spread use.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for effects of carbon flows in LCA of biomass-based products—exploration and evaluation of a selection of existing methods

Liptow

Janssen

Tillman

2018

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) has become one of the most widespread environmental assessment tools during the last two decades. However, there are still impacts that are not yet fully integrated, including climate impacts of land use. This study contributes to the development process by testing a selection of recently proposed climate impacts assessment methods, some more focused on the impact of land use and others more focused on a product's carbon life cycle. Methods Several assessment methods have been proposed in recent years, with their development still being in progress. Of these methods, we selected three methods that are more focused on the product's carbon life cycle, and two methods more focused on the impact of land use. We applied the methods to an LCA study comparing biomass-based polyethylene (PE) packaging via different production routes in order to identify their methodological and practical challenges. Results and discussion We found that including the impact of land use and carbon cycles had a profound effect on the results for global warming impact potential. It changed the ranking among the different routes for PE production, sometimes making biomass-based PE worse than the fossil alternative. Especially, the methods accounting for long time lags between carbon emissions and uptake in forestry punished the wood-based routes. Moreover, the variation in the results was considerable, showing that although assessment methods for climate impact can be applied to biomass-based products, their outcomes are not yet robust. Conclusions We recommend efforts to harmonize and reconcile different approaches for the assessment of climate impact of biomass-based products with regard to (1) how they consider time, (2) their applicability to both short and long rotation crops and (3) harmonization of concepts and terms used by the methods. We further recommend that all value laden methodological choices that are built into the methods, such as the choice of reference states/points, are made explicit and that the outcomes of different modelling choices are tested.

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Life cycle assessment of bio-based ethanol produced from different agricultural feedstocks

Cited by 131 publications

References 18 publications

Environmental and Energy Performance of Ethanol Production from the Integration of Sugarcane, Corn, and Grain Sorghum in a Multipurpose Plant

Environmental and Energy Performance of Ethanol Production from the Integration of Sugarcane, Corn, and Grain Sorghum in a Multipurpose Plant

Markets, Sustainability Management and Entrepreneurship

Accounting for effects of carbon flows in LCA of biomass-based products—exploration and evaluation of a selection of existing methods

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