Life cycle assessment Part 2: Current impact assessment practice

Pennington, David; Potting, José; Finnveden, Göran; Lindeijer, Erwin; Jolliet, Olivier; Rydberg, Tomas; Rebitzer, Gerald

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2003.12.009

Cited by 594 publications

(302 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…The LCA method is currently considered a very useful instrument for comparing products, processes and services and serving as the basis for formulating an environmental product declaration (Schau and Fet, 2008). The results of an LCA analysis are usually presented in a range of different impact categories, such as global warming, acidification, nitrification, ozone reduction, and toxicity (Pennington et al, 2004;Gunady et al, 2012). In the case of the present study, the data refer to production during 2011.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A life cycle assessment of non-renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with blueberry and raspberry production in northern Italy

Girgenti

Peano

Bounous

et al. 2013

Science of The Total Environment

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A life cycle assessment of non-renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with blueberry and raspberry production in northern Italy

Girgenti

Peano

Bounous

et al. 2013

Science of The Total Environment

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“…Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a widely used method for quantifying environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product's life from cradle to grave (that is, from raw material extraction through processing, distribution, use, and end-of-life) (Pennington et al 2004). The LCA has been extensively applied to analyze the pros and cons towards the surrounding environment of bioenergy production in different regions of the world (Boschiero et al 2016;Cherubini and Stromman 2011;Dias et al 2017;Homagain et alet al 2015), especially in the field of GHG savings and SOC sequestration.…”

Section: Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment Of Bioenergy Prodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioenergy production and environmental impacts

Zhao

Liu

et al. 2018

Geosci. Lett.

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Compared with the conventional fossil fuel, bioenergy has obvious advantages due to its renewability and large quantity, and thus plays a crucial role in helping defend the energy security. However, the bioenergy development may potentially cause serious environmental alterations, which remain unclear. The study summarizes the environmental impacts of bioenergy production based on the compilation and published data. Our analysis shows that more and more attention is being paid to the environmental protection as the development of bioenergy, and among the influencing terms of bioenergy production, water issues (i.e., water quantity and quality) gain the greatest concern, whereas the least attention has been given to soil erosion. Although we recognize that the bioenergy production can indeed exert negative effects on the environment in terms of water quantity and quality, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity and soil organic carbon, and soil erosion, the adverse impacts varied greatly depending on biomass types, land locations, and management practices. Identifying the reasonable cultivation locations, appropriate bioenergy crop types, and optimal management practices can be beneficial to environment and sustainable development of bioenergy. In this field, Chinese bioenergy production has lagged behind and does not match its rising energy consumption, but it has a great potential of and demand for biomass-based energy especially under its urbanization, in spite of the negative environmental impacts. Therefore, this article is expected to serve as a reference and guideline on what has been done in the bioenergy-oriented countries that might stimulate development of more effective and environmentally sound guidelines for promoting bioenergy production in China and other developing countries as well.

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“…Midpoint indicators 4 allow for environmental effects of several individual stressors to be assimilated into a single impact category. Endpoint indicators measure impact potentials by endpoints in the effect chain; human health, ecosystem health and natural resources are typically regarded as three such endpoints, but sometimes even one single indicator of environmental damage is used [13,14].…”

Section: Lca: Conceptual Basis and Calculation Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the life cycle environmental impacts of wind power: A review of present knowledge and research needs

Arvesen

Hertwich

2012

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

172

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We critically review present knowledge of the life cycle environmental impacts of wind power.We find that the current body of life cycle assessments (LCA) of wind power provides a fairly good overall understanding of fossil energy use and associated pollution; our survey of results that appear in existing literature give mean values (± standard deviation) of, e.g., 0.060 (±0.058) kWh energy used and 19 (±13) g CO 2 e emitted per kWh electricity, suggesting good environmental performance vis-à-vis fossil-based power. Total emissions of onshore and offshore wind farms are comparable. The bulk of emissions generally occur in the production of components; onshore, the wind turbine dominates, while offshore, the substructure becomes relatively more important. Strong positive effects of scale are present in the lower end of the turbine size spectrum, but there is no clear evidence for such effects for MW-sized units. We identify weaknesses and gaps in knowledge that future research may address. This includes poorly understood impacts in categories of toxicity and resource depletion, lack of empirical basis for assumptions about replacement of parts, and apparent lack of detailed considerations of offshore operations for wind farms in ocean waters. We argue that applications of the avoided burden method to model recycling benefits generally lack transparency and may be inconsistent.Assumed capacity factor values are generally higher than current mean realized values. Finally, we discuss the need for LCA research to move beyond unit-based assessments in order to address temporal aspects and the scale of impacts.

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Life cycle assessment Part 2: Current impact assessment practice

Cited by 594 publications

References 56 publications

A life cycle assessment of non-renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with blueberry and raspberry production in northern Italy

A life cycle assessment of non-renewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with blueberry and raspberry production in northern Italy

Bioenergy production and environmental impacts

Assessing the life cycle environmental impacts of wind power: A review of present knowledge and research needs

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