Standardized and simplified life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a driver for more sustainable biofuels

Zah, Rainer; Faist, Mireille; Reinhard, Jürgen; Birchmeier, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2009.04.004

Cited by 46 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…LCA-based approaches are already more inclusive, but result in disparate indicators for impacts on eutrophication, GHG emissions, human health, biodiversity, etc. The aggregation of these indicators can be done mathematically or by weighing (Daniel et al, 2004;Zah et al, 2009). But generalisation or comparison of these aggregations is hard, as these approaches often are very context-specific (Soares et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advantages and limitations of exergy indicators to assess sustainability of bioenergy and biobased materials

Maes

Passel

2014

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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Innovative bioenergy projects show a growing diversity in biomass pathways, transformation technologies and end-products, leading to complex new processes. Existing energy-based indicators are not designed to include multiple impacts and are too constrained to assess the sustainability of these processes. Alternatively, indicators based on exergy, a measure of "qualitative energy", could allow a more holistic view. Exergy is increasingly applied in analyses of both technical and biological processes. But sustainability assessments including exergy calculations, are not very common and are not generally applicable to all types of impact. Hence it is important to frame the use of exergy for inclusion in a sustainability assessment. This paper reviews the potentials and the limitations of exergy calculations, and presents solutions for coherent aggregation with other metrics. The resulting approach is illustrated in a case study. Within the context of sustainability assessment of bioenergy, exergy is a suitable metric for the impacts that require an ecocentric interpretation, and it allows aggregation on a physical basis. The use of exergy is limited to a measurement of material and energy exchanges with the sun, biosphere and lithosphere. Exchanges involving services or human choices are to be measured in different metrics. This combination provides a more inclusive and objective sustainability assessment, especially compared to standard energy-or carbon-based indicators. Future applications of this approach in different situations are required to clarify the potential of exergy-based indicators in a sustainability context.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advantages and limitations of exergy indicators to assess sustainability of bioenergy and biobased materials

Maes

Passel

2014

Environmental Impact Assessment Review

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“…This difference is discussed in Hare et al [13] and not further considered here. 2 PAS 2050 is a publicly available specification that provides a method for assessing the life cycle GHG emissions of goods and services ( jointly referred to as 'products'); developed by the BSI Group (a global business services organization providing standards-based solutions in more than 150 countries). 3 ISO 14040:2006 describes the principles and framework for LCA, including: definition of the goal and scope of the LCA, the LCI analysis phase, the LCI assessment phase, the life cycle interpretation phase, reporting and critical review of the LCA, limitations of the LCA, the relationship between the LCA phases, and conditions for use of value choices and optional elements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for indirect land-use change in the life cycle assessment of biofuel supply chains

Sanchez

Woods

Akhurst³

et al. 2012

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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The expansion of land used for crop production causes variable direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and other economic, social and environmental effects. We analyse the use of life cycle analysis (LCA) for estimating the carbon intensity of biofuel production from indirect land-use change (ILUC). Two approaches are critiqued: direct, attributional life cycle analysis and consequential life cycle analysis (CLCA). A proposed hybrid 'combined model' of the two approaches for ILUC analysis relies on first defining the system boundary of the resulting full LCA. Choices are then made as to the modelling methodology (economic equilibrium or cause -effect), data inputs, land area analysis, carbon stock accounting and uncertainty analysis to be included. We conclude that CLCA is applicable for estimating the historic emissions from ILUC, although improvements to the hybrid approach proposed, coupled with regular updating, are required, and uncertainly values must be adequately represented; however, the scope and the depth of the expansion of the system boundaries required for CLCA remain controversial. In addition, robust prediction, monitoring and accounting frameworks for the dynamic and highly uncertain nature of future crop yields and the effectiveness of policies to reduce deforestation and encourage afforestation remain elusive. Finally, establishing compatible and comparable accounting frameworks for ILUC between the USA, the European Union, South East Asia, Africa, Brazil and other major biofuel trading blocs is urgently needed if substantial distortions between these markets, which would reduce its application in policy outcomes, are to be avoided.

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“…Moreover, the negative effects of biofuels are strongly dominating if carbon and biodiversity loss due to direct (Fargione, Hill et al 2008) and indirect (Searchinger, Heimlich et al 2008;Reinhard and Zah 2009) land transformation are considered in the full life cycle of biofuels. Certification schemes could be an effective approach for ensuring the sustainable production of biofuels by keeping environmental impacts within certain limits (Zah, Faist et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In general, environmental impacts occur in all stages of the biofuels value chain, by transforming the land needed, by producing and apply-ing fertilizers or pesticides, by use of agricultural machinery, by producing the biofuel, by transporting it to the gauging station and by using it in transportation devices. Consequently, the adequate assessment of environmental impacts along the life cycle of biofuels is a resource intensive and complex task and even more complicated is the assessment of their overall sustainability (Zah, Faist et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RSB Tool: A LCA Tool for the assessment of biofuels sustainability

Reinhard¹,

Emmenegger²,

Widok³

et al. 2011

Proceedings of the 2011 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC)

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The paper focuses on the role of simulation within the RSB GHG Tool, which is a web-based decision support tool that assesses greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels according to the principles of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. Using a questionnaire, each operator can specify his individual data and calculate the GHG emission for his production step. To derive the environmental flows required for the impact assessment, the tool applies simulation, which allows generating a full inventory on the basis of the limited input data the operator can provide. This is the basis for the interactive assessment of the GHG emissions of individual steps of biofuels pathways, without the need of conducting a time and resource-intensive Life Cycle Assessment study. In this paper, we focus on the simulation for the emissions caused by land use change since such emissions can play a dominating role in the GHG balance of a biofuel.

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Standardized and simplified life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a driver for more sustainable biofuels

Cited by 46 publications

References 5 publications

Advantages and limitations of exergy indicators to assess sustainability of bioenergy and biobased materials

Advantages and limitations of exergy indicators to assess sustainability of bioenergy and biobased materials

Accounting for indirect land-use change in the life cycle assessment of biofuel supply chains

RSB Tool: A LCA Tool for the assessment of biofuels sustainability

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