The ESPA (Enhanced Structural Path Analysis) method: a solution to an implementation challenge for dynamic life cycle assessment studies

Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier; Heijungs, Reinout; Blanc, Isabelle

doi:10.1007/s11367-014-0710-9

Cited by 62 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…Several authors have proposed ways of integrating temporal information in LCI databases (Collinge et al ., ; Beloin‐Saint‐Pierre et al ., ; Tiruta‐Barna et al ., ). These might be useful to add temporal information to the background system and make the use of time‐dependent impact indicators easier and less resource‐consuming.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time‐dependent climate impact and energy efficiency of combined heat and power production from short‐rotation coppice willow using pyrolysis or direct combustion

et al. 2017

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A life cycle assessment of a Swedish short-rotation coppice willow bioenergy system generating electricity and heat was performed to investigate how the energy efficiency and time-dependent climate impact were affected when the feedstock was converted into bio-oil and char before generating electricity and heat, compared with being combusted directly. The study also investigated how the climate impact was affected when part of the char was applied to soil as biochar to act as a carbon sequestration agent and potential soil improver. The energy efficiencies were calculated separately for electricity and heat as the energy ratios between the amount of energy service delivered by the system compared to the amount of external energy inputs used in each scenario after having allocated the primary energy related to the inputs between the two energy services. The energy in the feedstock was not included in the external energy inputs. Direct combustion had the highest energy efficiency. It had energy ratios of 10 and 36 for electricity and heat, respectively. The least energy-efficient scenario was the pyrolysis scenario where biochar was applied to soils. It had energy ratios of 4 and 12 for electricity and heat, respectively. The results showed that pyrolysis with carbon sequestration might be an option to counteract the current trend in global warming. The pyrolysis system with soil application of the biochar removed the largest amount of CO 2 from the atmosphere. However, compared with the direct combustion scenario, the climate change mitigation potential depended on the energy system to which the bioenergy system delivered its energy services. A system expansion showed that direct combustion had the highest climate change mitigation potential when coal or natural gas were used as external energy sources to compensate for the lower energy efficiency of the pyrolysis scenario.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time‐dependent climate impact and energy efficiency of combined heat and power production from short‐rotation coppice willow using pyrolysis or direct combustion

et al. 2017

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“…Beloin -Saint-Pierre et al (2014) recently proposed a method they coined the ESPA method (enhanced structural path analysis), which can be used to propagate, throughout a product system, process-relative temporal information, i.e. temporal information defined at the unit process level.…”

Section: Calculating Temporally Differentiated Lcismentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal differentiation of background systems in LCA: relevance of adding temporal information in LCI databases

Pinsonnault

Lesage

Levasseur

et al. 2014

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Because the potential impacts of emissions and extractions can be sensitive to timing, the temporal aggregation of life cycle inventory (LCI) data has often been cited as a limitation in life cycle assessment (LCA). Until now, examples of temporal emission and extraction distributions were restricted to the foreground processes of product systems. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the relevance of considering the temporal distribution of the background system inventory. Methods The paper focuses on the global warming impact category for which so-called dynamic characterization factors (CFs) were developed and uses the ecoinvent v2.2 database as both an example database to which temporal information can be added and a source of product systems to test the relevance of adding temporal information to the background system. Temporal information was added to the elementary and intermediate exchanges of 22 % of the unit processes in the database. Using the enhanced structure path analysis (ESPA) method to generate temporally differentiated LCIs in conjunction with time-dependent global warming characterization factors, potential impacts were calculated for all 4,034 product systems in the ecoinvent database. Results and discussion Each time, the results were calculated for (1) systems in which temporal information was only added to the first two tiers, representing studies in which only the foreground system is temporally differentiated, and (2) systems in which temporal information was also added to the background system. For 8.6 % of the database product systems, adding temporal differentiation to background unit processes affected the global warming impact scores by more than 10 %. For most of the affected product systems, considering temporal information in the background unit processes decreased the global warming impact scores. The sectors that show most sensitivity to the temporal differentiation of background unit processes are associated with wood and biofuel sectors. Conclusions Even though the addition of temporal information to unit processes in LCI databases would not benefit every LCA study, the enhancement can be relevant. It allows for a more accurate global warming impact assessment, especially for LCAs in which products of biomass are present in substantial amounts. Relevance for other impact categories could be discussed in further work.

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“…). For dynamic LCI, Beloin‐Saint‐Pierre and colleagues () and Collinge and colleagues () developed temporally differentiated LCI at the individual product and building scales, respectively.…”

Section: Current Practices Limitations and Integration Of Agent‐basmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agent‐Based Modeling of Temporal and Spatial Dynamics in Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

Apul

et al. 2017

J of Industrial Ecology

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SummaryCurrent aggregate and top-down approaches in life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) generally fail to account for spatial, temporal, and emergent behavioral dynamics simultaneously during the inventory stage. We discuss the key characteristics captured by complex system approaches (agent-based modeling [ABM] in particular) in the context of LCSA. It is understood that by integrating ABM, temporal, spatial, and behavioral dynamics can be addressed during the life cycle inventory stage. We propose a general concept to integrate ABM into current building life cycle assessment standards. We then use a hypothetical example of green building development to compare the ABM approach with a predefined static policy model. Simulation results from the agent-based model confirm that there are temporal and spatial variations caused by behavioral dynamics. The results are integrated into the calculation of temporally dynamic LCSA indicators on an annual basis. Spatially distributed simulation results can also be used in spatially dynamic LCSA. Keywords:agent-based modeling complexity life cycle sustainability assessment life cycle inventory (LCI) green buildings industrial ecology Supporting information is linked to this article on the JIE website

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The ESPA (Enhanced Structural Path Analysis) method: a solution to an implementation challenge for dynamic life cycle assessment studies

Cited by 62 publications

References 26 publications

Time‐dependent climate impact and energy efficiency of combined heat and power production from short‐rotation coppice willow using pyrolysis or direct combustion

Time‐dependent climate impact and energy efficiency of combined heat and power production from short‐rotation coppice willow using pyrolysis or direct combustion

Temporal differentiation of background systems in LCA: relevance of adding temporal information in LCI databases

Agent‐Based Modeling of Temporal and Spatial Dynamics in Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment

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