Life-cycle analysis
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Bioenergy > Technologies > Sustainability > Life-cycle analysis/Life-cycle assessment (LCA)
Life-cycle analysis or assesment (LCA) is a scientific method to record environmental (but also increasingly including social) impacts "from cradle to grave", i.e. from production to final disposal / recycling. Also known as "well to wheel" for transport fuels or "field to wheel" for biofuels.
- Two of the most used types of life cycle assessment for bioenergy are those used to determine net-energy and net greenhouse gas emissions. In order to investigate the environmental impacts of bioenergy and biofuels it is absolutely necessary to account for several other problems as acidicication, nutrification, land occupation, water use or toxicological effects of fertilizers and pesiticides.
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Summary
- LCA aims to calculate the environmental impact of a good, a process or a service "from cradle to grave". The impact includes all relevant environmental aspects such as cumulative energy demand, climatic change, acidification, nutrification, land occupation, photochemical oxidation, ecotoxicity, human health, etc.. After quantifying the energy and substances flows occuring at each step of the product/service life cycle (Life Cycle Inventory or LCI), the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) transpose these flows into a potential impact, as per the main damage categories (as listed above). The results are mainly used in comparative approaches, in order to compare several scenarios ending with the same functional unit. For instance, the functional unit "transporting one person on one kilometer" can be used to compare several types of transport.
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Origin
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Method
- Goal and Scope Definition
- Life Cycle Inventory (LCI)
- Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA)
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Outputs and Implementation
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Events
- 28-30 May 2008, Sacramento, California, USA: Joint Forum on Bioenergy Sustainability and Lifecycle Analysis (Themes: bioenergy, sustainability, lifecycle analysis)
- 8 April 2008, Washington, D.C., USA: Lifecycle Carbon Footprint of Biofuels, organized by the Farm Foundation Forum. (Themes: biofuel, carbon emissions, life cycle analysis)
- 17 November 2008, Zurich, Switzerland: 36th discussion forum on Life Cycle Assessment of Future Biofuels. (Theme: life cycle analysis, second-generation biofuel)
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News
- The hidden costs of biofuels, 9 January 2008, Editorial by Environmental Research Web, reports on an environmental life-cycle assessment study by EMPA (Switzerland) that finds "that not all biofuels can reduce environmental impacts compared to those from fossil fuels."
- "Of the 26 biofuels examined, 13 reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50%. These included biofuels made from liquid manure, biodiesel made from waste cooking oil, methanol and methane from wood, and bioethanol from domestic biomass (grass, wood, sugar beets or whey), Brazilian sugar cane and Chinese sorghum. At worst, the emissions from Brazilian soy biodiesel were slightly higher than those from petrol."[1]
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Publications
- Carbon payback times for crop-based biofuel expansion in the tropics: the effects of changing yield and technology by Holly K Gibbs, Matt Johnston, Jonathan A Foley, Tracey Holloway, Chad Monfreda, Navin Ramankutty and David Zaks. Environmental Research Letters, 3, 034001. July 2008
- Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Products: Environmental Assessment of Biofuels - Executive Summary by Rainer Zah, Heinz Böni, Marcel Gauch, Roland Hischier, Martin Lehmann & Patrick Wäger (translated by Thomas Ruddy); EMPA, Switzerland, 22 May 2007. The report examines the result of life-cycle analysis of both the greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts for a range of biofuels, including ethanol, methanol, biodiesel, and biogas, made from a range feedstocks. The report shows that there is a trade-offs between greenhouse gas benefits and environmental impacts, mainly due to the effects of intensified agriculture.
- Life-Cycle Assessment Of Net Greenhouse-Gas Flux For Bioenergy Cropping Systems by Paul R. Adler, Stephen J. Del Grosso, and William J. Parton, Ecological Applications, 17(3), 2007, pp. 675–691.
- Comparison of Transport Fuels: Final Report (EV45A/2/F3C) to the Australian Greenhouse Office on the Stage 2 study of Life-cycle Emissions Analysis of Alternative Fuels for Heavy Vehicles by By Tom Beer, Tim Grant, Geoff Morgan, Jack Lapszewicz, Peter Anyon, Jim Edwards, Peter Nelson, Harry Watson & David Williams; CSIRO in association with The University of Melbourne, the Centre for Design at RMIT, Parsons Australia Pty Ltd and Southern Cross Institute of Health Research, January 2006.
- Life Cycle Assessment of Vehicle Fuels and Technologies by Dr Ben Lane; Ecolane Transport Consultancy on behalf of London Borough of Camden, March 2006.
- Life Cycle Inventory of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel for Use in an Urban Bus by U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Energy Final Report, May 1998.
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