Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Energy Valorization of the Residual Agro-Food Industry

This study assesses the potential environmental impacts related to the energy valorization of agro-food industry waste thought the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (ISO 14040). The system examined consists of a real anaerobic digester coupled with a combined anaerobic digester and heat and power plant (AD-CHP) operating in Sicily. The analysis accounts for all the impacts occurring from the delivery of the biomass to the AD-CHP plant up to the electricity generation in the CHP. The main outcomes of the study include the eco-profile of the energy system providing electricity and the assessment of the contribution of each life cycle phase aimed at identifying the potential improvement area. The obtained results highlight that the direct emissions associated with the biogas combustion process in the CHP account for 66% of the impact on climate change, and feedstock transport contributes 64% to the impact on mineral, fossil fuels, and renewable depletion. The contribution to the impacts caused by the electricity consumption is relevant in many of the environmental categories examined. It ranges from a minimum of about 22% for climate change up to 82% for freshwater ecotoxicity. Then actions aimed at reducing electricity consumption can significantly improve the environmental performances of the energy system examined

Selecting Insulating Materials for Building Envelope: A Life Cycle Approach

This paper aims at assessing the embodied energy and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) of two building envelopes, designed for a two floors semi-detached house located in the Central Italy. The analysis is performed by applying the Life Cycle Assessment methodology, following a from cradle-to-gate approach. Fixtures (windows and doors), external and internal opaque walls, roof and floors (including interstorey floors) make the building envelopes. Their stratigraphy allows for achieving the thermal transmittance values established in the Italian Decree on energy performance of buildings. The two examined envelopes differ only for the insulation material: extruded expanded polystyrene (XPS) or cellulose fibers. The results shows that the envelope using cellulose fibers has better performance than that using XPS: it allows for reducing the embodied energy and the GHGs of about 13% and 9.3%, respectively. A dominance analysis allows to identify the envelope components responsible of the higher impacts and the contribution of the insulating material to the impacts. The study is part of the Italian research “Analysis of the energy impacts and greenhouse gas emissions of technologies and components for the energy efficiency of buildings from a life cycle perspective” funded by the Three-year Research Plan within the National Electricity System 2019-2021

A Conceptual Review on Using Consequential Life Cycle Assessment Methodology for the Energy Sector

Energy is engaged in the supply chain of many economic sectors; therefore, the environmental impacts of the energy sector are indirectly linked to those of other sectors. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) is an appropriate methodology to examine the direct and indirect environmental impacts of a product due to technological, economic or social changes. To date, different methodological approaches are proposed, combining economic and environmental models. This paper reviews the basic concept of CLCA and the coupling of economic and environmental models for performing CLCA in the energy sector during the period 2006\u20132020, with the aim to provide a description of the different tools, highlighting their strengths and limitations. From the review, it emerges that economic modelling tools are frequently used in combination with environmental data for CLCA in the energy sector, including equilibrium, input-output, and dynamic models. Out of these, the equilibrium model is the most widely used, showing some strengths in availability of data and energy system modelling tools. The input-output model allows for describing both direct and indirect effects due to changes in the energy sector, by using publicly available data. The dynamic model is less frequently applied due to its limitation in availability of data and modelling tools, but has recently attracted more attention due to the ability in modelling quantitative and qualitative indicators of sustainability

Life-Cycle Land-Use Requirement for PV in Vietnam

Over the last 15 years, photovoltaics (PV) in Vietnam has experienced development. The increased installed capacity of PV requires more land for installation sites as well as for manufacturing the plants’ component and waste treatment during the plants’ decommissioning. As a developing country, in which more than 80% of the population’s livelihood depends on agriculture, there are concerns about the competition of land for agriculture and solar development. This paper estimates the life-cycle land-use requirement for PV development in Vietnam, to provide the scientific-based evidence for policy makers on the quantity of land required, so that the land budget can be suitably allocated. The direct land-use requirement for PV ranges from 3.7 to 6.7 m2 MWh−1 year, and the total fenced area is 7.18 to 8.16 m2 MWh−1 year. Regarding the life-cycle land use, the land occupation is 241.85 m2a and land transformation is 16.17 m2 per MWh. Most of the required land area is for the installation of the PV infrastructure, while the indirect land use of the background process is inconsiderable

Preliminary Life Cycle Assessment of an innovative wave energy converter

The University of Palermo is currently investigating the possibility of sea wave energy harvesting in the Mediterranean Sea, since this energy sources could have important applications, especially in small islands. With this purpose, the paper propones an innovative technology for the sea wave exploitation in onshore areas. A prototypical device is firstly described. Some improvements are introduced in comparison with a previous version of the device. In this manuscript the Life Cycle Assessment is performed to evaluate the environmental impacts of this technology

Sustainability Assessment of Second Life Application of Automotive Batteries (SASLAB): JRC Exploratory Research (2016-2017): Final technical report: August 2018

The fast increase of the electrified vehicles market will translate into an increase of waste batteries after their use in electrified vehicles (xEV). Once collected, batteries are usually recycled; however, their residual capacity (typically varying between 70% and 80% of the initial capacity) could be used in other applications before recycling. The interest in this topic of repurposing xEV batteries is currently high, as can be proven by numerous industrial initiatives by various types of stakeholders along the value chain of xEV batteries and by policy activities related to waste xEV batteries. SASLAB (Sustainability Assessment of Second Life Application of Automotive Batteries), an exploratory project led by JRC under its own initiative in 2016-2017, aims at assessing the sustainability of repurposing xEV batteries to be used in energy storage applications from technical, environmental and social perspectives. Information collected by stakeholders, open literature data and experimental tests for establishing the state of health of lithium-ion batteries (in particular LFP/Graphite, NMC/Graphite and LMO-NMC/Graphite based battery cells) represented the necessary background and input information for the assessment of the performances of xEV battery life cycle. Renewables (photovoltaics) firming, photovoltaics smoothing, primary frequency regulation, energy time shift and peak shaving are considered as the possible second-use stationary storage applications for analysis within SASLAB. Experimental tests were performed on both, new and aged cells. The majority of aged cells were disassembled from a battery pack of a used series production xEV. Experimental investigations aim at both, to understand better the performance of cells in second use after being dismissed from first use, and to provide input parameters for the environmental assessment model. The experimental tests are partially still ongoing and further results are expected to become available beyond the end of SASLAB project. To obtain an overview of the size of the xEV batteries flows along their life cycle, and hence to understand the potential size of repurposing activities in the future, a predictive and parametrized model was built and is ready to be updated according to new future data. The model allows to take into account also the (residual) capacity of xEV batteries and the (critical) raw materials embedded in the various type of xEV batteries. For the environmental assessment, an adapted life-cycle based method was developed and applied to different systems in order to quantify benefits/drawbacks of the adoption of repurposed xEV batteries in second-use applications. Data derived from laboratory tests and primary data concerning energy flows of the assessed applications were used as input for the environmental assessment. Under certain conditions, the assessment results depict environmental benefits related to the extension the xEV batteries’ lifetime through their second-use in the assessed applications. In the analysis, the importance of using primary data is highlighted especially concerning the energy flows of the system in combination with the characteristics of the battery used to store energy. A more comprehensive environmental assessment of repurposing options for xEV batteries will need to look at more cases (other battery chemistries, other reuse scenarios, etc.) to derive more extensive and firmer conclusions. Experimental work is being continued at the JRC and the availability of further data about the batteries' performances could allow the extension of the assessment to different types of batteries in different second-use applications. A more complete sustainability assessment of the second-use of xEV batteries that could be useful to support EU policy development will also require more efforts in the future in terms of both the social and economic assessment.JRC.D.3-Land Resource

Life Cycle Environmental Assessment of Energy Valorization of the Residual Agro-Food Industry

This study assesses the potential environmental impacts related to the energy valorization of agro-food industry waste thought the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (ISO 14040). The system examined consists of a real anaerobic digester coupled with a combined anaerobic digester and heat and power plant (AD-CHP) operating in Sicily. The analysis accounts for all the impacts occurring from the delivery of the biomass to the AD-CHP plant up to the electricity generation in the CHP. The main outcomes of the study include the eco-profile of the energy system providing electricity and the assessment of the contribution of each life cycle phase aimed at identifying the potential improvement area. The obtained results highlight that the direct emissions associated with the biogas combustion process in the CHP account for 66% of the impact on climate change, and feedstock transport contributes 64% to the impact on mineral, fossil fuels, and renewable depletion. The contribution to the impacts caused by the electricity consumption is relevant in many of the environmental categories examined. It ranges from a minimum of about 22% for climate change up to 82% for freshwater ecotoxicity. Then actions aimed at reducing electricity consumption can significantly improve the environmental performances of the energy system examined

La Life Cycle Assessment applicata alla valutazione della sostenibilità ambientale del riuso delle batterie da trazione

In un’ottica di economia circolare, le batterie da trazione rimosse dalle auto elettriche possiedono una capacità residua sufficiente per essere riutilizzate in applicazioni stazionarie di seconda vita in edifici residenziali dotati di tecnologie per la produzione di energia elettrica da fonti rinnovabili, allo scopo di aumentare l’autoconsumo degli edifici e ridurre lo stress sulla rete elettrica. In questo contesto, lo studio propone un approccio metodologico che combina la modellizzazione energetica del sistema che fornisce l’energia elettrica richiesta in una specifica applicazione, l’analisi di load – match e la Life Cycle Assessment, da impiegare per identificare la configurazione delle batterie che consente di incrementare l’autoconsumo minimizzando gli impatti energetico – ambientali di ciclo di vita del sistema che fornisce l’energia elettrica

Energy-related GHG emissions balances: IPCC versus LCA

Addressing climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges. Due to the impact of cities to energy consumption, the involvement of the local authorities in environmental policies is rapidly increasing. The Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched by the European Commission, is an urban initiative aimed at reducing CO2 emissions. The signatories have to compile the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) balance of their territory and, to do so, they can use the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Moreover, the signatories have to define strategies to reduce the GHG emissions. In this context, authors estimate the GHG balance of an Italian municipality using both methodologies in order to compare the results. In detail, the first application is the IPCC, the second one is the LCA approach for which two cases are analysed: i) LCA with fossil fuels and electricity GHG emission factors based on the European Reference Life Cycle Database, LCA (I); and ii) LCA with a site \u2013 specific GHG emissions for electricity generation, LCA (II). They propose energy strategies in order to quantify the achievable GHG emissions reduction by the exploitation of the renewable energy resources. The study shows that the GHG emissions results obtained with the LCA approach are higher by 20% than those calculated with the IPCC approach. This difference is relevant and it could be significant in identifying effective climate strategies. The LCA methodology ensures a systemic accounting of emissions, then, it can be more effective in order to achieve GHG emissions reduction at global level. The examined energy strategies allow for reducing the GHG emissions of about 7% of the total reduction required by the CoM. This confirms that a preliminary evaluation of the strategies is useful for the allocation of the financial resources to the environmental policies