Life-cycle climate impacts of peat fuel: calculation methods and methodological challenges

Abstract Purpose Currently, no clear guidance exists for ISO and EN standards of calculating, verifying, and reporting the climate impacts of plants, mulches, and soils used in landscape design and construction. In order to optimise the potential of ecosystem services in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in the built environment, we unequivocally propose their inclusion when assessing sustainability. Methods We analysed the life cycle phases of plants, soils, and mulches from the viewpoint of compiling standard-based Environmental Product Declarations. In comparison to other construction products, the differences of both mass and carbon flows were identified in these products. Results Living and organic products of green infrastructure require an LCA approach of their own. Most importantly, if conventional life cycle guidance for Environmental Product Declarations were to be followed, over time, the asymmetric mass and carbon flows would lead to skewed conclusions. Moreover, the ability of plants to reproduce raises additional questions for allocating environmental impacts. Conclusions We present a set of recommendations that are required for compiling Environmental Product Declarations for the studied products of green infrastructure. In order to enable the quantification of the climate change mitigation potential of these products, it is essential that work for further development of LCA guidance be mandated.

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Time‐Dynamic Climate Impacts of a Eucalyptus Pulp Product: Life Cycle Assessment including Biogenic Carbon and Substitution Effects

GCB Bioenergy ◽

10.1111/gcbb.12894 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Maximilian Schulte ◽

Torun Hammar ◽

Johan Stendahl ◽

Mikaela Seleborg ◽

Per‐Anders Hansson

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Product Life Cycle ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Substitution Effects ◽

Product Life ◽

Time Dynamic ◽

Eucalyptus Pulp ◽

Biogenic Carbon

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Rock ‘n’ use of CO2: carbon footprint of carbon capture and utilization by mineralization

Sustainable Energy & Fuels ◽

10.1039/d0se00190b ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (9) ◽

pp. 4482-4496 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Hesam Ostovari ◽

André Sternberg ◽

André Bardow

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Carbon Capture ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Entire Life ◽

Entire Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Capture And Utilization ◽

Permanent Storage ◽

N Use

Our LCA-based assessment showed that all considered CCU technologies for mineralization can reduce climate impacts over the entire life cycle due to the permanent storage of CO2 and the credit for substituting conventional products.

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The applicability of different energy performance calculation methods for building life cycle environmental optimization

International Review of Applied Sciences and Engineering ◽

10.1556/1848.2018.9.2.6 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 115-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

B. Kiss ◽

ZS. Szalay

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Energy Use ◽

Energy Performance ◽

Computational Time ◽

Calculation Methods ◽

Apartment House ◽

Building Stock ◽

Operational Energy ◽

Time Accuracy ◽

Building Life Cycle

Building life cycle assessment is getting more and more attention within the topic of environmental impact caused by the built environment. Although more and more research focus on the embodied impact of buildings, the investigation of the operational energy use still needs attention. The majority of the building stock still does not comply with the nearly zero energy requirements. Also, in case of retrofitting, when most of the embodied impact is already spent on the existing structures (and so immutable), the importance of the operational energy rises. There are several methods to calculate the energy performance of buildings covering the range from simplified seasonal methods to detailed hourly energy simulations. Not only the accuracy of the calculations, but the computational time can be significantly different within the methods. The latter is especially important in case of optimization, when there is limited time to perform one calculation. Our research shows that the use of different calculation techniques can lead to different optima for environmental impacts in case of retrofitting. In this paper we compare these calculation methods with focus on computational time, accuracy and applicability to environmental optimization of buildings. We present the results in a case study of the retrofitting of a middle-sized apartment house in Hungary.

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Sensitivity Analysis in the Life-Cycle Assessment of Electric vs. Combustion Engine Cars under Approximate Real-World Conditions

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12031241 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 1241 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Eckard Helmers ◽

Johannes Dietz ◽

Martin Weiss

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Real World ◽

Emission Inventory ◽

Combustion Engine ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Impact Categories ◽

Passenger Cars ◽

Electric Cars ◽

On The Road

This study compares the environmental impacts of petrol, diesel, natural gas, and electric vehicles using a process-based attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) and the ReCiPe characterization method that captures 18 impact categories and the single score endpoints. Unlike common practice, we derive the cradle-to-grave inventories from an originally combustion engine VW Caddy that was disassembled and electrified in our laboratory, and its energy consumption was measured on the road. Ecoivent 2.2 and 3.0 emission inventories were contrasted exhibiting basically insignificant impact deviations. Ecoinvent 3.0 emission inventory for the diesel car was additionally updated with recent real-world close emission values and revealed strong increases over four midpoint impact categories, when matched with the standard Ecoinvent 3.0 emission inventory. Producing batteries with photovoltaic electricity instead of Chinese coal-based electricity decreases climate impacts of battery production by 69%. Break-even mileages for the electric VW Caddy to pass the combustion engine models under various conditions in terms of climate change impact ranged from 17,000 to 310,000 km. Break-even mileages, when contrasting the VW Caddy and a mini car (SMART), which was as well electrified, did not show systematic differences. Also, CO2-eq emissions in terms of passenger kilometers travelled (54–158 g CO2-eq/PKT) are fairly similar based on 1 person travelling in the mini car and 1.57 persons in the mid-sized car (VW Caddy). Additionally, under optimized conditions (battery production and use phase utilizing renewable electricity), the two electric cars can compete well in terms of CO2-eq emissions per passenger kilometer with other traffic modes (diesel bus, coach, trains) over lifetime. Only electric buses were found to have lower life cycle carbon emissions (27–52 g CO2-eq/PKT) than the two electric passenger cars.

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Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of a Structural Battery

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su11205679 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (20) ◽

pp. 5679 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zackrisson ◽

Jönsson ◽

Johannisson ◽

Fransson ◽

Posner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Electric Vehicle ◽

Mechanical Load ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

The Body ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Environmental Implications ◽

Main Challenge ◽

Structural Battery

With increasing interest in reducing fossil fuel emissions, more and more development is focused on electric mobility. For electric vehicles, the main challenge is the mass of the batteries, which significantly increase the mass of the vehicles and limits their range. One possible concept to solve this is incorporating structural batteries; a structural material that both stores electrical energy and carries mechanical load. The concept envisions constructing the body of an electric vehicle with this material and thus reducing the need for further energy storage. This research is investigating a future structural battery that is incorporated in the roof of an electric vehicle. The structural battery is replacing the original steel roof of the vehicle, and part of the original traction battery. The environmental implications of this structural battery roof are investigated with a life cycle assessment, which shows that a structural battery roof can avoid climate impacts in substantive quantities. The main emissions for the structural battery stem from its production and efforts should be focused there to further improve the environmental benefits of the structural battery. Toxicity is investigated with a novel chemical risk assessment from a life cycle perspective, which shows that two chemicals should be targeted for substitution.

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Carbon and water footprint of coffee consumed in Finland—life cycle assessment

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment ◽

10.1007/s11367-020-01799-5 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 (10) ◽

pp. 1976-1990

Author(s):

Kirsi Usva ◽

Taija Sinkko ◽

Frans Silvenius ◽

Inkeri Riipi ◽

Hannele Heusala

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Footprint ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Management Practices ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Ghg Emissions ◽

Climate Impacts ◽

Primary Data ◽

Coffee Cultivation ◽

Irrigation Optimization

Abstract Purpose Coffee is one of the most widely grown cash crops globally, but there are few scientific articles on its carbon footprint and water scarcity impacts. The aim of this study was to assess the carbon footprint and water scarcity impacts throughout the life cycle of the coffee chain (cradle-to-grave) and to identify the most important sources of the impacts (hotspots). Methods The system included all the key stages of the supply chain from land use change and coffee cultivation to roasting and household consumption. Primary data was collected from eight coffee cultivation farms in Brazil, Nicaragua, Colombia and Honduras and coffee roastery and packaging manufacturers in Finland. The AWARE method was applied in a water scarcity impact assessment. Results and discussion The carbon footprint varied from 0.27 to 0.70 kg CO2 eq/l coffee. The share of the coffee cultivation stage varied from 32 to 78% and the consumption stage from 19 to 49%. The use of fertilizers was the most important process contributing to the carbon footprint. Furthermore, deforestation-related emissions notably increased the carbon footprint of coffee from Nicaragua. Compared with the previous literature, our results indicate a relatively larger share of climate impacts in the cultivation stage and less during consumption. The water scarcity impact was relatively low for non-irrigated systems in Central America, 0.02 m3 eq/l coffee. On Brazilian farms, irrigation is a major contributor to the water scarcity impact, varying from 0.15 to 0.27 m3 eq/l coffee. Conclusions Improving the management practices in cultivation and fertilization is key for lower GHG emissions. Irrigation optimization is the most important mitigation strategy to reduce water scarcity impact. However, actions to reduce these two impacts should be executed side by side to avoid shifting burdens between the two.

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Organizational Life Cycle Assessment of a Service Providing SME for Renewable Energy Projects (PV and Wind) in the United Kingdom

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12114475 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (11) ◽

pp. 4475 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hendrik Marx ◽

Silvia Forin ◽

Matthias Finkbeiner

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

United Kingdom ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Organizational Life ◽

Organizational Life Cycle ◽

System Boundaries ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Methodological Challenges ◽

Internal Operations ◽

Organizational Life Cycle Assessment

Companies are increasingly interested in reducing their environmental footprint. Thereby, they face the challenge of identifying and mitigating their specific impacts and hotspots and simultaneously avoid burden shifting. The organizational life cycle assessment (OLCA) method was conceived and successfully tested for the assessment if companies’ potential environmental impacts. Still, the method poses methodological challenges for the application to service providing organizations. In this paper, OLCA was applied to a service providing SME in the photovoltaic and wind energy business in the United Kingdom. The environmental impact profile of the reporting organization is dominated by transport activities, including the technicians’ trips to the solar farms, employee commuting, and business travels. According to the main goals of the study (gaining insights in internal operations and improving organizational procedures), recommendations to reduce travel-related impacts are provided. For existing methodological challenges like selecting the reporting flow and setting the system boundaries, innovative solutions like defining multiple reporting flows for different activities and to partly include service receiving objects in system boundaries are discussed with the aim to facilitate future applications.

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