scholarly journals Pricing indirect emissions accelerates low—carbon transition of US light vehicle sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Wolfram ◽  
Stephanie Weber ◽  
Kenneth Gillingham ◽  
Edgar G. Hertwich
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Energy Modeling ◽  
Electricity Supply ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Light Vehicle ◽  
Reduce Emissions ◽  
Electric Vehicle Adoption ◽  
Stationary Sources

AbstractLarge–scale electric vehicle adoption can greatly reduce emissions from vehicle tailpipes. However, analysts have cautioned that it can come with increased indirect emissions from electricity and battery production that are not commonly regulated by transport policies. We combine integrated energy modeling and life cycle assessment to compare optimal policy scenarios that price emissions at the tailpipe only, versus both tailpipe and indirect emissions. Surprisingly, scenarios that also price indirect emissions exhibit higher, rather than reduced, sales of electric vehicles, while yielding lower cumulative tailpipe and indirect emissions. Expected technological change ensures that emissions from electricity and battery production are more than offset by reduced emissions of gasoline production. Given continued decarbonization of electricity supply, results show that a large–scale adoption of electric vehicles is able to reduce CO2 emissions through more channels than previously expected. Further, carbon pricing of stationary sources will also favor electric vehicles.

Pricing of indirect emissions accelerates low-carbon transition of US light vehicle sector

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Wolfram ◽  
Stephanie Weber ◽  
Kenneth Gillingham ◽  
Edgar Hertwich
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Energy Modeling ◽  
Electricity Supply ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Light Vehicle ◽  
Reduce Emissions ◽  
Electric Vehicle Adoption ◽  
Stationary Sources

Abstract Large-scale electric vehicle adoption can greatly reduce emissions from vehicle tailpipes. However, analysts have cautioned that it can come with increased indirect emissions from electricity and battery production that are not commonly regulated by transport policies. We combine integrated energy modeling and life cycle assessment to compare optimal policy scenarios that price emissions at the tailpipe only, versus both tailpipe and indirect emissions. Surprisingly, scenarios that also price indirect emissions exhibit higher, rather than reduced, sales of electric vehicles, while yielding lower cumulative tailpipe and indirect emissions. Expected technological change ensures that emissions from electricity and battery production are more than offset by reduced emissions of gasoline production. Given continued decarbonization of electricity supply, results show that a large-scale adoption of electric vehicles is able to reduce CO2 emissions through more channels than previously expected. Further, carbon pricing of stationary sources will also favor electric vehicles.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage with Low-Carbon Energy Sources

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Terlouw ◽  
Karin Treyer ◽  
christian bauer ◽  
Marco Mazzotti
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Carbon Capture And Storage ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Solid Sorbent ◽  
Low Carbon Energy ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Limited Scope

Prospective energy scenarios usually rely on Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. CDR technologies aim at removing CO2 from the atmosphere in a permanent way. However, the implementation of CDR technologies typically comes along with unintended environmental side-effects such as land transformation or water consumption. These need to be quantified before large-scale implementation of any CDR option by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS) is considered to be among the CDR technologies closest to large-scale implementation, since first pilot and demonstration units have been installed and interactions with the environment are less complex than for biomass related CDR options. However, only very few LCA studies - with limited scope - have been conducted so far to determine the overall life-cycle environmental performance of DACCS. We provide a comprehensive LCA of different low temperature DACCS configurations - pertaining to solid sorbent-based technology - including a global and prospective analysis.

scholarly journals How (Carbon) Negative Is Direct Air Capture? Life Cycle Assessment of an Industrial Temperature-Vacuum Swing Adsorption Process

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Deutz ◽  
André Bardow
Keyword(s):  
Energy Source ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Direct Air Capture ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Negative Emissions ◽  
Air Capture

Current climate targets require negative emissions. Direct air capture (DAC) is a promising negative emission technology, but energy and materials demands lead to trade-offs with indirect emissions and other environmental impacts. Here, we show by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that the first commercial DAC plants in Hinwil and Hellisheiði can achieve negative emissions already today with carbon capture efficiencies of 85.4 % and 93.1 %. Climate benefits of DAC, however, depend strongly on the energy source. When using low-carbon energy, as in Hellisheiði, adsorbent choice and plant construction become important with up to 45 and 15 gCO<sub>2e</sub> per kg CO<sub>2</sub> captured, respectively. Large-scale deployment of DAC for<br>1 % of the global annual CO<sub>2</sub> emissions would not be limited by material and energy availability. Other environmental impacts would increase by less than 0.057 %. Energy source and efficiency are essential for DAC to enable both negative emissions and low-carbon fuels.<br>

scholarly journals Electrofuels

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (09) ◽  
pp. 30-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Todd Davidson ◽  
Kazunori Nagasawa ◽  
Michael E. Webber
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Energy Storage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Tax Credits ◽  
Electricity Supply ◽  
Renewable Fuels ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Synthetic Fuels

This article explains the need for producing synthetic fuels in support of making a clean and reliable energy system. This production process is expected to solve several problems at once: stabilizing intermittent electricity supply while creating renewable fuels for use in power generation, transportation, and industry. The large-scale introduction of wind and solar power now makes the production of renewable fuels at least technically feasible. Policymakers should start to give electrofuels the attention they deserve. There are many tax credits or subsidies for renewable or low-carbon sources of electricity such as wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear, but electrofuels are not yet prominent in the discussion. In addition, while states like California have mandates for energy storage, stakeholders often ignore the option of electrofuels despite the potential for them to be a more useful and affordable competitor to batteries. The article concludes that electrofuels may provide a unique solution to a number of challenges, and it is time our markets and policies recognize that possibility.

A hybrid life cycle assessment of the large-scale application of electric vehicles

Energy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 216 ◽  
pp. 119314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siqin Xiong ◽  
Yunshi Wang ◽  
Bo Bai ◽  
Xiaoming Ma
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Hybrid Life Cycle Assessment

scholarly journals Integrated life-cycle assessment of electricity-supply scenarios confirms global environmental benefit of low-carbon technologies

2014 ◽  
Vol 112 (20) ◽  
pp. 6277-6282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar G. Hertwich ◽  
Thomas Gibon ◽  
Evert A. Bouman ◽  
Anders Arvesen ◽  
Sangwon Suh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Electricity Supply ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies ◽  
Change Mitigation

Decarbonization of electricity generation can support climate-change mitigation and presents an opportunity to address pollution resulting from fossil-fuel combustion. Generally, renewable technologies require higher initial investments in infrastructure than fossil-based power systems. To assess the tradeoffs of increased up-front emissions and reduced operational emissions, we present, to our knowledge, the first global, integrated life-cycle assessment (LCA) of long-term, wide-scale implementation of electricity generation from renewable sources (i.e., photovoltaic and solar thermal, wind, and hydropower) and of carbon dioxide capture and storage for fossil power generation. We compare emissions causing particulate matter exposure, freshwater ecotoxicity, freshwater eutrophication, and climate change for the climate-change-mitigation (BLUE Map) and business-as-usual (Baseline) scenarios of the International Energy Agency up to 2050. We use a vintage stock model to conduct an LCA of newly installed capacity year-by-year for each region, thus accounting for changes in the energy mix used to manufacture future power plants. Under the Baseline scenario, emissions of air and water pollutants more than double whereas the low-carbon technologies introduced in the BLUE Map scenario allow a doubling of electricity supply while stabilizing or even reducing pollution. Material requirements per unit generation for low-carbon technologies can be higher than for conventional fossil generation: 11–40 times more copper for photovoltaic systems and 6–14 times more iron for wind power plants. However, only two years of current global copper and one year of iron production will suffice to build a low-carbon energy system capable of supplying the world's electricity needs in 2050.

scholarly journals Electric Vehicle and Renewable Energy Sources: Motor Fusion in the Energy Transition from a Multi-Indicator Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3430
Author(s):  
Isabel C. Gil-García ◽  
Mª Socorro García-Cascales ◽  
Habib Dagher ◽  
Angel Molina-García
Keyword(s):  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Renewable Integration ◽  
Conventional Vehicle ◽  
Reduce Emissions

Energy transition requires actions from different sectors and levels, mainly focused on achieving a low-carbon and high-renewable integration society. Among the different sectors, the transport sector is responsible for more than 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly emitted in cities. Therefore, initiatives and analysis focused on electric vehicles integration powered by renewables is currently a desirable solution to mitigate climate change and promote energy transition. Under this framework, this paper proposes a multi-indicator analysis for the estimation of CO2 emissions combining renewable integration targets, reduction emission targets and realistic renewable resource potentials. Four scenarios are identified and analyzed: (i) current situation with conventional vehicles, (ii) replacement of such conventional by electric vehicles without renewable integration, (iii) and (iv) integration of renewables to fulfill emission reduction targets for 2030 and 2050 respectively. The analysis is evaluated in the state of Maine (United States). From the results, a minimum renewable penetration of 39% and 82%, respectively, is needed to fulfill the emission reduction targets for 2030 and 2050 by considering 100% conventional vehicle replacement. Different combinations of available renewable resources can reduce emissions by more than 35%.

scholarly journals How (Carbon) Negative Is Direct Air Capture? Life Cycle Assessment of an Industrial Temperature-Vacuum Swing Adsorption Process

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Deutz ◽  
André Bardow
Keyword(s):  
Energy Source ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Direct Air Capture ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Negative Emissions ◽  
Air Capture

Current climate targets require negative emissions. Direct air capture (DAC) is a promising negative emission technology, but energy and materials demands lead to trade-offs with indirect emissions and other environmental impacts. Here, we show by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) that the first commercial DAC plants in Hinwil and Hellisheiði can achieve negative emissions already today with carbon capture efficiencies of 85.4 % and 93.1 %. Climate benefits of DAC, however, depend strongly on the energy source. When using low-carbon energy, as in Hellisheiði, adsorbent choice and plant construction become important with up to 45 and 15 gCO<sub>2e</sub> per kg CO<sub>2</sub> captured, respectively. Large-scale deployment of DAC for<br>1 % of the global annual CO<sub>2</sub> emissions would not be limited by material and energy availability. Other environmental impacts would increase by less than 0.057 %. Energy source and efficiency are essential for DAC to enable both negative emissions and low-carbon fuels.<br>

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage with Low-Carbon Energy Sources

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Terlouw ◽  
Karin Treyer ◽  
christian bauer ◽  
Marco Mazzotti
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Carbon Capture ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Carbon Capture And Storage ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Solid Sorbent ◽  
Low Carbon Energy ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Limited Scope

Prospective energy scenarios usually rely on carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies to achieve the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. CDR technologies aim at removing CO2 from the atmosphere in a permanent way. However, the implementation of CDR technologies typically comes along with unintended environmental side-effects such as land transformation or water consumption. These need to be quantified before large-scale implementation of any CDR option by means of life cycle assessment (LCA). Direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) is considered to be among the CDR technologies closest to large-scale implementation, since first pilot and demonstration units have been installed and interactions with the environment are less complex than for biomass related CDR options. However, only very few LCA studies - with limited scope - have been conducted so far to determine the overall life-cycle environmental performance of DACCS. We provide a comprehensive LCA of different low temperature DACCS configurations - pertaining to solid sorbent-based technology - including a global and prospective analysis.

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