Life cycle water consumption of low-carbon transportation fuels IEEE ISSST (May 2009)

Abstract The transportation sector accounts for over 20 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Colorado which without intervention will grow to over 30 million metric tons (MMT) of GHG emissions per year. This study seeks to develop a specific characterization of the Colorado fuel and transportation system using a customized life cycle assessment (LCA) model. The model (CO-GT) was developed as an analytical tool to define Colorado’s 2020 baseline life cycle GHG emissions for the transportation sector, and to examine Colorado-specific pathways for GHG reductions through fuel types and volumes changes that might be associated with a state clean fuel standard (CFS). By developing a life cycle assessment of transportation fuels that is specific to the state of Colorado’s geography, fleet makeup, policies, energy sector and more, these tools can evaluate various proposals for the transition towards a more sustainable state transportation system. The results of this study include a quantification of the Colorado-specific roles of clean fuels, electricity, extant policies, and fleet transition in projections of the state’s 2030 transportation sector GHG emissions. Relative to a 2020 baseline, electrification of the vehicle fleet is found to reduce state-wide lifecycle GHG emissions by 7.7 MMT CO2e by 2030, and a model CFS policy able to achieve similar reductions in the carbon intensity of clean fuels as was achieved by California in the first 10 years of its CFS policies is found to only reduce state-wide lifecycle GHG emissions by 0.2 MMT CO2e by 2030. These results illustrate the insensitivity of Colorado’s transportation fleet GHG emissions reductions to the presence of CFS policies, as proposed to date.

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Applying life-cycle assessment to low carbon fuel standards—How allocation choices influence carbon intensity for renewable transportation fuels

Energy Policy ◽

10.1016/j.enpol.2010.05.008 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 38 (9) ◽

pp. 5229-5241 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Andrew S. Kaufman ◽

Paul J. Meier ◽

Julie C. Sinistore ◽

Douglas J. Reinemann

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Intensity ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Transportation Fuels

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Water and Greenhouse Gas Tradeoffs Associated With a Transition to a Low Carbon Transportation System

Volume 1: Advances in Aerospace Technology; Energy Water Nexus; Globalization of Engineering; Posters ◽

10.1115/imece2011-63991 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rebecca Dodder ◽

Tyler Felgenhauer ◽

William Yelverton ◽

Carey King

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Electric Power ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Transportation Fuels ◽

Interregional Transfers ◽

Water Demands ◽

Light Duty ◽

Light Duty Vehicle ◽

Embodied Water

Transportation fuels are heavily dominated by the use of petroleum, but concerns over oil depletion (e.g., peak oil), energy security, and greenhouse gas emissions from petroleum combustion are driving the search for alternatives. As we look to shift away from petroleum-based transportation fuels, most options consume and withdraw more water during their life cycle. Thus, shifting to alternative fuel and energy supplies for transportation will likely increase water use for the transportation sector. Previous work suggests that water consumption for transportation could reach 10% of total U.S. water consumption when meeting the Federal Renewable Fuels Standard mandate at modest irrigation levels for feedstock crops (corn, cellulosic grasses) in combination with other alternative fuels and vehicle technologies (electric vehicles, natural gas vehicles, etc.), but more refined analysis is needed. It is important to understand when and where these new water demands for transportation are anticipated to occur. This paper presents results from simulations of the U.S. 9-region (EPAUS9r) MARKAL (MARKet ALlocation) integrated energy systems model for mapping the changes in water withdrawal and consumption during a transition to a low carbon-emitting U.S. transportation fleet. The advantage of using a bottom-up, multi-sector model like MARKAL is the ability to look at consistent scenarios for the full energy system, and endogenously capture interactions between different sectors (e.g. electric power production, biorefineries, and the LDV fleet). MARKAL can simulate a baseline scenario driven by assumptions for biomass feedstock and fossil resource costs and availability, as well as the costs of converting those resources to liquid fuels and electricity. We investigate alternative scenarios both with and without carbon constraints, while varying the pace of vehicle electrification. We compare these scenarios to assess regional differences in water needs as well as aggregate water demand for transportation energy, and how those trade off against greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Our results indicate that the regional water demands and interregional transfers of embodied water could be significant as the light-duty vehicle fleet moves away from petroleum-based fuels, with exports of embodied water on the order of hundreds of billion gallons of water per year for ethanol coming from the Midwest. Interregional transfers of water embodied in electricity may also reach tens of billion gallons of water per year. However, these water requirements will vary substantially based on the light-duty vehicle mix, carbon policy, electric power generation mix, biofuel production levels, and feedstock characteristics.

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Development of a Life Cycle Inventory of Water Consumption Associated with the Production of Transportation Fuels

10.2172/1224980 ◽

2015 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

David J. Lampert ◽

Hao Cai ◽

Zhichao Wang ◽

Jennifer Keisman ◽

May Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Life Cycle Inventory ◽

Transportation Fuels

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Excellent environmental performance of beet sugar production in the Netherlands

Sugar Industry ◽

10.36961/si24156 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 161-165

Author(s):

Bertram de Crom ◽

Jasper Scholten ◽

Janjoris van Diepen

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Land Use ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impact ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Environmental Performance ◽

Cane Sugar ◽

Sugar Production ◽

Beet Sugar ◽

Glucose Syrup

To get more insight in the environmental performance of the Suiker Unie beet sugar, Blonk Consultants performed a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study on beet sugar, cane sugar and glucose syrup. The system boundaries of the sugar life cycle are set from cradle to regional storage at the Dutch market. For this study 8 different scenarios were evaluated. The first scenario is the actual sugar production at Suiker Unie. Scenario 2 until 7 are different cane sugar scenarios (different countries of origin, surplus electricity production and pre-harvest burning of leaves are considered). Scenario 8 concerns the glucose syrup scenario. An important factor in the environmental impact of 1kg of sugar is the sugar yield per ha. Total sugar yield per ha differs from 9t/ha sugar for sugarcane to 15t/ha sugar for sugar beet (in 2017). Main conclusion is that the production of beet sugar at Suiker Unie has in general a lower impact on climate change, fine particulate matter, land use and water consumption, compared to cane sugar production (in Brazil and India) and glucose syrup. The impact of cane sugar production on climate change and water consumption is highly dependent on the country of origin, especially when land use change is taken into account. The environmental impact of sugar production is highly dependent on the co-production of bioenergy, both for beet and cane sugar.

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Regulating Hidden Attributes: Life-Cycle Emission Ratings in Low-Carbon Fuel Standards

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.2039550 ◽

2012 ◽

Author(s):

Derek Lemoine

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Low Carbon

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Carbon Emission Estimation of Assembled Composite Concrete Beams during Construction

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14071810 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (7) ◽

pp. 1810

Author(s):

Kaitong Xu ◽

Haibo Kang ◽

Wei Wang ◽

Ping Jiang ◽

Na Li

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Emissions ◽

Emission Reduction ◽

Carbon Emission ◽

Composite Beams ◽

Total Carbon ◽

Construction Process ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Carbon Emission Reduction ◽

The Government

At present, the issue of carbon emissions from buildings has become a hot topic, and carbon emission reduction is also becoming a political and economic contest for countries. As a result, the government and researchers have gradually begun to attach great importance to the industrialization of low-carbon and energy-saving buildings. The rise of prefabricated buildings has promoted a major transformation of the construction methods in the construction industry, which is conducive to reducing the consumption of resources and energy, and of great significance in promoting the low-carbon emission reduction of industrial buildings. This article mainly studies the calculation model for carbon emissions of the three-stage life cycle of component production, logistics transportation, and on-site installation in the whole construction process of composite beams for prefabricated buildings. The construction of CG-2 composite beams in Fujian province, China, was taken as the example. Based on the life cycle assessment method, carbon emissions from the actual construction process of composite beams were evaluated, and that generated by the composite beam components during the transportation stage by using diesel, gasoline, and electric energy consumption methods were compared in detail. The results show that (1) the carbon emissions generated by composite beams during the production stage were relatively high, accounting for 80.8% of the total carbon emissions, while during the transport stage and installation stage, they only accounted for 7.6% and 11.6%, respectively; and (2) during the transportation stage with three different energy-consuming trucks, the carbon emissions from diesel fuel trucks were higher, reaching 186.05 kg, followed by gasoline trucks, which generated about 115.68 kg; electric trucks produced the lowest, only 12.24 kg.

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Water Footprint and Life Cycle Assessment: The Complementary Strengths of Analyzing Global Freshwater Appropriation and Resulting Local Impacts

Water ◽

10.3390/w13060803 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (6) ◽

pp. 803

Author(s):

Winnie Gerbens-Leenes ◽

Markus Berger ◽

John Anthony Allan

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Water Footprint ◽

Local Impacts ◽

Global Water

Considering that 4 billion people are living in water-stressed regions and that global water consumption is predicted to increase continuously [...]

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Life Cycle Blue and Grey Water in the Supply Chain of China’s Apparel Manufacturing

Processes ◽

10.3390/pr9071212 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (7) ◽

pp. 1212

Author(s):

Ao Liu ◽

Aixi Han ◽

Li Chai

Keyword(s):

Water Pollution ◽

Supply Chain ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Water Consumption ◽

Agricultural Sector ◽

Oxygen Demand ◽

High Water ◽

Grey Water ◽

Apparel Manufacturing ◽

Economic Output

Apparel manufacturing involves high water consumption and heavy water pollution in its supply chain, e.g., planting cotton, producing chemical fibers, and dyeing. This study employs a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model to (1) assess the life cycle of blue and grey water (chemical oxygen demand (COD) specific) of China’s apparel manufacturing; (2) reveal the hidden linkage among sectors and regions in the whole supply chain; and (3) identify the key regions and upstream sectors with the most water consumption and heaviest water pollution. We found that the agricultural sector (i.e., planting fiber crops) is responsible for primary water consumption and water pollution. In addition, different provinces assume different production roles. Guangdong is a major output province in apparel manufacturing. However, its economic output is contributed to by other regions, such as blue water from Xinjiang and Jiangsu and grey water from Hebei and Shandong. Our research reveals the significance of taking an inter-regional perspective on water resource issues throughout the supply chain in apparel manufacturing. The sustainable development of China’s apparel manufacturing relies on improving water-use efficiency and reasonable industrial layout. The results are of significance and informative for policymakers to build a water-sustainable apparel industry.

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Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Emissions of Agricultural Residue Feedstock for Bioenergy

Applied Sciences ◽

10.3390/app11052009 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (5) ◽

pp. 2009

Author(s):

Valerii Havrysh ◽

Antonina Kalinichenko ◽

Anna Brzozowska ◽

Jan Stebila

Keyword(s):

Carbon Dioxide ◽

Power Generation ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽

Crop Production ◽

Agricultural Residues ◽

Environmental Indicators ◽

Low Carbon ◽

Low Carbon Economy ◽

Energy Inputs

The depletion of fossil fuels and climate change concerns are drivers for the development and expansion of bioenergy. Promoting biomass is vital to move civilization toward a low-carbon economy. To meet European Union targets, it is required to increase the use of agricultural residues (including straw) for power generation. Using agricultural residues without accounting for their energy consumed and carbon dioxide emissions distorts the energy and environmental balance, and their analysis is the purpose of this study. In this paper, a life cycle analysis method is applied. The allocation of carbon dioxide emissions and energy inputs in the crop production by allocating between a product (grain) and a byproduct (straw) is modeled. Selected crop yield and the residue-to-crop ratio impact on the above indicators are investigated. We reveal that straw formation can consume between 30% and 70% of the total energy inputs and, therefore, emits relative carbon dioxide emissions. For cereal crops, this energy can be up to 40% of the lower heating value of straw. Energy and environmental indicators of a straw return-to-field technology and straw power generation systems are examined.

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