scholarly journals Life Cycle Analysis of a Geothermal Power Plant: Comparison of the Environmental Performance with Other Renewable Energy Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Basosi ◽  
Roberto Bonciani ◽  
Dario Frosali ◽  
Giampaolo Manfrida ◽  
Maria Laura Parisi ◽  
...  

A life cycle analysis was performed for the assessment of the environmental performances of three existing Italian power plants of comparable nominal power operating with different sources of renewable energy: Geothermal, solar, and wind. Primary data were used for building the life cycle inventories. The results are characterized by employing a wide portfolio of environmental indicators employing the ReCiPe 2016 and the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ methods; normalization and weighting are also applied using the ReCiPe 2016 method at the endpoint level. The midpoint results demonstrate a good eco-profile of the geothermal power plant compared to other renewable energy systems and a definite step forward over the performance of the national energy mix. The Eco-Point single score calculation showed that wind energy is the best technology with a value of 0.0012 Eco-points/kWh, a result in line with previously documented life cycle analysis studies. Nevertheless, the geothermal power plant achieved a value of 0.0177 Eco-points/kWh which is close to that calculated for the photovoltaic plant (0.0087 Eco-points/kWh) and much lower than the national energy mix one (0.1240 Eco-points/kWh). Also, a scenario analysis allowed for a critical discussion about potential improvements to the environmental performance of the geothermal power plant.

Author(s):  
Riccardo Basosi ◽  
Roberto Bonciani ◽  
Dario Frosali ◽  
Giampaolo Manfrida ◽  
Maria Laura Parisi ◽  
...  

A Life Cycle Analysis was performed considering three existing power plants of comparable size operating with different sources of renewable energy: geothermal, solar and wind. Primary data were used for building the life cycle inventories. The geothermal power plant includes emissions treatment for removal of hydrogen sulfide and mercury. The scenario about the substitution of natural emissions from geothermal energy, with specific reference to the greenhouse effect, is also investigated performing a sensitivity analysis. The results are characterized employing a wide portfolio of environmental indicators employing the Recipe 2016 and the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ methods; normalization and weighting are also applied using the Recipe 2016 method at endpoint level. The results demonstrate a good eco-profile of geothermal power plant with respect to other renewable energy systems and allow for a critical analysis to support potential improvements of the environmental performances.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1935
Author(s):  
Vitantonio Colucci ◽  
Giampaolo Manfrida ◽  
Barbara Mendecka ◽  
Lorenzo Talluri ◽  
Claudio Zuffi

This study deals with the life cycle assessment (LCA) and an exergo-environmental analysis (EEvA) of the geothermal Power Plant of Hellisheiði (Iceland), a combined heat and power double flash plant, with an installed power of 303.3 MW for electricity and 133 MW for hot water. LCA approach is used to evaluate and analyse the environmental performance at the power plant global level. A more in-depth study is developed, at the power plant components level, through EEvA. The analysis employs existing published data with a realignment of the inventory to the latest data resource and compares the life cycle impacts of three methods (ILCD 2011 Midpoint, ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint-Endpoint, and CML-IA Baseline) for two different scenarios. In scenario 1, any emission abatement system is considered. In scenario 2, re-injection of CO2 and H2S is accounted for. The analysis identifies some major hot spots for the environmental power plant impacts, like acidification, particulate matter formation, ecosystem, and human toxicity, mainly caused by some specific sources. Finally, an exergo-environmental analysis allows indicating the wells as significant contributors of the environmental impact rate associated with the construction, Operation & Maintenance, and end of life stages and the HP condenser as the component with the highest environmental cost rate.


Author(s):  
Rina Annisa ◽  
Benno Rahardyan

Geothermal potential in Indonesia estimate can produced renewable energy 29 GW, and until 2016 it still used 5% or about 1643 MW in. From that result, about 227 MW produced by Wayang Windu geothermal power plant. The Input were raw material, energy and water. These input produced electricity as main product, by product, and also other output that related to environment i.e. emission, solid waste and waste water. All environmental impacts should be controlled to comply with environmental standard, and even go beyond compliance and perform continual improvement.  This research will use Life Cycle Assessment method based on ISO 14040 and use cradle to gate concept with boundary from liquid steam production until electricity produced, and Megawatt Hours as the functional unit. Life Cycle Inventory has been done with direct input and output in the boundary and resulted that subsystem of Non Condensable Gas and condensate production have the largest environmental impact. LCI also show that every MWh electricity produced, it needed 6.87 Ton dry steam or 8.16 Ton liquid steam. Global Warming Potential (GWP) value is 0.155 Ton CO2eq./MWh, Acidification Potential (AP) 1.69 kg SO2eq./MWh, Eutrophication Potential (EP) 5.36 gPO4 eq./MWh and land use impacts 0.000024 PDF/m2. Life Cycle Impact Assessment resulted that AP contribute 78% of environmental impact and 98% resulted from H2S Non Condensable Gas. Comparison results with another dry steam geothermal power plant show that impact potential result of the company in good position and there’s a strong relation between gross production, GWP and AP value.Keywords: Life cycle assessment; Geothermal; Continual Improvement; Global Warming Potential; Acidification Potential


Energy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 476-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elvira Buonocore ◽  
Laura Vanoli ◽  
Alberto Carotenuto ◽  
Sergio Ulgiati

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moatassem Abdallah ◽  
Khaled El-Rayes ◽  
Liang Liu

Buildings have significant impacts on the environment and economy as they were reported by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 2009 to account for 40% of the global energy consumption. Building owners are increasingly seeking to integrate sustainability and green measures in their buildings to minimize energy and water consumption as well as life-cycle cost. Due to the large number of feasiblecombinations of sustainability measures, decision makers are often faced with a challenging task that requires them to identify an optimal set of upgrade measures to minimize the building life-cycle cost. This paper presents a model for optimizing the selection of building upgrade measures to minimize the life-cycle cost of existing buildings while complying with owner-specified requirements for building operational performance and budget constraints. The optimization model accounts for initial upgrade cost, operational cost and saving, escalation in utility costs, maintenance cost, replacement cost, and salvage value of building fixtures and equipment, and renewable energy systems. A case study of a rest area building in the state of Illinois in the United States was analyzed to illustrate the unique capabilities of the developed optimization model. The main findings of this analysis illustrate the capabilities of the model in identifying optimal building upgrade measures to achieve the highest savings of building life-cycle cost within a user-specified upgrade budget; and generating practical and detailed recommendations on replacing building fixtures and equipment and installing renewable energy systems.


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