scholarly journals The environmental life cycle assessment of different electricity options in Kuwait

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Abotalib ◽  
◽  
Jaya Jacob ◽  
Hamid Alhamadi ◽  
Dhary Alkandari ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Fuel Combustion ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Solar Pv ◽  
Electricity Grid ◽  
Energy Indicators

In Kuwait, electricity is generated from two primary sources, heavy fuel combustion and natural gas combustion. As Kuwait relies mainly on petroleum-based products for electricity generation, identifying and understanding the environmental and energy trade-off of such operations should be carefully investigated. The life cycle assessment (LCA) tool is applied to identify the potential environmental impacts and energy performance of electricity generation under three scenarios, by considering the material flow in various stages involved such as raw-material extraction, transportation, and operations. The three scenarios investigated represent current and futuristic electricity grid mixes. The analysis of four indicators consists of two environmental and two energy indicators per one kWh of the electricity generated. The environmental indicators examined are global warming potential (GWP) and water consumption (WC), whereas the energy indicators target cumulative energy demand (CED) and net energy ratio (NER). Results indicate that one kWh of electricity generated would have a GWP (0.63-0.77) kg CO2-eq, mainly from the fuel combustion process, WC (0.0013-0.0015) m3 of water, about 68% from cooling processes, CED (9.9-10.7) MJ, and NER (0.34-0.39). The variation in results depends on the scenario investigated. It can be observed from the analysis that introducing solar photovoltaic and wind to the electricity grid mix improves the environmental and energy performance of Scenarios 3, where 15% of the electricity generated from renewables (10% solar PV and 5% wind) corresponds to a further decrease in LCA results.

scholarly journals A life cycle assessment model for quantification of environmental footprints of a 3.6 kWp photovoltaic system in Bangladesh

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mustafizur Rahman ◽  
Chowdhury Sadid Alam ◽  
TM Abir Ahsan
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Photovoltaic System ◽  
Solar Pv ◽  
Pv System ◽  
Entire Life ◽  
Solar Pv System ◽  
Solar Photovoltaic System

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an extremely useful tool to assess the environmental impacts of a solar photovoltaic system throughout its entire life. This tool can help in making sustainable decisions. A solar PV system does not have any operational emissions as it is free from fossil fuel use during its operation. However, considerable amount of energy is used to manufacture and transport the components (e.g. PV panels, batteries, charge regulator, inverter, supporting structure, etc.) of the PV system. This study aims to perform a comprehensive and independent life cycle assessment of a 3.6 kWp solar photovoltaic system in Bangladesh. The primary energy consumption, resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (CH4, N2O, and CO2), and energy payback time (EPBT) were evaluated over the entire life cycle of the photovoltaic system. The batteries and the PV modules are the most GHG intensive components of the system. About 31.90% of the total energy is consumed to manufacture the poly-crystalline PV modules. The total life cycle energy use and resulting GHG emissions were found to be 76.27 MWhth and 0.17 kg-CO2eq/kWh, respectively. This study suggests that 5.34 years will be required to generate the equivalent amount of energy which is consumed over the entire life of the PV system considered. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to see the impact of various input parameters on the life cycle result. The other popular electricity generation systems such as gas generator, diesel generator, wind, and Bangladeshi grid were compared with the PV system. The result shows that electricity generation by solar PV system is much more environmentally friendly than the fossil fuel-based electricity generation. ©2019. CBIORE-IJRED. All rights reserved

scholarly journals A Life Cycle Assessment of Medium Density Houses in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sanjeev Ganda
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Medium Density ◽  
Design Decisions

<p>This study develops an analysis method that designers can use to undertake a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on multiple building designs to inform design decisions and trials this on Medium Density Housing (MDH).  Measuring the environmental impact of a building is a time and resource-intensive process requiring multiple analysis tools, numerous inputs and quality assurance steps. Together with a lack of knowledge from designers, this makes it an unattractive task. Therefore, a method was needed to remove these barriers so that an LCA could be integrated into a designer’s workflow to inform design decisions. To simulate issues designers would face in the early design stages when undertaking an LCA, an LCA was performed on three MDH houses using selected designers’ Building Information Modelling (BIM) models in a warm and cool climate (Auckland and Christchurch). The LCA impact of changes to the insulation levels above the New Zealand Building Code minimum was examined to test the utility of the process.  Unique in the literature, this study includes multiple LCA indices: material impacts, resultant operational energy use, change in materials, multiple environmental indicators, the rationale behind the selected buildings, quality assurance of the results, presentation of model inputs and all results in sufficient detail for the methodology to be tested and replicated.  The case study research methodology developed three MDH houses that were representative of a broad range of MDH houses currently for sale in New Zealand. The goal was to evaluate whether the research method can identify differences between buildings that might inform design choices.  In theory, a single BIM model eliminates the need to have three building models: the designer’s construction model; the LCA analysis model; and the energy performance model saving time and complexity for the designer. This methodology identified that it was not possible to have a single BIM model in Revit and use this for both an energy simulation and LCA using LCAQuick. Each house was recreated in OpenStudio for simulation in EnergyPlus to generate the energy performance of each house.  A database of inputs for the energy models was created, which was quality assured for use by designers. A visual assessment diagram was created to allow designers to interpret the output to help inform design decisions.  The case study analysis determined that the design of the houses had a more significant effect on reducing environmental impact compared to increasing insulation levels above the minimum required by the building code. Changes to the buildings’ insulation levels resulted in an average change in environmental impact across the seven environmental indicators ranging from -1 to 7% in Auckland and -2 to 2% in Christchurch, whereas differences in the design resulted in a change in environmental impact of 21 to 22% in Auckland and 22 to 23% in Christchurch.   The research has demonstrated that LCA can be integrated into a designer’s workflow. Designers can assess the environmental impact of multiple houses and construction changes in different climates and with multiple construction changes to each. However, the process requires further refinement. There is still a need to develop the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) modelling methods and their integration with the analytical tools.</p>

scholarly journals A Life Cycle Assessment of Medium Density Houses in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sanjeev Ganda
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Performance ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Medium Density ◽  
Design Decisions

<p>This study develops an analysis method that designers can use to undertake a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on multiple building designs to inform design decisions and trials this on Medium Density Housing (MDH).  Measuring the environmental impact of a building is a time and resource-intensive process requiring multiple analysis tools, numerous inputs and quality assurance steps. Together with a lack of knowledge from designers, this makes it an unattractive task. Therefore, a method was needed to remove these barriers so that an LCA could be integrated into a designer’s workflow to inform design decisions. To simulate issues designers would face in the early design stages when undertaking an LCA, an LCA was performed on three MDH houses using selected designers’ Building Information Modelling (BIM) models in a warm and cool climate (Auckland and Christchurch). The LCA impact of changes to the insulation levels above the New Zealand Building Code minimum was examined to test the utility of the process.  Unique in the literature, this study includes multiple LCA indices: material impacts, resultant operational energy use, change in materials, multiple environmental indicators, the rationale behind the selected buildings, quality assurance of the results, presentation of model inputs and all results in sufficient detail for the methodology to be tested and replicated.  The case study research methodology developed three MDH houses that were representative of a broad range of MDH houses currently for sale in New Zealand. The goal was to evaluate whether the research method can identify differences between buildings that might inform design choices.  In theory, a single BIM model eliminates the need to have three building models: the designer’s construction model; the LCA analysis model; and the energy performance model saving time and complexity for the designer. This methodology identified that it was not possible to have a single BIM model in Revit and use this for both an energy simulation and LCA using LCAQuick. Each house was recreated in OpenStudio for simulation in EnergyPlus to generate the energy performance of each house.  A database of inputs for the energy models was created, which was quality assured for use by designers. A visual assessment diagram was created to allow designers to interpret the output to help inform design decisions.  The case study analysis determined that the design of the houses had a more significant effect on reducing environmental impact compared to increasing insulation levels above the minimum required by the building code. Changes to the buildings’ insulation levels resulted in an average change in environmental impact across the seven environmental indicators ranging from -1 to 7% in Auckland and -2 to 2% in Christchurch, whereas differences in the design resulted in a change in environmental impact of 21 to 22% in Auckland and 22 to 23% in Christchurch.   The research has demonstrated that LCA can be integrated into a designer’s workflow. Designers can assess the environmental impact of multiple houses and construction changes in different climates and with multiple construction changes to each. However, the process requires further refinement. There is still a need to develop the Computer-Aided Design (CAD) modelling methods and their integration with the analytical tools.</p>

scholarly journals BIOGAS FED-FUEL CELL BASED ELECTRICITY GENERATION: A LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT APPROACH

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 498-502
Author(s):  
S. M. Shafie ◽  
Z. Othman ◽  
N. Hami ◽  
S. Omar ◽  
A. H. Nu'man ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Fuel Cell ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Assessment Approach

A Review on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis in the Life Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generation Systems

2019 ◽  
pp. 575-590
Author(s):  
José Guilherme de Paula do Rosário ◽  
Rodrigo Salvador ◽  
Murillo Vetroni Barros ◽  
Cassiano Moro Piekarski ◽  
Leila Mendes da Luz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Decision Analysis ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Analysis

Sustainability assessment of gas based power generation using a life cycle assessment approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 826-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binita Shah ◽  
Seema Unnikrishnan
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Lca Methodology ◽  
Iso 14040 ◽  
Content Type

Purpose India is a developing economy along with an increasing population estimated to be the largest populated country in about seven years. Simultaneously, its power consumption is projected to increase more than double by 2020. Currently, the dependence on coal is relatively high, making it the largest global greenhouse gas emitting sector which is a matter of great concern. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the environmental impacts of the natural gas electricity generation in India and propose a model using a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. Design/methodology/approach LCA is used as a tool to evaluate the environmental impact of the natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant, as it adopts a holistic approach towards the whole process. The LCA methodology used in this study follows the ISO 14040 and 14044 standards (ISO 14040: 2009; ISO 14044: 2009). A questionnaire was designed for data collection and validated by expert review primary data for the annual environmental emission was collected by personally visiting the power plant. The study follows a cradle to gate assessment using the CML (2001) methodology. Findings The analysis reveals that the main impacts were during the process of combustion. The Global warming potential is approximately 0.50 kg CO2 equivalents per kWh of electricity generation from this gas-based power plant. These results can be used by stakeholders, experts and members who are authorised to probe positive initiative for the reduction of environmental impacts from the power generation sector. Practical implications Considering the pace of growth of economic development of India, it is the need of the hour to emphasise on the patterns of sustainable energy generation which is an important subject to be addressed considering India’s ratification to the Paris Climate Change Agreement. This paper analyzes the environmental impacts of gas-based electricity generation. Originality/value Presenting this case study is an opportunity to get a glimpse of the challenges associated with gas-based electricity generation in India. It gives a direction and helps us to better understand the right spot which require efforts for the improvement of sustainable energy generation processes, by taking appropriate measures for emission reduction. This paper also proposes a model for gas-based electricity generation in India. It has been developed following an LCA approach. As far as we aware, this is the first study which proposes an LCA model for gas-based electricity generation in India. The model is developed in line with the LCA methodology and focusses on the impact categories specific for gas-based electricity generation.

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