An overview on green house gas emission characteristics and energy evaluation of ocean energy systems from life cycle assessment and energy accounting studies

Banerjee, Subhashish; Duckers, Les; Blanchard, Richard E.

doi:10.31018/jans.v5i2.364

Cited by 10 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Since the BRD WEC is in its development and test stages, the actual capacity factor has not been specified yet for use. Assumed capacity factor values 20-50% are suggested by other WEC LCA studies [15,18,21,25] for the purpose of calculating annual electricity productions. Here in this study, the capacity factor is assumed to be 50%, since this prototype WEC is still in its early stage of development and technologically immature.…”

Section: Embodied Energy and Carbon: Intensities And Paybacksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of a Buoy-Rope-Drum Wave Energy Converter

Zhai

Zhu

2018

Energies

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This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) study for a buoy-rope-drum (BRD) wave energy converter (WEC), so as to understand the environmental performance of the BRD WEC by eco-labeling its life cycle stages and processes. The BRD WEC was developed by a research group at Shandong University (Weihai). The WEC consists of three main functional modules including buoy, generator and mooring modules. The designed rated power capacity is 10 kW. The LCA modeling is based on data collected from actual design, prototype manufacturing, installation and onsite sea test. Life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis and life cycle impact analysis (LCIA) were conducted. The analyses show that the most significant environmental impact contributor is identified to be the manufacturing stage of the BRD WEC due to consumption of energy and materials. Potential improvement approaches are proposed in the discussion. The LCI and LCIA assessment results are then benchmarked with results from reported LCA studies of other WECs, tidal energy converters, as well as offshore wind and solar PV systems. This study presents the energy and carbon intensities and paybacks with 387 kJ/kWh, 89 gCO 2 /kWh, 26 months and 23 months respectively. The results show that the energy and carbon intensities of the BRD WEC are slightly larger than, however comparable, in comparison with the referenced WECs, tidal, offshore wind and solar PV systems. A sensitivity analysis was carried out by varying the capacity factor from 20-50%. The energy and carbon intensities could reach as much as 968 kJ/kWh and 222 gCO 2 /kWh respectively while the capacity factor decreasing to 20%. Limitations for this study and scope of future work are discussed in the conclusion.Energies 2018, 11, 2432 2 of 15 to absorb wave energy and convert it to electricity or other forms of energy [4]. Since the beginning of the century, tidal stream technology and wave energy technology development have started to ramp up [5]. Although there no large-scale WEC installation has been reported in the U.S., the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored the Wave Energy Prize in 2015, an 18-month public design-build-test competition to increase the diversity of organizations involved in WEC technology development, while motivating and inspiring existing stakeholders [6]. The UK and Portugal have the vast majority of wave energy deployments in Europe [5]. The Carbon Trust estimates that a contribution of up to 20% of total UK energy generation could be provided by marine energy by 2050 [7,8]. China possesses a total marine area of 4,700,000 km 2 [9]. With annual mean wave power of up to 7.73 kW/m wave front, China has a wave power potential of 128.5 GW, nearly half of the electricity production of China [10,11]. However, the majority of China's wave energies are without any exploitation and thus far, most of the WECs in China are still in concept design or pre-commercial stages. Aiming to stimulate and encourage the marine renewable energy technology research and development, China National Oceanic Admini...

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Section: Embodied Energy and Carbon: Intensities And Paybacksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of a Buoy-Rope-Drum Wave Energy Converter

Zhai

Zhu

2018

Energies

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“…7 Replacing primary material with recycled material in future. 8 Recycling rate for metals is 90%, some materials not recycled, and instead incinerated or taken to land fill. 9 Ninty percent recycling for metals, otherwise incineration or landfill.…”

Section: System Boundarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent decades, a few researchers have overviewed the LCAs on ocean energy systems. Banerjee et al discuss the emission characteristics and energy accounting of wave and tidal energy systems for LCAs [8]. A comprehensive review of the current state of the art of research in the field of ocean energy systems, with an emphasis on research beyond technology or technological improvements is presented in [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment on Wave and Tidal Energy Systems: A Review of Current Methodological Practice

Zhang

Yujun

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Recent decades have witnessed wave and tidal energy technology receiving considerable attention because of their low carbon emissions during electricity production. However, indirect emissions from their entire life cycle should not be ignored. Therefore, life cycle assessment (LCA) has been widely applied as a useful approach to systematically evaluate the environmental performance of wave and tidal energy technologies. This study reviews recent LCA studies on wave and tidal energy systems for stakeholders to understand current status of methodological practice and associated inherent limitations and reveal future research needs for application of LCA on wave and tidal technologies. The conformance of the selected LCAs to ISO 14040 (2006) and 14044 (2006) are critically analyzed in strict accordance with the ISO stepwise methodologies, namely, goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis, as well as life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). Our systematically screening of these studies indicates that few of the selected studies are of strict conformance with ISO 14040 and 14044 standards, which makes the results unreliable and thus further reduces the confidence of interested stakeholders. Further, our review indicates that current LCA practice on wave and tidal energies is lacking consideration of temporal variations, which should be addressed in future research, as it causes inaccuracy and uncertainties.

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“…It is important to highlight that 11 of the 18 studies analyzed concentrate only on carbon emissions and embodied energy [26,29,[49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57] and the rest give a more detailed evaluation including other environmental impact categories [9,12,[58][59][60][61][62]. In general, scientific papers and surveys provided information about LCA of ocean energy studies, considering different operating criteria, geographical area, and costs, among others.…”

Section: Lca On Ocean Energy Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment of Ocean Energy Technologies: A Systematic Review

Paredes

Padilla‐Rivera

Güereca

2019

JMSE

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The increase of greenhouse gases (GHG) generated by the burning of fossil fuels has been recognized as one of the main causes of climate change (CC). Different countries of the world have developed new policies on national energy security directed to the use of renewable energies mainly, ocean energy being one of them. The implementation of ocean energy is increasing worldwide. However, the use of these technologies is not exempt from the generation of potential environmental impacts throughout their life cycle. In this context, life cycle assessment (LCA) is a holistic approach used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a product or system throughout its entire life cycle. LCA studies need to be conducted to foster the development of ocean energy technologies (OET) in sustainable management. In this paper, a systematic review was conducted and 18 LCA studies of OET were analyzed. Most of the LCA studies are focused on wave and tidal energy. CC is the most relevant impact category evaluated, which is generated mostly by raw material extraction, manufacturing stage and shipping operations. Finally, the critical stages of the systems evaluated were identified, together with, the opportunity areas to promote an environmental management for ocean energy developers.

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An overview on green house gas emission characteristics and energy evaluation of ocean energy systems from life cycle assessment and energy accounting studies

Cited by 10 publications

References 14 publications

Life Cycle Assessment of a Buoy-Rope-Drum Wave Energy Converter

Life Cycle Assessment of a Buoy-Rope-Drum Wave Energy Converter

Life Cycle Assessment on Wave and Tidal Energy Systems: A Review of Current Methodological Practice

Life Cycle Assessment of Ocean Energy Technologies: A Systematic Review

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