Comparing life cycle assessments of different biofuel options

Global warming and energy yield evaluation of Spanish wheat straw electricity generation – A LCA that takes into account parameter uncertainty and variability

“…There is a huge uncertainty regarding these facts among others like wheat straw yields, straw humidity and energy content, N 2 O emissions [29,30], diesel consumption of field works, etc. Uncertainty and variability has been discussed as an important aspect to deal with in the field of LCA in general [31][32][33] as well as for the particular case of bioenegy LCAs [7,8,34]. In this study we made a systematic consideration of parameter uncertainty and variability of all the parameters affecting all the previous aspects, retrieving data from all the references we found that were valid for our case.…”

“…Bioenergy is intended to play a central role in the accomplishment of these objectives accounting for more than half of projected 2020 Europe's energy output [2]. Potential GHG reductions of different pathways to produce bioenergy from solid [3,4] and liquid [5][6][7][8] are being evaluated intensively [9]. Several studies suggest that lignocellulosic biomass sources for heat and electricity production may perform better in GHG assessments when compared with crops used as feedstock for first generation liquid biofuels [10][11][12][13].…”

Exergy and CO2 Analyses as Key Tools for the Evaluation of Bio-Ethanol Production

“…Reference Topics [38] Thermodynamic analysis and evaluation of bioethanol manufacture [39] Environmental, economic, and exergetic costs and benefits of biodiesel and ethanol biofuels [40] Exergetic analysis of biofuels production [41] Life-cycle analysis and the ecology of biofuels [42] Exergy analysis of enzymatic hydrolysis reactors for transformation of lignocellulosic biomass to bioethanol [43] The GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions of cellulosic ethanol supply chains in Europe [35] Exergy and renewability analysis of the ethanol production from banana fruit and its lignocellulosic residues [36] Energy and exergy analysis of an ethanol-fueled solid oxide fuel cell power plant [44] Second-generation bio-ethanol (SGB) from Malaysian palm empty fruit bunch: Energy and exergy analysis [45] Comparative exergy analysis of NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory)thermochemical biomass-to-ethanol conversion process designs [46] Improving bioethanol production from sugarcane: Evaluation of distillation, thermal integration and cogeneration systems [47] Exergy analysis and process integration of bioethanol production from acid pre-treated biomass: SHF (Saccharification hydrolysis and fermentation), SSF (Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation) and SSCF (Simultaneous saccharification and cofernentation) pathways [48] Sustainable ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass-Application of exergy analysis [49] Thermodynamic analysis of lignocellulosic biofuel production via a biochemical process: technology selection and research focus [33] Comparison of combined ethanol and biogas polygeneration facilities using exergy analysis [50] Land-use change and GHG emissions from corn and cellulosic ethanol [51] Possibilities for sustainable biorefineries based on agricultural residues-potential straw-based ethanol production in Sweden [52] Energy and exergy analysis of the combined production process of sugar and ethanol from sugarcane [53] Comparing life cycle assessments of different biofuel options [54] Thermodynamic assessment of lignocellulosic pretreatment methods for bioethanol production via exergy analysis [55] Thermodynamic evaluation of biomass-to-biofuels production systems [56] Exergy analysis of pretreatment processes of bioethanol production based on sugarcane bagasse [57] Energy and exergy analysis of ethanol reforming process …”

“…Based on a review of recent articles on biofuel LCA, Kendall and Yuan (2013) [53] concluded that LCAs of biofuels exhibit great variability and uncertainty, leading to inconclusive results for the performance of particular pathways. This is mainly caused by different processing and pretreatment strategies required for each raw material that has a different composition and may require different pretreatment methods [28].…”

An Integrated Biomass Production and Conversion Process for Sustainable Bioenergy

“…To overcome the environmental challenges and land limitation associated with bioenergy, we propose to integrate the biomass production and conversion process to obtain high bioenergy yield so as to decrease land requirement and reduce environmental harm [13]. We estimate the net energy of the processes produced in a unit land over a year.…”