Is Cumulative Fossil Energy Demand a Useful Indicator for the Environmental Performance of Products?

Huijbregts, Mark A. J.; Rombouts, Linda J A; Hellweg, Stefanie; Frischknecht, Rolf; Hendriks, A. Jan; Meent, Dik van de; Ragas, A.M.J.; Reijnders, L.; Struijs, Jeroen N.

doi:10.1021/es051689g

Cited by 394 publications

(241 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…CED is expressed in mega joules (MJ). In addition, Huijbregts et al (2005) found that CED correlates well with most environmental life cycle impact categories and can be considered an appropriate proxy indicator for environmental performance.…”

Section: Eutrophication Potential Eutrophication Potential (Ep) Ismentioning

confidence: 95%

Energy requirements and environmental impacts associated with the production of short rotation willow (Salix sp.) chip in Ireland

2013

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Willow Salix sp. is currently cultivated as a short rotation forestry crop in Ireland as a source of biomass to contribute to renewable energy goals. The aim of this study is to evaluate the energy requirements and environmental impacts associated with willow (Salix sp.) cultivation, harvest, and transport using life cycle assessment (LCA). In this study, only emissions from the production of the willow chip are included, end-use emissions from combustion are not considered. In this LCA study, three impact categories are considered; acidification potential, eutrophication potential and global warming potential. In addition, the cumulative energy demand and energy ratio of the system are evaluated. The results identify three key processes in the production chain which contribute most to all impact categories considered; maintenance, harvest and transportation of the crop. Sensitivity analysis on the type of fertilizers used, harvesting technologies and transport distances highlights the effects of these management techniques on overall system performance. Replacement of synthetic fertilizer with biosolids results in a reduction in overall energy demand, but raises acidification potential, eutrophication potential and global warming potential. Rod harvesting compares unfavourably in comparison with direct chip harvesting in each of the impact categories considered due to the additional chipping step required. The results show that dedicated truck transport is preferable to tractor-trailer transport in terms of energy demand and environmental impacts. Finally, willow chip production compares favourably with coal provision in terms of energy ratio and global warming potential, while achieving a higher energy ratio than peat provision but also a higher global warming potential.

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Section: Eutrophication Potential Eutrophication Potential (Ep) Ismentioning

confidence: 95%

Energy requirements and environmental impacts associated with the production of short rotation willow (Salix sp.) chip in Ireland

2013

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“…NREU represents a straightforward and practical approach because many environmental impacts are related to energy use (13). NREU encompasses fossil and nuclear energy and was expressed as higher heating value (HHV), also called the gross calorific value.…”

Section: Environmental Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Producing Bio-Based Bulk Chemicals Using Industrial Biotechnology Saves Energy and Combats Climate Change

Hermann

Blok

Patel

2007

Environ. Sci. Technol.

216

124

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The production of bulk chemicals from biomass can make a significant contribution to solving two of the most urgent environmental problems: climate change and depletion of fossil energy. We analyzed current and future technology routes leading to 15 bulk chemicals using industrial biotechnology and calculated their CO 2 emissions and fossil energy use. Savings of more than 100% in nonrenewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are already possible with current state of the art biotechnology. Substantial further savings are possible for the future by improved fermentation and downstream processing. Worldwide CO 2 savings in the range of 500-1000 million tons per year are possible using future technology. Industrial biotechnology hence offers excellent opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing dependence on fossil energy sources and therefore has the potential to make inroads into the existing chemical industry.

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“…From the beginning, this measure of "cumulative energy demand (CED)" has actually been considered the "most important aggregated result of the inventory used for compari-sons of product-related systems," as stipulated by Klöpffer in an editorial in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment [20]. According to the research by Huijbregts et al, "fossil CED correlates well with most impact categories, such as global warming, resource depletion, acidification […]"; but its use as a stand-alone indicator for the environmental impact of a product is nevertheless limited due to "the large uncertainty in the product-specific fossil CED-based impact scores" resulting from releases and land use due to non-fossil energy consumption [21]. In this study, the non-renewable part of the CED was calculated as described in [22] in order to obtain a value for the "grey energy" of the examined ICT devices.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grey Energy and Environmental Impacts of ICT Hardware

Hischier

Coroamă

Schien

et al. 2014

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

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PostprintThis is the accepted version of a chapter published in ICT Innovations for Sustainability. Citation for the original published chapter:Hischier, R., Coroama, V., Schien, D., Ahmadi Achachlouei, M. (2015) Grey Energy and Environmental Impacts of ICT Hardware. Abstract. Direct energy consumption of ICT hardware is only "half the story." In order to get the "whole story," energy consumption during the entire life cycle has to be taken into account. This chapter is a first step toward a more comprehensive picture, showing the "grey energy" (i.e., the overall energy requirements) as well as the releases (into air, water, and soil) during the entire life cycle of exemplary ICT hardware devices by applying the life cycle assessment method. The examples calculated show that a focus on direct energy consumption alone fails to take account of relevant parts of the total energy consumption of ICT hardware as well as the relevance of the production phase. As a general tendency, the production phase is more and more important the smaller (and the more energy-efficient) the devices are. When in use, a tablet computer is much more energy-efficient than a desktop computer system with its various components, so its production phase has a much greater relative importance. Accordingly, the impacts due to data transfer when using Internet services are also increasingly relevant the smaller the end-user device is, reaching up to more than 90% of the overall impact when using a tablet computer.

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Is Cumulative Fossil Energy Demand a Useful Indicator for the Environmental Performance of Products?

Cited by 394 publications

References 36 publications

Energy requirements and environmental impacts associated with the production of short rotation willow (Salix sp.) chip in Ireland

Energy requirements and environmental impacts associated with the production of short rotation willow (Salix sp.) chip in Ireland

Producing Bio-Based Bulk Chemicals Using Industrial Biotechnology Saves Energy and Combats Climate Change

Grey Energy and Environmental Impacts of ICT Hardware

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