Life cycle burden-shifting in energy systems designed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions: Novel analytical method and application to the United States

Algunaibet, Ibrahim M.; Guillén‐Gosálbez, Gonzalo

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.276

Cited by 46 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Although these low-carbon technologies perform well regarding direct GHG emissions, they lead to indirect GHG emissions due to construction (McDowall et al, 2018) and might induce other environmental impacts, such as ecotoxicity and resource depletion (Rauner and Budzinski, 2017;Algunaibet and Guillén-Gosálbez, 2019). Thus, employing low-carbon technologies for GHG reductions may shift burden to other environmental impacts (Algunaibet and Guillén-Gosálbez, 2019). As GHG emissions reduce, these other environmental impacts gain more importance (Rauner and Budzinski, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rauner and Budzinski (2017) used a multiobjective optimization to include environmental impacts in an expansion problem of the German electricity system. Algunaibet and Guillén-Gosálbez (2019) used a multiobjective optimization to quantify the burden-shifting potential of GHG emission reductions of the electricity system of the United States.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Life-Cycle Assessment of Sector-Coupled National Energy Systems: Environmental Impacts of Electricity, Heat, and Transportation in Germany Till 2050

et al. 2021

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National energy models provide decarbonization strategies. Most national energy models focus on costs and greenhouse gas emissions only. However, this focus carries the risk that burdens shift to other environmental impacts. Energy models have therefore been extended by life-cycle assessment (LCA). Furthermore, deep decarbonization is only possible by targeting all high-emission sectors. Thus, we present a holistic national energy model that includes high-emission sectors and LCA. The model provides detailed environmental impacts for electricity, heat, and transport processes in Germany for meeting the climate targets up to 2050. Our results show that renewable energies and storage are key technologies for decarbonized energy systems. Furthermore, sector coupling is crucial and doubles electricity demand. Our LCA shows that environmental impacts shift from operation to infrastructure highlighting the importance of an impact assessment over the full life cycle. Decarbonization leads to many environmental cobenefits; however, it also increases freshwater ecotoxicity and depletion of metal and mineral resources. Thus, holistic planning of decarbonization strategies should also consider other environmental impacts.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life-Cycle Assessment of Sector-Coupled National Energy Systems: Environmental Impacts of Electricity, Heat, and Transportation in Germany Till 2050

et al. 2021

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“…Given the very common outcome that mitigation infrastructure leads to burden shifting away from the mitigation target and towards other impact categories, the value of mitigation LCA increases when all relevant impact categories are included and rationales for selection are provided. Burden shifting can be environmentally significant [61][62][63]. Retaining information on the nature of category-specific impact is necessary because reducing impacts to common units (e.g., money or some form of ecological damage equivalence metric) masks these shifts in a way that causes an important loss of information for decision makers.…”

Section: Be Attentive To Burden Shifting By Carefully Selecting Analymentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigation Life Cycle Assessment: Best Practices from LCA of Energy and Water Infrastructure That Incurs Impacts to Mitigate Harm

Grubert

Stokes-Draut

2020

Energies

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Climate change will require societal-scale infrastructural changes. Balancing priorities for water, energy, and climate will demand that approaches to water and energy management deviate from historical practice. Infrastructure designed to mitigate environmental harm, particularly related to climate change, is likely to become increasingly prevalent. Understanding the implications of such infrastructure for environmental quality is thus of interest. Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is a common sustainability assessment tool that aims to quantify the total, multicriteria environmental impact caused by a functional unit. Notably, however, LCA quantifies impacts in the form of environmental “costs” of delivering the functional unit. In the case of mitigation infrastructures, LCA results can be confusing because they are generally reported as the harmful impacts of performing mitigation rather than as net impacts that incorporate benefits of successful mitigation. This paper argues for defining mitigation LCA as a subtype of LCA to facilitate better understanding of results and consistency across studies. Our recommendations are informed by existing LCA literature on mitigation infrastructure, focused particularly on stormwater and carbon management. We specifically recommend that analysts: (1) use a performance-based functional unit; (2) be attentive to burden shifting; and (3) assess and define uncertainty, especially related to mitigation performance.

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“…These constraints, therefore, prevent the occurrence of burden‐shifting (i. e., one or more impact(s) become milder at the expense of worsening others), widespread in environmental problems (Eq. ): [52]

true {T I}_{d} \leq {B A U}_{d} \forall d \neq G W P

…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hybridization of Fossil‐ and CO₂‐Based Routes for Ethylene Production using Renewable Energy

et al. 2020

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Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has recently gained broad interest in the chemical industry. Direct electro-and thermocatalytic technologies are currently the focus of intense research, where the former employs electricity directly to reduce the CO 2 molecule, while the latter comprises hydrogenation of CO 2 in tandem with electrocatalytic water splitting. So far, it remains unclear which of the two is superior, yet this information is considered critical. Focusing on the platform chemical ethylene, the two CCU routes were compared using state-of-the-art performances with the fossil technology considering different power and CO 2 sources. The thermo-route was found to be, at present, economically and environmentally better, yet under the same electrolyzer efficiencies, the electro-route would become superior. CCU routes could substantially improve the carbon footprint of the fossil ethylene (by 236 %) while decreasing at the same time impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, and resources (64, 140, and 80 %, respectively). However, they are economically unattractive even when considering externalities (indirect cost of environmental impacts), that is, 1.7-to 3.9-fold more expensive compared to the current fossil-based analogue. Acknowledging this limitation, the concept of hybridization was applied as a means to smooth the transition towards more sustainable chemicals. Accordingly, it was found that an optimal hybrid plant could produce carbon-neutral (cradle-to-gate) ethylene with a premium of only 30 % over the current market prices by judiciously combining CCU routes with fossil technologies.

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Life cycle burden-shifting in energy systems designed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions: Novel analytical method and application to the United States

Cited by 46 publications

References 29 publications

Life-Cycle Assessment of Sector-Coupled National Energy Systems: Environmental Impacts of Electricity, Heat, and Transportation in Germany Till 2050

Life-Cycle Assessment of Sector-Coupled National Energy Systems: Environmental Impacts of Electricity, Heat, and Transportation in Germany Till 2050

Mitigation Life Cycle Assessment: Best Practices from LCA of Energy and Water Infrastructure That Incurs Impacts to Mitigate Harm

Hybridization of Fossil‐ and CO₂‐Based Routes for Ethylene Production using Renewable Energy

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Life cycle burden-shifting in energy systems designed to minimize greenhouse gas emissions: Novel analytical method and application to the United States

Cited by 46 publications

References 29 publications

Life-Cycle Assessment of Sector-Coupled National Energy Systems: Environmental Impacts of Electricity, Heat, and Transportation in Germany Till 2050

Life-Cycle Assessment of Sector-Coupled National Energy Systems: Environmental Impacts of Electricity, Heat, and Transportation in Germany Till 2050

Mitigation Life Cycle Assessment: Best Practices from LCA of Energy and Water Infrastructure That Incurs Impacts to Mitigate Harm

Hybridization of Fossil‐ and CO2‐Based Routes for Ethylene Production using Renewable Energy

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Product

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Hybridization of Fossil‐ and CO₂‐Based Routes for Ethylene Production using Renewable Energy