Spatially-Explicit Life Cycle Assessment of Sun-to-Wheels Transportation Pathways in the U.S.

Geyer, Roland; Stoms, David M.; Kallaos, James

doi:10.1021/es302959h

Cited by 31 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Such geographical and regional variances are difficult to capture using average or national values. Therefore, with regional and spatially representative life cycle assessments of bioenergy systems still evolving [10,[15][16][17][18], the use of three regional contexts were proposed in order to support more regional and spatial life cycle thinking 2 for assessing regional bioenergy production systems [19].…”

Section: Assessments Of Bioenergy Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To simplify such complexity, for life cycle assessment, all environmental burdens are aggregated across the full life cycle of a product (i.e., from the thousands of global sites with associated production activities), removing the regional or spatial patterns relating to the production and distribution of such environmental burdens [22]. However, with many environmental burdens associated with bioenergy production occurring at the regional level [13,23,24], there is a need to produce more regional and spatially representative life cycle assessments of bioenergy systems [10,15,16,18,25]. Therefore, the challenge is to find a balance between the increased focus on regional activities and direct environmental burdens associated with bioenergy production (e.g., emissions produced within the regional foreground) and the requirement to account for the nonregional environmental burdens also associated with such regional bioenergy production (i.e., emissions produced upstream, not within the regional foreground, but elsewhere outside the region).…”

Section: Regionally Contextualised Life Cycle Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With many burdens of bioenergy production strongly influenced by the regional and spatial variability (e.g., management, climate, soil) of biomass production [5,6,23,24,[26][27][28] more regional and spatially representative life cycle approaches for assessing bioenergy systems [10,16,18,25] are required, to support the sustainable use of natural resources [11], such as biomass. The aim of this paper was to outline the challenges and options for developing a life cycle approach for assessing not only the regional environmental performance of bioenergy production, but also the spatial variability of that performance "within" a regional context [19].…”

Section: Relca (V10) the First Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RELCA: a REgional Life Cycle inventory for Assessing bioenergy systems within a region

O’Keeffe¹,

Wochele-Marx²,

Thrän

2016

Energ Sustain Soc

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Background: The last decade has seen major development and adoption of bioenergy, particularly in Germany. This has resulted in a scattering of decentralised bioenergy plants across the landscape, due to their dependency on spatially diffuse biomass resources. Regional conditions (e.g., soils, climate, management) influence the environmental burdens resulting from biomass production and thus, also effect the environmental performance of bioenergy production. Therefore, more regionally focused life cycle approaches are required for assessing these bioenergy systems. The aim of this paper is to outline such an approach. "RELCA", is a regional life cycle inventory for assessing the regional and spatial variation in the environmental performance of bioenergy production within a region. Methods: Five modelling steps are combined to form the RELCA approach in order to determine: (1) regional crop allocation, (2) regional biomass management, (3) representative bioenergy plant models, (4) bioenergy plant catchments, and (5) indirect upstream emissions (non-regional) associated with regional bioenergy production. The challenges and options for each of these five modelling steps are outlined. Additionally, a simple example is provided using greenhouse gases emissions (GHG) to show how RELCA can be used to identify the potential regional distribution of environmental burdens associated with the production of a bioenergy product (e.g. biodiesel) within a region. Results: An approach for combining regionally distributed inventory for biomass production with regionally distributed inventory for bioenergy technologies, through the use of catchment delineation was developed. This enabled the introduction of greater regional details within the life cycle approach. As a first "proof of concept," GHG emissions were estimated for a simple example, illustrating how RELCA can identify the potential regional distribution of environmental burdens (direct and indirect) associated with producing a bioenergy product. Conclusions: RELCA (v1.0) is a powerful scoping approach, which is the first to investigate the regional and spatial variation in the environmental performance of bioenergy production within a region through the use of catchment delineation. RELCA (v1.0) is not without its limitations. Despite these, it still provides a good starting point for further discussion, improvements, and modelling developments for assessing the regional and spatial environmental implications of bioenergy production (e.g., such as impacts to soil, water, and biodiversity) for a within regional context .

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Section: Assessments Of Bioenergy Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Regionally Contextualised Life Cycle Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Relca (V10) the First Stepmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RELCA: a REgional Life Cycle inventory for Assessing bioenergy systems within a region

O’Keeffe¹,

Wochele-Marx²,

Thrän

2016

Energ Sustain Soc

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“…Geyer et al (2010) proposed coupling GIS and LCA for biodiversity assessment of land use and biofuels in the U.S. In their 2013 study of biofuels, they identified a wide variance in direct land use impacts for biomass-based pathways ranging from 5m 2 /100 km to 100m 2 /100 km (i.e., direct land use impacts expressed in m 2 /100 km driven) (Geyer et al 2013).…”

Section: Spatial Lcasmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Empirical Analysis of the Industrial Bioeconomy: Implications for Renewable Resources and the Environment

Morrison¹,

Golden²

2015

BioResources

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An empirical analysis was undertaken to quantify the utilization of the primary, first-generation agriculture and forestry feedstocks within the industrial bioeconomy. Institutional policies and incentives, and their role in driving the bioeconomy are also explored. In doing so, we present a detailed analysis of global agricultural and roundwood forestry production, including both intermediate and final uses. In addition to deciphering the internal flows of commodities within the bioeconomy, we present the spatial distribution of key industrial bioeconomy feedstock crops and their influence within the global economy, including flows in exportation and importation across ten geographical regions. Finally, along with the many advantages for industrial biofeedstocks, there are also environmental trade-offs. The results from this examination will equip researchers, industries, and governments with a superior ability to address the multi-dimensional feedbacks and synergies of the bioeconomy, as well as predict potential areas of risk and those that may prosper from future production increases.

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“…Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) requires finding economically viable, socially acceptable, and environmentally sustainable production strategies to grow bioenergy crops. Today, the major commercial feedstock for the U.S. ethanol industry is corn grain, with over 40% of the crop used for ethanol production [1,2]. To minimize food, feed and energy competition, EISA mandates that a large percentage of fuel originate from lignocellulosic feedstock by 2022.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multifunctional landscapes: Site characterization and field-scale design to incorporate biomass production into an agricultural system

Ssegane

Negri

Quinn

et al. 2015

Biomass and Bioenergy

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Sustainability GHG emissionsNitrate leachate Marginal landsNutrient recovery a b s t r a c t Current and future demand for food, feed, fiber, and energy require novel approaches to land management, which demands that multifunctional landscapes are created to integrate various ecosystem functions into a sustainable land use. We developed an approach to design such landscapes at a field scale to minimize concerns of land use change, water quality, and greenhouse gas emissions associated with production of food and bioenergy.This study leverages concepts of nutrient recovery and phytoremediation to place bioenergy crops on the landscape to recover nutrients released to watersheds by commodity crops. Crop placement is determined by evaluating spatial variability of: 1) soils, 2) surface flow pathways, 3) shallow groundwater flow gradients, 4) subsurface nitrate concentrations, and 5) primary crop yield. A 0.8 ha bioenergy buffer was designed within a 6.5 ha field to intercept concentrated surface flow, capture and use nitrate leachate, and minimize use of productive areas. Denitrification-Decomposition (DNDC) simulations show that on average, a switchgrass (Panicum Virgatum L.) or willow (Salix spp.) buffer within this catchment according to this design could reduce annual leached NO 3 by 61 or 59% and N 2 O emission by 5.5 or 10.8%, respectively, produce 8.7 or 9.7 Mg ha À1 of biomass respectively, and displace 6.7 Mg ha À1 of corn (Zea mays L.) grain. Therefore, placement of bioenergy crops has the potential to increase environmental sustainability when the pairing of location and crop type result in minimal disruption of current food production systems and provides additional environmental benefits. (H. Ssegane), negri@anl.gov (M.C. Negri), quinnj@anl.gov (J. Quinn), demirtasmu@anl.gov (M. Urgun-Demirtas).

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Spatially-Explicit Life Cycle Assessment of Sun-to-Wheels Transportation Pathways in the U.S.

Cited by 31 publications

References 29 publications

RELCA: a REgional Life Cycle inventory for Assessing bioenergy systems within a region

RELCA: a REgional Life Cycle inventory for Assessing bioenergy systems within a region

An Empirical Analysis of the Industrial Bioeconomy: Implications for Renewable Resources and the Environment

Multifunctional landscapes: Site characterization and field-scale design to incorporate biomass production into an agricultural system

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