The applicability of the renewable energy directive calculation to assess the sustainability of biogas production

Manninen, Kaisa; Koskela, Sirkka; Nuppunen, Anni; Sorvari, Jaana; Nevalainen, Olli; Siitonen, Sari

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.01.040

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…al. (2016) [73] and Manninen et al (2013) [63], consistently with the RED methodology, the co-products allocation procedure was performed using an energy-content based criterion to account for the digestate fractions not reused within the system and modelled as co-products. The allocation procedure was based upon the Lower Heating Values (LHV) values related to biogas, and both Solid Fraction and Liquid Fraction of the digestate.…”

Section: Multifunctionality Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…According Manninen et al (2013) [63], it is questionable whether the RED calculation rules are suitable for a multifunctional production system such as biogas production system. Indeed if the co-product generated (e.g.…”

Section: Multifunctionality Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed if the co-product generated (e.g. digestate) has an energy content of zero, and it is not used for energy production, energy allocation is not the best method to use (Manninen et al, 2013).…”

Section: Multifunctionality Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…When energy crops are digested, the SB encompass also the crop cultivation while when only animal waste and/or byproducts from agro-industry are used the SB focuses only on anaerobic digestion and biogas treatment/use. For LCA studies focused only on the biomethane production [26,26,63,66,74,106,107] a "gate to gate approach" was used, in particular if different upgrading technologies were compared.…”

Section: System Boundarymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…al. [73] and Manninen et al [63], consistently with the RED methodology, the coproducts allocation procedure was performed using an energy-content based criterion to account for the digestate fractions not reused within the system and modelled as co-products.…”

Section: Figure 1 Around Herementioning

confidence: 99%

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Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants: What LCA studies pointed out and what can be done to make them more environmentally sustainable

et al. 2016

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Anaerobic Digestion (AD) has been recognized as a viable solution to produce renewable energy and to reduce global warming especially when secondary feedstock and/or wastes are used. Several LCA studies analysed the environmental performances of biogas production systems. The results of this review highlight that the goal, scope, life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) methodology, feedstocks and geographical regions covered by the studies vary widely. Most studies are based in Europe, several in China and few in South and North America and in Africa. To better highlight how the choices on the feeding mix, the digestate storage, the surplus heat valorisation as well as the plant size can affect the environmental performances of agricultural AD plants four plants have been analyzed in this study. The results suggest that the energy crops production and the operation of anaerobic digesters, including digestate emission from open tanks, are the main contributors to the impacts from biogas electricity. This entails that it is environmentally better to have smaller plants using slurry and waste rather than bigger plants fed with energy crops. Recovering heat waste as well as covering of digestate tank would improve significantly the environmental sustainability of biogas electricity, and particularly the global warming category. We are pleased to enclose the revised version of our original manuscript of our paper entitled "Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants: What LCA studies pointed out and what can be done to make them more environmentally sustainable" which can hopefully be published in Applied Energy.Many thanks to the reviewers for their comments; they helped us to improve the manuscript.We hope that the manuscript in the revised form is appropriate for publication in Applied Energy.On behalf of all the Authors, as corresponding Author, yours sincerely, Cover Letter Title: Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants: What LCA studies pointed out and what can be done to make them more sustainable Dear Editor, we would like to thank you for the reviewers' comments. We are grateful to all the reviewers for devoting their time to review our manuscript. As you can see, we have taken most of them into consideration to modify the paper. We hope that the paper in this current revised version can be accepted for publication. Below, we enclose an explanation of how we have addressed the questions raised. Reviewer #1The manuscript is working on the review of the environmental impacts of biogas production. It includes good results, an interesting methodology, and related to the scope of this Journal. I suggest to accept it after some minor revisions. Thank you for your positive comments and for useful suggestions.The authors should write about the difference between their study and the following research: * Hijazi, O., Munro, S., Zerhusen, B. and Effenberger, M., 2016. Review of life cycle assessment for biogas production in Europe. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 54, 1291-300. Done, we specified in the int...

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Section: Multifunctionality Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multifunctionality Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multifunctionality Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: System Boundarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Figure 1 Around Herementioning

confidence: 99%

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Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants: What LCA studies pointed out and what can be done to make them more environmentally sustainable

et al. 2016

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Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction from Biogas Supply Chains in Germany in Context of a Newly Implemented Sustainability Certification

Lange

Moosmann

Majer

et al. 2023

Sustainable Production, Life Cycle Engineering and Management

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Life cycle assessments (LCA) approaches, analysing potential impacts associated with the production and use of biomass for energy and material purposes, have become increasingly important in recent years. An internal project at the Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum- DBFZ is investigating, which priority areas have been addressed at the institute with LCA. The preliminary results of the study show mostly practice-linked applications with a focus on the assessment of fuels, their production and technical feasibility. In this publication, we present one of the studies analysed, in which a simplified LCA approach defined in the renewable energy directive (RED II), was applied. Based on primary data from 10 biogas and biomethane supply chains in Germany, the applicability of the RED II greenhouse gas (GHG) emission calculation approach was analysed. Most of the biogas plants assessed were found to be compliant with the required minimum GHG emissions reduction. Storage of digestate, N-fertilization and the use of fossil diesel were identified as the main factors, influencing the GHG intensity of the respective value chains. Additionally, individual calculation requires a high effort for data collection. The availability of tools and default values could therefore support market actors with an efficient implementation of the RED II.

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Challenge clusters facing LCA in environmental decision-making—what we can learn from biofuels

McManus

Taylor

Mohr

et al. 2015

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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PurposeBioenergy is increasingly used to help meet greenhouse gas (GHG) and renewable energy targets. However, bioenergy’s sustainability has been questioned, resulting in increasing use of life cycle assessment (LCA). Bioenergy systems are global and complex, and market forces can result in significant changes, relevant to LCA and policy. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the complexities associated with LCA, with particular focus on bioenergy and associated policy development, so that its use can more effectively inform policymakers.MethodsThe review is based on the results from a series of workshops focused on bioenergy life cycle assessment. Expert submissions were compiled and categorized within the first two workshops. Over 100 issues emerged. Accounting for redundancies and close similarities in the list, this reduced to around 60 challenges, many of which are deeply interrelated. Some of these issues were then explored further at a policy-facing workshop in London, UK. The authors applied a rigorous approach to categorize the challenges identified to be at the intersection of biofuels/bioenergy LCA and policy.Results and discussionThe credibility of LCA is core to its use in policy. Even LCAs that comply with ISO standards and policy and regulatory instruments leave a great deal of scope for interpretation and flexibility. Within the bioenergy sector, this has led to frustration and at times a lack of obvious direction. This paper identifies the main challenge clusters: overarching issues, application and practice and value and ethical judgments. Many of these are reflective of the transition from application of LCA to assess individual products or systems to the wider approach that is becoming more common. Uncertainty in impact assessment strongly influences planning and compliance due to challenges in assigning accountability, and communicating the inherent complexity and uncertainty within bioenergy is becoming of greater importance.ConclusionsThe emergence of LCA in bioenergy governance is particularly significant because other sectors are likely to transition to similar governance models. LCA is being stretched to accommodate complex and broad policy-relevant questions, seeking to incorporate externalities that have major implications for long-term sustainability. As policy increasingly relies on LCA, the strains placed on the methodology are becoming both clearer and impedimentary. The implications for energy policy, and in particular bioenergy, are large.

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The applicability of the renewable energy directive calculation to assess the sustainability of biogas production

Cited by 23 publications

References 9 publications

Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants: What LCA studies pointed out and what can be done to make them more environmentally sustainable

Agricultural anaerobic digestion plants: What LCA studies pointed out and what can be done to make them more environmentally sustainable

Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction from Biogas Supply Chains in Germany in Context of a Newly Implemented Sustainability Certification

Challenge clusters facing LCA in environmental decision-making—what we can learn from biofuels

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