Time Value of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Analysis

Sproul, Evan; Barlow, Jay; Quinn, Jason C.

doi:10.1021/acs.est.9b00514

Cited by 24 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 37 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The former is employed to purchase equipment, piping, electrical, buildings, land, etc. In general, the equipment investment (EI) greatly determines the fixed and total capital investments [31]. The cost of equipment is estimated via Equation (16).…”

Section: Comparison Of Total Capital Investmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Investigation of Different CO2 Capture Technologies for Coal to Ethylene Glycol Process

Liao

et al. 2021

Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The coal to ethylene glycol (CTEG) process has drawn much attention due to the serious conflict between supply and demand of ethylene glycol in China. However, it is inevitably accompanied by the problem of high CO2 emissions. Carbon capture is one of the most promising potential effective ways to address this issue. However, the CTEG process, integrated with carbon capture technology, will lead to energy and economic penalties. Thus, a comprehensive evaluation of CTEG process with different CO2 capture technologies is urgently needed. This study analyzed the technoeconomic performance of four CO2 capture alternatives for the CTEG process: Rectisol, mono-ethanol amine (MEA), chilled ammonia process (CAP) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) technologies. Results show the energy consumption of CO2 capture of the Rectisol process is the lowest, 1.88 GJ/tCO2, followed by the DMC process, 2.10 GJ/tCO2, the CAP process, 3.64 GJ/tCO2, and the MEA process, 5.20 GJ/tCO2. The CO2 capture cost of the Rectisol process is lowest, CNY 169.5/tCO2, followed by the DMC process, CNY 193.2/tCO2, the CAP process CNY 232.6/tCO2, and the MEA process CNY 250.5/tCO2. As the Rectisol technology has the best comprehensive performance, it is the best option for CTEG industry in comparison with the MEA, CAP, and DMC technologies.

show abstract

Section: Comparison Of Total Capital Investmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Investigation of Different CO2 Capture Technologies for Coal to Ethylene Glycol Process

Liao

et al. 2021

Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The corresponding lost potential service times (LPST) for these time horizons are illustrated. The ST and LPST at the time horizon of 25 years are not depicted Selecting the time horizon for the assessment must be done carefully, since it has implications on which generation is to be preferentially protected from environmental damage (Dyckhoff & Kasah, 2014;Sproul et al, 2019). Indeed, different stakeholders might be interested in various time horizons depending on what they value and on their beliefs about the adaptation potential of future societies (e.g., through technological developments) (Hofstetter, 1998).…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle impact assessment methods for estimating the impacts of dissipative flows of metals

Poncelet

Helbig

Loubet

et al. 2021

J of Industrial Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The dissipation of metals leads to potential environmental impacts, usually evaluated for product systems with life cycle assessment. Dissipative flows of metals become inaccessible for future users, going against the common goal of a more circular economy. Therefore, they should be addressed in life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) in the area of protection "Natural Resources." However, life cycle inventory databases provide limited information on dissipation as they only track emissions to the environment as elementary flows. Therefore, we propose two LCIA methods capturing the expected dissipation patterns of metals after extraction, based on dynamic material flow analysis data. The methods are applied to resource elementary flows in life cycle inventories. The lost potential service time method provides precautionary indications on the lost service due to dissipation over different time horizons. The average dissipation rate method distinguishes between the conservation potentials of different metals. Metals that are relatively well conserved, including major metals such as iron and aluminum, have low characterization factors (CFs). Those with poor process yields, including many companion and high-tech metals such as gallium and tellurium, have high CFs. A comparative study between the developed CFs, along with those of the Abiotic Depletion Potential and Environmental Dissipation Potential methods, show that dissipation trends do not consistently match those of the depletion and environmental dissipation potentials. The proposed methods may thus be complementary to other methods when assessing the impacts of resource use on the area of protection Natural Resources when pursuing an increased material circularity. This article met the requirements for a gold-silver JIE data openness badge at http://jie.click/badges.

show abstract

“…GHG emission discounting is another important but yetunderutilized policy tool to deal with temporal differences in GHG emission reductions between analyzed scenarios (Timmons et al, 2016;Sproul et al, 2019;Bachmann, 2020). Considering the urgency to reduce near-term GHG emissions to avert catastrophic climate change, near-term GHG emission for methane (Mythe et al, 2013), and an electric conversion efficiency of 38.6% (European Commission, 2016).…”

Section: Improving Bioenergy Systems Emissions Profilesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Biomass Electricity Demand Prompts Thinnings in Southern US Pine Plantations: A Forest Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case Study

Buchholz

Gunn

Sharma³

2021

Front. For. Glob. Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Increasing demand for woody biomass-derived electricity in the UK and elsewhere has resulted in a rapidly expanding wood pellet manufacturing industry in the southern US. Since this demand is driven by climate concerns and an objective to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the electricity sector, it is crucial to understand the full carbon consequences of wood pellet sourcing, processing, and utilization. We performed a comparative carbon life cycle assessment (LCA) for pellets sourced from three mills in the southern US destined for electricity generation in the UK. The baseline assumptions included GHG emissions of the UK’s 2018 and 2025 target electricity grid mix and feedstock supplied primarily from non-industrial private forest (NIPF) pine plantations augmented with a fraction of sawmill residues. Based on regional expert input, we concluded that forest management practices on the NIPF pine plantations would include timely thinning harvest treatments in the presence of pellet demand. The LCA analysis included landscape carbon stock changes based on USDA Forest Service Forest Vegetation Simulator using current USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data as the starting condition of supply areas in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We found that GHG emission parity (i.e., the time when accumulated carbon GHG emissions for the bioenergy scenario equal the baseline scenario) is more than 40 years for pellets produced at each individual pellet mill and for all three pellet mills combined when compared to either the UK’s 2018 electricity grid mix or the UK’s targeted electricity grid mix in 2025. The urgency to mitigate climate change with near-term actions as well as increasing uncertainty with longer-term simulations dictated a focus on the next four decades in the analysis. Even at 50% sawmill residues, GHG emission parity was not reached during the 40 years modeled. Results are most likely conservative since we assume a high share of sawmill residues (ranging from 20 to 50%) and did not include limited hardwood feedstocks as reported in the supply chain which are generally associated with delayed GHG emission parity because of lower growth rates.

show abstract

Time Value of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Analysis

Cited by 24 publications

References 37 publications

Comparative Investigation of Different CO2 Capture Technologies for Coal to Ethylene Glycol Process

Comparative Investigation of Different CO2 Capture Technologies for Coal to Ethylene Glycol Process

Life cycle impact assessment methods for estimating the impacts of dissipative flows of metals

When Biomass Electricity Demand Prompts Thinnings in Southern US Pine Plantations: A Forest Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case Study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About