Life Cycle Assessment Of Energy Systems And Sustainable Energy Technologies

This book deals with the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology to sustainable energy systems and technologies. It reviews the state-of-the-art of the Italian experiences on the LCA applied to energy, and the most recent results from research in this field, with a particular focus on renewables, bio-energy and sustainable solutions. The contributors describe in detail the applications of LCA to various energy system topics, including: • electricity production, smart energy grids and energy storage systems;• renewable energy production from biomass;• production of biodiesel from microalgae;• environmental impacts of biomass power plants; and• geothermal energy production. These topics are supported by critical reviews and case studies, with discussions of Italian examples, demonstrating LCA’s application to various energy systems. A particular focus is placed on bio-energies and bio-energy systems, demonstrating how LCA can be used for optimal bio-energy production. This book offers an opportunity for researchers and advanced practitioners in the field of LCA to learn more about the application of LCA methodology to energy systems and technologies. It will also be of interest to students, as it enables them to understand the environmental impacts of energy systems and sustainable energy technologies, through the analysis of their life cycles.

Governments are setting challenging targets to increase the production of energy and transport fuel from sustainable sources. The emphasis is increasingly on renewable sources including wind, solar, geothermal, biomass based biofuel, photovoltaics or energy recovery from waste. What are the environmental consequences of adopting these other sources? How do these various sources compare to each other? Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources tries to answer these questions based on the universally adopted method of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). This book introduces the concept and importance of LCA in the framework of renewable energy sources and discusses the key issues in conducting their LCA. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of LCA for some of the most common bioenergy sources such as agricultural production systems for biogas and bioethanol, biogas from grass, biodiesel from palm oil, biodiesel from used cooking oil and animal fat, Jatropha biodiesel, lignocellulosic bioethanol, ethanol from cassava and sugarcane molasses, residential photovoltaic systems, wind energy, microalgal biodiesel, biohydrogen and biomethane. Through real examples, the versatility of LCA is well emphasized. Written by experts all over the globe, the book is a cornucopia of information on LCA of bioenergy systems and provides a platform for stimulation of new ideas and thoughts. The book is targeted at practitioners of LCA and will become a useful tool for researchers working on different aspects of bioenergy.

The transition towards renewable energy sources and “green” technologies for energy generation and storage is expected to mitigate the climate emergency in the coming years. However, in many cases, this progress has been hampered by our dependency on critical materials or other resources that are often processed at high environmental burdens. Yet, many studies have shown that environmental and energy issues are strictly interconnected and require a comprehensive understanding of resource management strategies and their implications. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is among the most inclusive analytical techniques to analyze sustainability benefits and trade-offs within complex systems and, in this Special Issue, it is applied to assess the mutual influences of environmental and energy dimensions. The selection of original articles, reviews, and case studies addressed covers some of the main driving applications for energy requirements and greenhouse gas emissions, including power generation, bioenergy, biorefinery, building, and transportation. An insightful perspective on the current topics and technologies, and emerging research needs, is provided. Alone or in combination with integrative methodologies, LCA can be of pivotal importance and constitute the scientific foundation on which a full system understanding can be reached.

Energy and sustainability are two of the most important and often most misunderstood subjects in our world today. As these two subjects have grown in importance over the last few decades, interest in the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) model has grown as well, as a potentially crucial tool in understanding and striving towards sustainability in energy systems. Not just wind and solar systems, but all energy systems, need to be understood through this model. Wind and solar power have the potential to decentralize the U.S. energy system by offering local communities electricity and economic support, depending on the scale and design of projects. Nevertheless, every energy technology potentially faces environmental costs, lay and expert opposition, and risks to public health. Engineers play a central role as designers, builders, and operators in energy systems. As they extend their expertise into electrical, mechanical and chemical fields, from fossil fuel-based systems to renewable energy systems, “sustainability” is steadily becoming one of the key criteria engineers apply in their work. This groundbreaking new study argues that engineering cultures foster sustainability by adopting assumptions and problem-solving practices as part of their identities when designing and building engineering projects. This work examines the politics of creating, utilizing, and modifying Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in the construction of renewable energy systems. The only volume of its kind ever written, it is a must-have for any engineer, scientist, manager, or other professional working in or interested in Life Cycle Assessment and its relation to energy systems and impact on environmental and economic sustainability.

Life-cycle assessment of new energy solutions plays an important role in discussions about global warming mitigation options and the evaluation of concrete energy production and conversion installations. This book starts by describing the methodology of life-cycle analysis and life-cycle assessment of new energy solutions. It then goes on to cover, in detail, a range of applications to individual energy installations, national supply systems, and to the global energy system in a climate impact context. Coverage is not limited to issues related to commercial uses by consultants according to ISO norms. It also emphasizes life-cycle studies as an open-ended scientific discipline embracing economic issues of cost, employment, equity, foreign trade balances, ecological sustainability, and a range of geo-political and social issues. A wealth of applications are described and a discussion on the results obtained in each study is included. Example areas are fossil and nuclear power plants, renewable energy systems, and systems based on hydrogen or batteries as energy carriers. The analysis is continued to the end-users of energy, where energy use in transportation, industry and home are scrutinized for their life-cycle impacts. Biofuel production and the combustion of firewood in home fireplaces and stoves are amongst the issues discussed. A central theme of the book is global warming. The impacts of greenhouse gas emissions are meticulously mapped at a depth far beyond that of the IPCC reports. A novel and surprising finding is that more lives will be saved than lost as a direct consequence of a warmer climate. After a 2oC increase in temperature, the reduction in death rates in areas with cold winters would outweigh the increase in the death rates in hot climates. However, this is only one of several impacts from greenhouse gases, and the remaining ones are still overwhelmingly negative. The fact that some population groups may benefit from higher temperatures (notably the ones most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions) whilst others (who did not contribute much to the problem) suffer is one of the main points of the book. The book is suitable as a university textbook and as a reference source for engineers, managers and public bodies responsible for planning and licensing.

The book discusses a multi-objective optimization approach in LCA that allows the flexible construction of comprehensive Pareto fronts to help understand the weightings and relative importance of its elements. The methodology is applied to the pertinent topics of thermochemical wood conversion, deep geothermal energy, and regional energy planning.

This book focuses on sustainable energy systems. While several innovative and alternative concepts are presented, the topics of energy policy, life cycle assessment, thermal energy, and renewable energy also play a major role. Models on various temporal and geographical scales are developed to understand the conditions of technical as well as organizational change. New methods of modeling, which can fulfil technical and physical boundary conditions and nevertheless consider economic environmental and social aspects, are also developed.

Low Carbon Energy Technologies for Sustainable Energy Systems examines, investigates, and integrates current research aimed at operationalizing low carbon technologies within complex transitioning energy economies. Scholarly research has traditionally focused on the technical aspects of exploitation, R&D, operation, infrastructure, and decommissioning, while approaches which can realistically inform their reception and scale-up across real societies and real markets are piecemeal and isolated in separate literatures. Addressing both the technical foundations of each technology together with the sociotechnical ways in which they are spread in markets and societies, this work integrates the technoeconomic assessment of low carbon technologies with direct discussion on legislative and regulatory policies in energy markets. Chapters address issues, such as social acceptance, consumer awareness, environmental valuation systems, and the circular economy, as low carbon technologies expand into energy systems sustainability, sensitivity, and stability. This collective research work is relevant to both researchers and practitioners working in sustainable energy systems. The combination of these features makes it a timely book that is useful and attractive to university students, researchers, academia, and public or private energy policy makers. Combines socio-cultural perspectives, environmental sustainability, and economic feasibility in the analysis of low carbon energy technologies Assesses regulatory governance impacting the environmental protection and the social cohesion of environmentally-directed energy markets Reviews the carbon trade exchange, attributing economic value to carbon and enabling its trading perspectives by people, companies or countries invested in low carbon technologies