2D representation of life cycle greenhouse gas emission and life cycle cost of energy conversion for various energy resources

A probabilistic fleet analysis for energy consumption, life cycle cost and greenhouse gas emissions modelling of bus technologies

Aluminum production is a major energy consumer and important source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally. Estimation of the energy consumption and GHG emissions caused by aluminum production in China has attracted widespread attention because China produces more than half of the global aluminum. This paper conducted life cycle (LC) energy consumption and GHG emissions analysis of primary and recycled aluminum in China for the year 2020, considering the provincial differences on both the scale of self-generated electricity consumed in primary aluminum production and the generation source of grid electricity. Potentials for energy saving and GHG emissions reductions were also investigated. The results indicate that there are 157,207 MJ of primary fossil energy (PE) consumption and 15,947 kg CO2-eq of GHG emissions per ton of primary aluminum ingot production in China, with the LC GHG emissions as high as 1.5–3.5 times that of developed economies. The LC PE consumption and GHG emissions of recycled aluminum are very low, only 7.5% and 5.3% that of primary aluminum, respectively. Provincial-level results indicate that the LC PE and GHG emissions intensities of primary aluminum in the main production areas are generally higher while those of recycled aluminum are lower in the main production areas. LC PE consumption and GHG emissions can be significantly reduced by decreasing electricity consumption, self-generated electricity management, low-carbon grid electricity development, and industrial relocation. Based on this study, policy suggestions for China’s aluminum industry are proposed. Recycled aluminum industry development, restriction of self-generated electricity, low-carbon electricity utilization, and industrial relocation should be promoted as they are highly helpful for reducing the LC PE consumption and GHG emissions of the aluminum industry. In addition, it is recommended that the central government considers the differences among provinces when designing and implementing policies.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) technology has the potential to reduce operating cost, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and petroleum consumption in the transportation sector. However, the net effects of PHEVs depend critically on vehicle design, battery technology, and charging frequency. To examine these implications, we develop an optimization model integrating vehicle physics simulation, battery degradation data, and U.S. driving data. The model identifies optimal vehicle designs and allocation of vehicles to drivers for minimum net life cycle cost, GHG emissions, and petroleum consumption under a range of scenarios. We compare conventional and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) to PHEVs with equivalent size and performance (similar to a Toyota Prius) under urban driving conditions. We find that while PHEVs with large battery packs minimize petroleum consumption, a mix of PHEVs with packs sized for ∼25–50 miles of electric travel under the average U.S. grid mix (or ∼35–60 miles under decarbonized grid scenarios) produces the greatest reduction in life cycle GHG emissions. Life cycle cost and GHG emissions are minimized using high battery swing and replacing batteries as needed, rather than designing underutilized capacity into the vehicle with corresponding production, weight, and cost implications. At 2008 average U.S. energy prices, Li-ion battery pack costs must fall below $590/kW h at a 5% discount rate or below $410/kW h at a 10% rate for PHEVs to be cost competitive with HEVs. Carbon allowance prices offer little leverage for improving cost competitiveness of PHEVs. PHEV life cycle costs must fall to within a few percent of HEVs in order to offer a cost-effective approach to GHG reduction.

Impacts of alternative fuel combustion in cement manufacturing: Life cycle greenhouse gas, biogenic carbon, and criteria air contaminant emissions

Introducing demand to supply ratio as a new metric for understanding life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from rainwater harvesting systems

This study assessed the techno-economic performance and life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for various liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chains in China in order to find the most efficient way to supply and use LNG. This study improves current literature by adding supply chain optimization options (cold energy recovery and hydrogen production) and by analyzing the entire supply chain of four different LNG end-users (power generation, industrial heating, residential heating, and truck usage). This resulted in 33 LNG pathways for which the energy efficiency, life cycle GHG emissions, and life cycle costs were determined by process-based material and energy flow analysis, life cycle assessment, and production cost calculation, respectively. The LNG and hydrogen supply chains were compared with a reference chain (coal or diesel) to determine avoided GHG emissions and GHG avoidance costs. Results show that NG with full cryogenic carbon dioxide capture (FCCC) is most beneficial pathway for both avoided GHG emissions and GHG avoidance costs (70.5–112.4 g CO2-e/MJLNG and 66.0–95.9 $/t CO2-e). The best case was obtained when NG with FCCC replaces coal-fired power plants. Results also indicate that hydrogen pathways requires maturation of new technology options and significant capital cost reductions to become attractive.

The literature analyzing the fuel saving, life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, and ownership cost impacts of lightweighting vehicles with different powertrains is reviewed. Vehicles with lower powertrain efficiencies have higher fuel consumption. Thus, fuel savings from lightweighting internal combustion engine vehicles can be higher than those of hybrid electric and battery electric vehicles. However, the impact of fuel savings on life cycle costs and GHG emissions depends on fuel prices, fuel carbon intensities and fuel storage requirements. Battery electric vehicle fuel savings enable reduction of battery size without sacrificing driving range. This reduces the battery production cost and mass, the latter results in further fuel savings. The carbon intensity of electricity varies widely and is a major source of uncertainty when evaluating the benefits of fuel savings. Hybrid electric vehicles use gasoline more efficiently than internal combustion engine vehicles and do not require large plug-in batteries. Therefore, the benefits of lightweighting depend on the vehicle powertrain. We discuss the value proposition of the use of lightweight materials and alternative powertrains. Future assessments of the benefits of vehicle lightweighting should capture the unique characteristics of emerging vehicle powertrains.

Despite the ever-growing body of life cycle assessment (LCA) literature on electricity generation technologies, inconsistent methods and assumptions hamper comparison across studies and pooling of published results. Synthesis of the body of previous research is necessary to generate robust results to assess and compare environmental performance of different energy technologies for the benefit of policy makers, managers, investors, and citizens. With funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory initiated the LCA Harmonization Project in an effort to rigorously leverage the numerous individual studies to develop collective insights. The goals of this project were to: (1) understand the range of published results of LCAs of electricity generation technologies, (2) reduce the variability in published results that stem from inconsistent methods and assumptions, and (3) clarify the central tendency of published estimates to make the collective results of LCAs available to decision makers in the near term. The LCA Harmonization Project's initial focus was evaluating life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electricity generation technologies. Six articles from this first phase of the project are presented in a special supplemental issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology on Meta-Analysis of LCA: coal (Whitaker et al. 2012), concentratingmore » solar power (Burkhardt et al. 2012), crystalline silicon photovoltaics (PVs) (Hsu et al. 2012), thin-film PVs (Kim et al. 2012), nuclear (Warner and Heath 2012), and wind (Dolan and Heath 2012). Harmonization is a meta-analytical approach that addresses inconsistency in methods and assumptions of previously published life cycle impact estimates. It has been applied in a rigorous manner to estimates of life cycle GHG emissions from many categories of electricity generation technologies in articles that appear in this special supplemental supplemental issue, reducing the variability and clarifying the central tendency of those estimates in ways useful for decision makers and analysts. Each article took a slightly different approach, demonstrating the flexibility of the harmonization approach. Each article also discusses limitations of the current research, and the state of knowledge and of harmonization, pointing toward a path of extending and improving the meta-analysis of LCAs.« less

Life cycle assessment of primary energy demand and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of four propylene production pathways in China

We integrate life cycle indicators for various technologies of an energy system model with high spatiotemporal detail and a focus on Europe and North Africa. Using multi-objective optimization, we calculate a pareto front that allows us to assess the trade-offs between system costs and life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of future power systems. Furthermore, we perform environmental ex-post assessments of selected solutions using a broad set of life cycle impact categories. In a system with the least life cycle GHG emissions, the costs would increase by ~63%, thereby reducing life cycle GHG emissions by ~82% compared to the cost-optimal solution. Power systems mitigating a substantial part of life cycle GHG emissions with small increases in system costs show a trend towards a deployment of wind onshore, electricity grid and a decline in photovoltaic plants and Li-ion storage. Further reductions are achieved by the deployment of concentrated solar power, wind offshore and nuclear power but lead to considerably higher costs compared to the cost-optimal solution. Power systems that mitigate life cycle GHG emissions also perform better for most impact categories but have higher ionizing radiation, water use and increased fossil fuel demand driven by nuclear power. This study shows that it is crucial to consider upstream GHG emissions in future assessments, as they represent an inheritable part of total emissions in ambitious energy scenarios that, so far, mainly aim to reduce direct CO2 emissions.

SummaryIn reviewing life cycle assessment (LCA) literature of utility‐scale concentrating solar power (CSP) systems, this analysis focuses on reducing variability and clarifying the central tendency of published estimates of life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through a meta‐analytical process called harmonization. From 125 references reviewed, 10 produced 36 independent GHG emissions estimates passing screens for quality and relevance: 19 for parabolic trough (trough) technology and 17 for power tower (tower) technology. The interquartile range (IQR) of published estimates for troughs and towers were 83 and 20 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt‐hour (g CO2‐eq/kWh),1 respectively; median estimates were 26 and 38 g CO2‐eq/kWh for trough and tower, respectively.Two levels of harmonization were applied. Light harmonization reduced variability in published estimates by using consistent values for key parameters pertaining to plant design and performance. The IQR and median were reduced by 87% and 17%, respectively, for troughs. For towers, the IQR and median decreased by 33% and 38%, respectively. Next, five trough LCAs reporting detailed life cycle inventories were identified. The variability and central tendency of their estimates are reduced by 91% and 81%, respectively, after light harmonization. By harmonizing these five estimates to consistent values for global warming intensities of materials and expanding system boundaries to consistently include electricity and auxiliary natural gas combustion, variability is reduced by an additional 32% while central tendency increases by 8%. These harmonized values provide useful starting points for policy makers in evaluating life cycle GHG emissions from CSP projects without the requirement to conduct a full LCA for each new project.

Climate change and water scarcity are important issues for today's power sector. To inform capacity expansion decisions, hybrid life cycle assessment is used to evaluate a reference design of a parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) facility located in Daggett, CA, along four sustainability metrics: life cycle (LC) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water consumption, cumulative energy demand (CED), and energy payback time (EPBT). This wet-cooled, 103 MW plant utilizes mined nitrates salts in its two-tank, thermal energy storage (TES) system. Design alternatives of dry-cooling, a thermocline TES, and synthetically derived nitrate salt are evaluated. During its LC, the reference CSP plant is estimated to emit 26 g of CO(2eq) per kWh, consume 4.7 L/kWh of water, and demand 0.40 MJ(eq)/kWh of energy, resulting in an EPBT of approximately 1 year. The dry-cooled alternative is estimated to reduce LC water consumption by 77% but increase LC GHG emissions and CED by 8%. Synthetic nitrate salts may increase LC GHG emissions by 52% compared to mined. Switching from two-tank to thermocline TES configuration reduces LC GHG emissions, most significantly for plants using synthetically derived nitrate salts. CSP can significantly reduce GHG emissions compared to fossil-fueled generation; however, dry-cooling may be required in many locations to minimize water consumption.

The decarbonization of regional electricity systems is a critical enabler of broader economy-wide decarbonization strategies and has motivated robust research on how to decarbonize electricity systems at minimum monetary cost. Since these efforts often focus on the operation of electricity systems, however, they do not account for emissions of the full life cycle associated with different resources. Different resource mixes can achieve a similar level of apparent decarbonization through operational emissions, while achieving very different levels of life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. To explore these differences, we model the expansion of the California electricity system from 2030 to 2045 using a simplified electricity dispatch model to investigate how the planning of future electricity systems may differ between prioritizing minimum cost versus minimum life cycle GHG emissions under a common target for operational GHG reductions. We find that explicitly planning for minimum life cycle GHG emissions yields an additional 1.6%–2.0% reduction in annual life cycle GHG emissions at a cost penalty of 5.1%–6.9% and that electricity resource mixes that minimize life cycle GHG emissions tend to favor high capacity factor zero-carbon resources and long-duration storage compared to a minimum cost approach. Comparatively, we find that aggressive supply chain decarbonization of generation and storage technologies reduces life cycle GHG emissions of electricity supplies by 3.0% to 14% and combining both increases these reductions to 5.0% to 16%. Further, we find that applying a carbon tax to minimum cost-based capacity expansion can incentivize planning to account for life cycle GHG emissions. Our results indicate that a planning approach focused on minimizing life cycle GHG emissions may not be palatable, but significant reductions in life cycle emissions can be realized through conventional mechanisms like carbon taxes, import standards, and targeted supply chain decarbonization.

The decarbonization of regional electricity systems is a critical enabler of broader economy-wide decarbonization strategies and has motivated robust research on how to decarbonize electricity systems at minimum monetary cost. Since these efforts often focus on the operation of electricity systems, however, they do not account for emissions of the full life cycle associated with different resources. Different resource mixes can achieve a similar level of decarbonization apparent decarbonization through operational emissions, while achieving very different levels of life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions. To explore these differences, we model the expansion of the California electricity system from 2030 to 2045 using a simplified electricity dispatch model to investigate how the planning of future electricity systems may differ between prioritizing minimum cost versus minimum life cycle GHG emissions under a common target for operational GHG reductions. We find that explicitly planning for minimum life cycle GHG emissions yields an additional 1.6-2.0% reduction in annual life cycle GHG emissions at a cost penalty of 3.2–9.6% and that electricity resource mixes that minimize life cycle GHG emissions tend to favor high capacity factor zero-carbon resources and long-duration storage compared to a minimum cost approach. Comparatively, we find that aggressive supply chain decarbonization of generation and storage technologies reduces life cycle GHG emissions of electricity supplies by 3.0% to 14% and combining both increases these reductions to 5.0% to 16%. Further, we find that applying a carbon tax to minimum cost-based capacity expansion can incentivize planning to account for life cycle GHG emissions. Our results indicate that a planning approach focused on minimizing life cycle GHG emissions may not be palatable, but significant reductions in life cycle emissions can be realized through conventional mechanisms like carbon taxes, import standards, and targeted supply chain decarbonization.

Plug-in vs. wireless charging: Life cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions for an electric bus system