Title:
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Sustainability Indicators of Biomass Technologies with Other Energy Generation Options
Author(s):
Evans, A., Strezov, V., Evans, T.J.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
The sustainability of electricity generation from biomass dedicated energy crops and biomass waste residues has been compared to that from coal, gas, nuclear and other renewable energy generation options. The assessment was conducted using sustainability indicators across the life cycle of each technology. The sustainability indicators selected for this assessment were electricity price, efficiency of energy generation, greenhouse gas emissions, availability and limitations of each technology, land and water use requirements and social impacts. Overall, electricity generation from biomass waste residues ranks more favourably than gas, coal and nuclear generation. However, biomass dedicated energy crops have poor performance in land and water use requirements as well as low social acceptance, making it the least sustainable electricity generation technology studied. By selecting suitable dedicated energy crops and cultivating them in marginal or degraded soils unsuitable for agricultural production, both land and water requirements could be substantially reduced. This would significantly improve the overall sustainability of biomass dedicated energy crops to above that of coal, gas and nuclear power generation. This is, for instance, the case when weed biomass species are used as types of energy crops for energy production.
Keywords:
life cycle assessment (LCA), sustainability, greenhouse gas emissions
Topic:
Biomass Policies, Markets and Sustainability
Subtopic:
Sustainability assessment and criteria
Event:
19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
VP5.2.8
Pages:
2581 - 2590
ISBN-13:
978-88-89407-55-4
ISBN-10:
88-89407-55-7
Paper DOI:
10.5071/19thEUBCE2011-VP5.2.8
Price:
FREE
