Life Cycle Assessment Harmonization
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a major thrust for sustainability analysis at NREL. Laboratory analysts are currently focusing on ways to "harmonize" LCA analysis and increase its value in the research community.
Analysts are also leveraging information from an existing LCA harmonization project. Their goal is to reduce the uncertainty around estimates for environmental impacts of renewables, and make the information useful to decision-makers in the near term.
NREL analysts have collected LCA literature, pared it down, and parsed it by technology. They are also extracting and statistically analyzing the information.
Environmental stressors being considered include:
- Greenhouse gas emissions (initial focus)
- Water
- Fossil fuel use
- Land-use
- Energy balance
- Major materials (e.g., steel, glass, concrete/cement, etc.)
In the end, one of the main objectives of this harmonization project will be creating consistent system boundaries.
More Information
For more information on life cycle assessment, access the following publications:
"Life Cycle Assessment of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007: Ethanol - Global Warming Potential and Environmental Emissions," (PDF 1.6 MB) by Garvin Heath, David Hsu, Daniel Inman, Andy Aden, and Margaret Mann.
"Life Cycle Assessment of the Use of Jatropha Biodiesel in Indian Locomotives," (PDF 306 KB) by Garvin Heath (NREL) and Michael Whitaker (Symbiotic Engineering).
"Life Cycle Assessment of Thermal Energy Storage: Two-Tank Indirect and Thermocline," (PDF 371 KB) by Garvin Heath, Craig Turchi, John Burkhardt, Chuck Kutscher (NREL); Terese Decker (University of Colorado).
To talk with an analyst about this project, contact Garvin Heath.
|
