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Title: The Need for and Path to Harmonized Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Assessment for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization

Journal Article · · Energy Technology
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  1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  2. Univ. of Sheffield, Sheffield (United Kingdom)
  3. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  4. Inst. for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam (Germany)
  5. RWTH Aachen, Aachen (Germany)
  6. JM Energy Consulting, Gibsonia, PA (United States)
  7. Volans, London (United Kingdom)
  8. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  9. TU Berlin, Berlin (Germany)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The use of carbon dioxide as a feedstock for a broad range of products can help mitigate the effects of climate change through long-term removal of carbon or as part of a circular carbon economy. Research on capture and conversion technologies has intensified in recent years, and the interest in deploying these technologies is growing fast. However, sound understanding of the environmental and economic impacts of these technologies is required to drive fast deployment and avoid unintended consequences. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) and techno-economic assessments (TEAs) are useful tools to quantify environmental and economic metrics; however, these tools can be very flexible in how they are applied, with the potential to produce significantly different results depending on how the boundaries and assumptions are defined. Built on ISO standards for generic LCAs, several guidance documents have emerged recently from the Global CO2 Initiative, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory that further define assessment specifications for carbon capture and utilization. Overall agreement in the approaches is noted with differences largely based on the intended use cases. As a results, further guidance is needed for assessments of early-stage technologies, reporting details, and reporting for policymakers and nontechnical decision-makers.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Bioenergy Technologies Office (EE-3B)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1579634
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5100-74888; MainId:23320; UUID:e1b838ac-fcd7-e911-9c26-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:11796
Journal Information:
Energy Technology, Journal Name: Energy Technology Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 8; ISSN 2194-4288
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (25)

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09 BIOMASS FUELS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
carbon dioxide capture
utilization and storage
life cycle assessment
techno-economic assessment