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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

Abstract

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 CO 2 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. However, further guidance is needed for assessments of early‐stage technologies, reporting details, and reporting for policymakers and nontechnical decision‐makers.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [1];  [3];  [5];  [1];  [6];  [3];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [7]; ORCiD logo [8];  [3];  [7] more »;  [4];  [2];  [8];  [5];  [9] « less
  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)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office
OSTI Identifier:
1579634
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1573849
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5100-74888
Journal ID: ISSN 2194-4288; MainId:23320;UUID:e1b838ac-fcd7-e911-9c26-ac162d87dfe5;MainAdminID:11796
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Energy Technology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 8; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2194-4288
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
09 BIOMASS FUELS; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage; life cycle assessment; techno-economic assessment

Citation Formats

Sick, Volker, Armstrong, Katy, Cooney, Gregory, Cremonese, Lorenzo, Eggleston, Alexandra, Faber, Grant, Hackett, Gregory, Kätelhön, Arne, Keoleian, Greg, Marano, John, Marriott, Joseph, McCord, Stephen, Miller, Shelie A., Mutchek, Michele, Olfe-Kräutlein, Barbara, Ravikumar, Dwarakanath, Roper, Louise Kjellerup, Schaidle, Joshua A., Skone, Timothy, Smith, Lorraine, Strunge, Till, Styring, Peter, Tao, Ling, Völker, Simon, and Zimmermann, Arno. The Need for and Path to Harmonized Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Assessment for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1002/ente.201901034.
Sick, Volker, Armstrong, Katy, Cooney, Gregory, Cremonese, Lorenzo, Eggleston, Alexandra, Faber, Grant, Hackett, Gregory, Kätelhön, Arne, Keoleian, Greg, Marano, John, Marriott, Joseph, McCord, Stephen, Miller, Shelie A., Mutchek, Michele, Olfe-Kräutlein, Barbara, Ravikumar, Dwarakanath, Roper, Louise Kjellerup, Schaidle, Joshua A., Skone, Timothy, Smith, Lorraine, Strunge, Till, Styring, Peter, Tao, Ling, Völker, Simon, & Zimmermann, Arno. The Need for and Path to Harmonized Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Assessment for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.201901034
Sick, Volker, Armstrong, Katy, Cooney, Gregory, Cremonese, Lorenzo, Eggleston, Alexandra, Faber, Grant, Hackett, Gregory, Kätelhön, Arne, Keoleian, Greg, Marano, John, Marriott, Joseph, McCord, Stephen, Miller, Shelie A., Mutchek, Michele, Olfe-Kräutlein, Barbara, Ravikumar, Dwarakanath, Roper, Louise Kjellerup, Schaidle, Joshua A., Skone, Timothy, Smith, Lorraine, Strunge, Till, Styring, Peter, Tao, Ling, Völker, Simon, and Zimmermann, Arno. Tue . "The Need for and Path to Harmonized Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Assessment for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/ente.201901034. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1579634.
@article{osti_1579634,
title = {The Need for and Path to Harmonized Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Assessment for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Utilization},
author = {Sick, Volker and Armstrong, Katy and Cooney, Gregory and Cremonese, Lorenzo and Eggleston, Alexandra and Faber, Grant and Hackett, Gregory and Kätelhön, Arne and Keoleian, Greg and Marano, John and Marriott, Joseph and McCord, Stephen and Miller, Shelie A. and Mutchek, Michele and Olfe-Kräutlein, Barbara and Ravikumar, Dwarakanath and Roper, Louise Kjellerup and Schaidle, Joshua A. and Skone, Timothy and Smith, Lorraine and Strunge, Till and Styring, Peter and Tao, Ling and Völker, Simon and Zimmermann, Arno},
abstractNote = {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 CO 2 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. However, further guidance is needed for assessments of early‐stage technologies, reporting details, and reporting for policymakers and nontechnical decision‐makers.},
doi = {10.1002/ente.201901034},
journal = {Energy Technology},
number = 11,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Oct 22 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Tue Oct 22 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}

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Cited by: 23 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Illustration of how guidance for LCAs can be subsets of each other, fully in compliance, yet more specialized the more the use case is specified. The overarching ISO standard for life cycle assessment provides the framework for the guidelines for LCA of general CO2 utilization published by themore » Global CO2 Initiative (GCI). The guidelines by NETL further specialize by specifying the source of CO2.« less

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