In the last years the European Commission has undertaken some policies in order to reduce the impact on the global warming and to reach the 20-20-20 targets. One of these targets establishes that a share of the 20% in the final energy consumption has to be produced from renewable energy sources within the 2020. This study was focused on the assessment of the environmental sustainability of different scenarios for the production and the combustion of a specific kind of renewable energy that is rapidly increasing in Europe: the pellets. In particular, the goals of the study were two: firstly, it aimed at quantifying the impacts on the impact categories recommended by the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook, published by the European Commission and, afterwards, to compare the results for the impact on the global warming to the Typical GHGs values suggested by the Commission. Data were taken from scientific literature and an effort was made in order to collect data that can be considered as representative for the most common pathways in Europe. Several scenarios, different for feedstock, distance of transport and combustion device were evaluated. The request of raw materials for pellets production is forecasted to increase, thus in this study both the feedstocks more commonly used (e.g. sawdust) and the feedstocks potentially available in the near future, such as energy crops and wheat straw were analysed. These scenarios were compared to a reference scenario that included the extraction, the transport and the final combustion of natural gas in an equivalent combustion device. The study was based on a typical cradle to grave LCA approach and calculations were done using the software Gabi 4.4 for LCA. Results showed that the impact of using pellets instead of natural gas is positive for global warming and ozone layer depletion and it is negative for all the other impact categories analysed. The comparison with the Typical values underlined that the methodology used by the Commission is completely different and it seems to underestimate the energy consumption and the consequent emissions for forest residues collection and for pellets production.
Negli ultimi anni la Commissione Europea ha intrapreso alcune politiche per ridurre gli impatti sul riscaldamento globale per raggiungere i target 20-20-20. Uno di questi target stabilisce la necessità di raggiungere il 20% di energie rinnovabili sul totale dell’energia energia primaria complessivamente utilizzata entro il 2020. Questo studio è stato realizzato per la valutazione della sostenibilità ambientale di diversi scenari di produzione e combustione di una specifica tipologia di biomasse: i pellets. In particolare, gli scopi dello studio sono stati due: in primo luogo quantificare gli impatti sulle categorie d’impatto suggerite dalle International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook, pubblicato dalla Commissione Europea e, successivamente, paragonare i risultati sui cambiamenti climatici con i valori tipici proposti dalla commissione. I dati sono stati presi dalla letteratura scientifica, e sono stati selezionati dati che possano essere considerati rappresentativi delle pratiche più comunemente adottate in ambito europeo. Sono stati analizzati vari scenari, diversi per materia prima, distanza di trasporto e apparato di combustione. Questi scenari sono stati confrontati con uno scenario di riferimento che comprende l’estrazione, il trasporto e la combustione di gas naturale in un apparato di combustione equivalente. Lo studio è un’analisi del ciclo di vita (LCA), basata su un approccio dalla culla alla tomba e i calcoli sono stati svolti con l’ausilio del software Gabi per LCA. I risultati hanno dimostrato che l’utilizzo dei pellets rispetto all’uso di metano ha un impatto positivo per quanto riguarda i cambiamenti climatici e la deplezione dell’ozono, mentre ha un impatto negativo per tutte le altre categorie d’impatto analizzate. Il confronto con i valori tipici ha sottolineato che la metodologia della Commissione Europea è completamente diversa da quella utilizzata in questo studio e che sottostima il consumo di energia e le conseguenti emissioni dovuti alla raccolta dei residui da foreste e alla produzione dei pellets.
Life cycle assessment of pellets production and combustion chain in the European context. LCA della filiera di produzione ed utilizzo dei pellets in Europa
CORRADO, SARA
2010/2011
Abstract
In the last years the European Commission has undertaken some policies in order to reduce the impact on the global warming and to reach the 20-20-20 targets. One of these targets establishes that a share of the 20% in the final energy consumption has to be produced from renewable energy sources within the 2020. This study was focused on the assessment of the environmental sustainability of different scenarios for the production and the combustion of a specific kind of renewable energy that is rapidly increasing in Europe: the pellets. In particular, the goals of the study were two: firstly, it aimed at quantifying the impacts on the impact categories recommended by the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook, published by the European Commission and, afterwards, to compare the results for the impact on the global warming to the Typical GHGs values suggested by the Commission. Data were taken from scientific literature and an effort was made in order to collect data that can be considered as representative for the most common pathways in Europe. Several scenarios, different for feedstock, distance of transport and combustion device were evaluated. The request of raw materials for pellets production is forecasted to increase, thus in this study both the feedstocks more commonly used (e.g. sawdust) and the feedstocks potentially available in the near future, such as energy crops and wheat straw were analysed. These scenarios were compared to a reference scenario that included the extraction, the transport and the final combustion of natural gas in an equivalent combustion device. The study was based on a typical cradle to grave LCA approach and calculations were done using the software Gabi 4.4 for LCA. Results showed that the impact of using pellets instead of natural gas is positive for global warming and ozone layer depletion and it is negative for all the other impact categories analysed. The comparison with the Typical values underlined that the methodology used by the Commission is completely different and it seems to underestimate the energy consumption and the consequent emissions for forest residues collection and for pellets production.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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2012_04_Corrado.pdf
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/51561