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Key Issues in Conducting Life Cycle Assessment of Bio-Based Renewable Energy Sources

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Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

Although there is an ISO-standardized method for conducting life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, its application to renewable energy sources, in particular to bio-based renewable energy (bioenergy) involving agricultural chains, is not straight forward. There are theoretical and practical issues in goal and scope definition, functional unit, inventory analysis, and impact assessment. The debate between attributional LCA and consequential LCA is, for bioenergy, even more crucial than for ordinary products, especially when it comes to either direct or indirect land-use change. Data are often highly variable, and system boundaries are quite arbitrary. For bioenergy from biomass residues, allocation and recycling provide complications. The treatment of biogenic carbon is of particular interest. The choice of impact categories and the necessity of a regionalized impact assessment are another problem. This chapter provides a systematic overview of these topics.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support from NFP-Nuffic, the Netherlands, for EIW is gratefully acknowledged. Appreciation is also given to Research Center for Chemistry, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI, Indonesia), for giving an opportunity for EIW to pursue a PhD study at Leiden University, the Netherlands. We would like to thank Patrik Henriksson of CML, Leiden University, for fruitful discussion. Also, comments from anonymous reviewers are greatly appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, P.O. Box 9518, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Edi Iswanto Wiloso & Reinout Heijungs

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  1. Edi Iswanto Wiloso
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  2. Reinout Heijungs
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Correspondence to Edi Iswanto Wiloso .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. New Delhi, India

    Anoop Singh

  2. PRODEM, Mol, Belgium

    Deepak Pant

  3. Bagsvaerd, Denmark

    Stig Irving Olsen

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Wiloso, E.I., Heijungs, R. (2013). Key Issues in Conducting Life Cycle Assessment of Bio-Based Renewable Energy Sources. In: Singh, A., Pant, D., Olsen, S. (eds) Life Cycle Assessment of Renewable Energy Sources. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5364-1_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-5364-1_2

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