Life Cycle Assessment of Various Biofuels: „stolen“ presentation from the project leader Rainer Zah Life Cycle Assessment & Modelling, Federal Institute for Material Science and Technology (EMPA) - An Institute within the ETH-Domain Federal Office for Energy Federal Office for Environment Federal Office for Agriculture Zuckerrohrfeld auf Hawaii

Goals & Methods Study goal: Swiss government will cut fuel tax for biofuels with a „positive environmental balance“. This governmental study serves as a basis for this tax redemption Method: Attributional LCA of full pathways in the year 2004. LCA is based on ecoinvent database: transparent documentation of data, metadata and error estimations Advisory board representing full range of stakeholders: WWF, natural gas federation, oil importers, swiss farmers association, etc. Critical review of the study according to ISO 14‘040 Limitations Consequences like crop extension or displacement are not covered Average values are considered

What are the strengths and limits of Life Cycle Assessment? „Bird's view“ on the studied system from an environmental perspective Quantification of environmental „sustainability“ gets possible LIMITS: Results are focussed on the environment and do not consider economic or social aspects Results are static: if demand for a certain biofuel increases, environmental impacts might change (increased pressure on ecosystems, etc.) - however, results get even worse

Environmental impacts of fuel production? For fossil fuels … and for biofuels Ecotoxicity Air pollution Soil degradation Climate change Ressource depletion Water contamination Main issue for Switzerland: climate change For India: energy security However, integrated assessment is important for all cases Bidiversity loss

Why Life Cycle Assessment? Example: Fossil Energy Demand of Biofuels Fossil fuel  Biofuel On a first sight:  100% savings of fossil energy sources

Example: Fossil Energy Demand of Biofuels Material flows Fossil Energy flows Planting Cultivation Harvesting Processing Transport Seed Production Fertilizer Production Tractor Production Auxiliaries Production Truck Production Car Production Setting up Seed Plantation Building of Fertilizer Plant Building of Tractor Plant Building of Chemical Plant Building of Truck Plant Building of Car Plant

Fossil Energy Demand of Biofuels Biogas Biodiesel Bioethanol Fossil Fuels Fossil energy demand of car use (as % of petrol-fueled car)

LCA: Applied Indicators

Largest impact from agriculture -> land use Greenhouse Warming Potential Largest impact from agriculture -> land use Differences are great within fuel types

GHG emissions vs. total environmental impact

Thank you for your attention Download (in german): www.empa.ch/biofuels Questions and executive summary in English today and: e-mail to rainer.zah@empa.ch Zuckerrohrfeld auf Hawaii

Biofuels from agricultural area: the method Determination of the potential mileage per area and the resulting environmental impact on that area Mileage Pkm/ha Environmental impact Pt/ha worse better 1ha

Biofuels from agricultural area: results

How to handle crop displacement? Functional unit: energy/ha + food/ha 1 ha available in Switzerland for fulfilling the functional unit GHG-emissions and total environmeental impact for different production scenarios Maximizing food production, importing the biofuels Maximizing energy production, importing the food

Biodiesel: Wie wirkt sich die Urwald-Rodung beim Soja-Anbau aus? Markante Auswirkungen auf Energieaufwand und THG-Emissionen Deutlich geringere Auswirkungen auf Gesamtbilanz

Goals & Methods Study goal: Swiss government will cut fuel tax for biofuels with a „positive environmental balance“. This governmental study serves as a basis for this tax redemption Method: Attributional LCA of full pathways in the year 2004. LCA is based on ecoinvent database: transparent documentation of data, metadata and error estimations Advisory board representing full range of stakeholders: WWF, natural gas federation, oil importers, swiss farmers association, etc. Critical review of the study according to ISO 14‘040 Limitations Consequences like crop extensin or displacement are not covered Average values are considered

ecoinvent database system ecoinvent expert Local LCA software Editor ecoinvent Manager Calculation routines Administration tool ecoinvent Database Data exchange in EcoSpold-Format (in XML) Webinterface Local LCA software Data consumer XY

What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)? Step 1: Building the Inventory Product Life Cycle Aggregated analysis of Resource Consumption Aggregated analysis of Environmental Emissions FUNCTIONAL UNIT

GHG-Emissions are dominated by fossil CO2 Greenhouse Warming Potential Treibhauspotential GHG-Emissions are dominated by fossil CO2 Clear cutting forests >50% N2O emissions from soils: up to 40% Production of biogas is dominated by Methane emissions

Experiences in Switzerland: Tax reduction for environmentally friendly biofuels GHG emissions gasoline, EURO3 = 100% < 30% GHG-reduction 30% - 50% GHG-reduction > 50% GHG-reduction

more impact than petrol less impact than petrol GHG-Emissions Smog Acidification Eutrophication Ecotoxicity A number of biofuels allow a reduction of GHG-emissions by > 50% However, only a few biofuels reach the level of fossil fuels with respect to the integrated environmental assessment The environmental impacts could significantly reduced when applying specific measures: e.g., methan pathway: reduction of methan loss e.g. tropical agriculture: reduction of pressure on forests more impact than petrol less impact than petrol

Goals & Methods Study goal: Swiss government will cut fuel tax for biofuels with a „positive environmental balance“. This governmental study serves as a basis for this tax redemption Method: Attributional LCA of full pathways in the year 2004. Consequences like crop extension or displacement are not covered Average values are considered Study has been published on 22. May and can be downloaded at www.empa.ch/biofuels - it is internationally very well recognised – executive summary in English