1. ΣΥΣΤΗΜΑΤΑ ΒΙΟΜΑΖΑΣ/ΒΙΟΕΝΕΡΓΕΙΑΣ
ΕΘΝΙΚΟ ΜΕΤΣΟΒΙΟ ΠΟΛΥΤΕΧΝΕΙΟ
ΔΠΜΣ “ΠΑΡΑΓΩΓΗ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΑΧΕΙΡΙΣΗ ΕΝΕΡΓΕΙΑΣ”
Β10. ΒIOMAZA (Βιοενέργεια)
ΣΥΣΤΗΜΑΤΑ ΒΙΟΜΑΖΑΣ/ΒΙΟΕΝΕΡΓΕΙΑΣ
Λάζαρος Καραογλάνογλου, ΕΤΕΠ, Σχoλή Χημικών Μηχανικών ΕΜΠ

2. Part 4: System Feasibility and Sustainability
Defining Sustainability
Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) Methodologies
Crucial LCA related issues for biomass-based energy products
BIOGRACE –The tool for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emission Potential for biomass based transport biofuels, bioelectricity and bioheat

3. Sustainability - Definition (1/2)
Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable—to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainable development does imply limits—not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities.
Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, J. (Hans) van Leeuwen , Robert C. Brown;Sustainable Bioenergy
and Bioproducts; Value Added Engineering Applications; Springer 2012

4. Sustainability - Definition (2/2)
The sustainable use of biomass is defined as a type of use that can be continued indefinitely, without an increase in negative impact due to pollution, while maintaining natural resources and beneficial functions of living nature relevant to humankind over millions of years, i.e., the common lifespan of a mammalian species.
(L. Reijnders, 2006)

5. How should a sustainable biofuel be?
Carbon neutral.
• Not affecting the quality, quantity and rational use of available natural resources.
• Not having undesirable social consequences.
• Contributing to the societal economic development and equity.
• Not affecting the biodiversity
Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, J. (Hans) van Leeuwen , Robert C. Brown;Sustainable Bioenergy
and Bioproducts; Value Added Engineering Applications; Springer 2012

6. SYSTEM FEASIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY
ENVIRONMENT
ECONOMY
SOCIETY

7. SYSTEM FEASIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY
ENVIRONMENT
ECONOMY
SOCIETY

8. SYSTEM FEASIBILITY & SUSTAINABILITY
Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, J. (Hans) van Leeuwen , Robert C. Brown;Sustainable Bioenergy
and Bioproducts; Value Added Engineering Applications; Springer 2012

9. Supply chain design: Environmental dimension
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
preferred tool to evaluate the environmental impacts of products throughout life cycle stages.
methodology for holistic and systematic evaluation of the environmental loads and the potential impacts of a product, process or service from its cradle (raw material extraction) to its grave (disposal)
International Standards Organization series of standards ISO/EN These standards provide transparency and consistency in LCA studies.
C. Cambero, T. Sowlati / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 36 (2014) 62–73
BIOGRACE Project
harmonising the European calculations of biofuel GHG  emissions that  have to be made to comply with the Renewable Energy Directive (RED, 2009/28/EC) and the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD, 2009/30/EC)

10. Supply chain design: Environmental dimension
Life cycle assessment (LCA) Step 1
Goal and scope definition.
project description,
goal of study,
boundary of system and
definition of functional unit.
“cradle-to-grave”, “cradle-to-gate” or “gate-to-gate”
For biofuels “cradle-to-gate” boundary is often adopted, including the life cycle stages from biomass cultivation, harvesting, pretreatment, through transportation, storage and conversion, to the gate of finished-product distribution centers.
The definition of functional unit is also critical, based on which, all the calculations will be performed and normalized.

11. Biofuel/bioenergy production system boundaries
Sarah C. Davis, Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira, Evan H. DeLucia; Trends in Plant Science, Vol.14 No.3; 2009

12. Supply chain design: Environmental dimension
Life cycle assessment (LCA) Step 2
Inventory analysis.
compilation and quantification of life cycle inventory (LCI) associated with each process/stage within the life cycle boundary.
a list of material inputs and outputs for a given product system throughout its life cycle, including the cumulative extraction of resources from the environment (e.g., primary energy, mineral resources) as well as the cumulative emissions to the environment (e.g., gas emissions, liquid and solid wastes).
commercial LCA databases such as Ecoinvent (2008), GaBi (2011), GREET (2012), and open LCA (2012).
for new processes that are not documented, cumulative LCI should be calculated according to energy and mass balance, using the unit process raw data and LCI of background processes. Sometimes, on- site measurements may be necessary.

13. Supply chain design: Environmental dimension
Life cycle assessment (LCA) Step 3
Impact assessment
LCI obtained from the previous phase is translated according to certain damage assessment models.
Series of environmental performance indicators, which are easily understandable and user-friendly numbers.
Global Warming Potential (GWP) focuses on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions causing the global warming effects, while Eco-indicator 99 and IMPACT evaluate the environmental impacts in more comprehensive categories (e.g., human health, ecosystem quality and resources).
The water footprint of biofuel production systems should also be explicitly dealt with, in biofuel supply chain design

14. Supply chain design: Environmental dimension
Life cycle assessment (LCA) Step 4
Interpretation
LCA results are analyzed to provide a set of conclusions and recommendations, usually in the form of written reports.
In this regard, when we consider the biofuel supply chain, the goal of LCA is to provide criteria and quantitative measurements for comparing different network layouts and operation alternatives.
Critical drawbacks of classical LCA framework: lack of a systematic approach for generating such alternatives and identifying the best one in terms of environmental performance

15. Main problems associated with LCA

16. Main problems associated with LCA

17. Main problems associated with LCA

18. Main problems associated with LCA

19. Main problems associated with LCA

20. Main problems associated with LCA

21. How to select environmental indicators?

22. How to select environmental indicators?

23. How to select environmental indicators?

24. How to select environmental indicators?

25. Environmental indicators 1/3

26. Environmental indicators 2/3

27. Environmental indicators 3/3

28. A few hints for indicator selection
The set of environmental indicators selected for assessing the sustainability of different types of bioenergy systems should apply to both large regions and local sites and should be useful to diverse stakeholders. e.g, policymakers may focus on sustainability of the entire supply chain, agronomists may recommend sustainable bioenergy feedstock crops and management practices for different locations, and operation managers may seek to improve their feedstock production and processing systems. Indicators may also help in the implementation of certification programs (several are already in development) that can be applied throughout the supply chain or to its components.

29. Sustainability indicators
The example of GHG Emissions Assessment
Calculation of CO2eq
IPCC

30. Variations in the GHG performance of biofuels
Contradictory results due to differences in local conditions and the design of the specific production systems, and/or different calculation methods and systems boundaries. i.e. Critical factors in grain-based ethanol production i) what kind of land is used for cultivation and the alternative land use, ii) the efficiency in nitrogen fertilisation and how the fertilisers are produced, iii) whether the biofuel plant uses fossil fuels or biomass, and iv) how efficiently by-products are utilised. Depending on these factors, bioethanol could be everything from good to bad from a GHG point of view.
Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 108–120

31. GHG Emissions – The case of biodiesel

32. Sustainability indicators
The example of Land use change
Direct (LUC) vs indirect land use change (ILUC)
Land use change due to biofuel production can occur in two ways:
(i) directly, when uncultivated land, pasture etc is converted to produce energy crops (e.g. grassland is used instead to cultivate cereals for bioethanol), or
(ii) indirectly, through displacement of food and feed crop production to new land areas previously not used for cultivation.
Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 108–120

33. Co-products in LCA
Several biofuel production systems generate co-products and, depending on the methods used in the treatment of these co-products in LCAs, the results may vary significantly. The most common methods used in previous LCAs are system expansion, energy allocation and economic allocation. According to the ISO standard of LCA (ISO, 2006), co-products should be included by system expansion when possible.
Journal of Cleaner Production 19 (2011) 108–120

34. Energy Return On Investment
Sustainability Indicators
Energy Return On Investment
EROI = Energy Output/Energy Input
The energy return on investment (EROI) is a key determinant of the price of energy, as sources of energy that can be tapped relatively cheaply will allow the price to remain low. The ratio decreases when energy becomes scarcer and more difficult to extract or produce.
Desirable: EROI>1

35. Energy Return On Investment
Sustainability Indicators
Energy Return On Investment
EROI = Energy Output/Energy Input
The energy return on investment (EROI) is a key determinant of the price of energy, as sources of energy that can be tapped relatively cheaply will allow the price to remain low. The ratio decreases when energy becomes scarcer and more difficult to extract or produce.
Alternatively…
EROI = Energy Output/Non renewable Energy Input
… Which will give more favorable results
for biomass related energy products
Desirable: EROI>1

36. Sustainability Indicators
Net Energy Gain
NEG = Amount of energy gained - amount of energy spent
Desirable: NEG>0

37. Variability in energy efficiency

38. Biofuels for Transport – LCA
Well to Wheel Analysis (WTW)
Well to Tank (WTT) +
Tank to Wheel (TTW)

39. WTT analysis for biodiesel pathways

40. WTT analysis for biodiesel pathways

41. BIOGRACE

42. BIOGRACE
BIOGRACE enables stakeholders to perform biofuel greenhouse gas calculations according to the Renewable Energy Directive (RED)
Default values determine greenhouse gas emission savings
RED Annex V defines default values for greenhouse gas emission saving of 22 biofuel production pathways
How to calculate greenhouse gas emission savings?
how the default values were calculated and elaborates a list of standard values for greenhouse gas calculations.
Prevent “cherry picking”
economic operators are free to choose the most beneficial values (“cherry-picking”) and in that way enhance the greenhouse gas performance of their biofuels without actually improving anything in the production chain.

43. BIOGRACE

44. BIOGRACE

45. BIOGRACE

46. BIOGRACE

47. BIOGRACE

48. BIOGRACE

49. BIOGRACE

50. BIOGRACE
Production pathways for transport biofuels The RED Annex V gives default values for following 22 biofuel production pathways, each pathway representing one sheet in the BioGrace Excel GHG calculation tool.

51. BIOGRACE
Production pathways for bioheat and bioelectricity