1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. 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

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

8. LCA: Applied Indicators

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

10. GHG emissions vs. total environmental impact

11. Thank you for your attention
Download (in german):
Questions and executive summary in English today and: to
Zuckerrohrfeld auf Hawaii

12. 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

13. Biofuels from agricultural area: results

14. 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

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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

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

21. 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

22. 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 - it is internationally very well recognised – executive summary in English