In recent years advanced biorefineries based on organic residues and waste have gained increased attention for their potential to obviate first-generation bio-refineries environmental burdens. During the conceptual design phase of an advanced biorefinery the role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is crucial for providing information on its envi-ronmental performances, better solutions, preferable process setup, more suitable feedstock, trade-off, and so on. This review focuses on advanced biorefineries LCAs in order to accomplish a synthesis of the state-of-the-art from the methodological point of view. Some main methodological issues have been analyzed and discussed on twenty-four LCAs. Attention has been drawn to functional units, system boundaries, invento-ry data collection, allocation methods and multifunctionality management ap-proach. Results show different approaches and solutions to the analyzed aspects but some clear addresses can be pointed out. It has been observed that LCA of biore-fineries can be classified in three different types in base on focal aim, and then functional units are consequentially defined. A large variability has been ob-served regarding system boundaries even if “cradle-to-gate” appears the most common. Inventories are mainly based on secondary data due to the very innova-tive features of the analyzed technologies. No general consensus has been ob-served concerning allocation of environmental impact between co-products.

Life Cycle Assessments of Waste-Based Biorefineries—A Critical Review

Serena Righi
2019

Abstract

In recent years advanced biorefineries based on organic residues and waste have gained increased attention for their potential to obviate first-generation bio-refineries environmental burdens. During the conceptual design phase of an advanced biorefinery the role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is crucial for providing information on its envi-ronmental performances, better solutions, preferable process setup, more suitable feedstock, trade-off, and so on. This review focuses on advanced biorefineries LCAs in order to accomplish a synthesis of the state-of-the-art from the methodological point of view. Some main methodological issues have been analyzed and discussed on twenty-four LCAs. Attention has been drawn to functional units, system boundaries, invento-ry data collection, allocation methods and multifunctionality management ap-proach. Results show different approaches and solutions to the analyzed aspects but some clear addresses can be pointed out. It has been observed that LCA of biore-fineries can be classified in three different types in base on focal aim, and then functional units are consequentially defined. A large variability has been ob-served regarding system boundaries even if “cradle-to-gate” appears the most common. Inventories are mainly based on secondary data due to the very innova-tive features of the analyzed technologies. No general consensus has been ob-served concerning allocation of environmental impact between co-products.
2019
Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Systems and Sustainable Energy Technologies
139
154
Serena Righi
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/728922
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