Green Energy to Sustainability: Strategies for Global Industries

14Life Cycle Assessment of Biofuels and Green Commodity Chemicals

Mairi J. Black¹, Onesmus Mwabonje², Aiduan Li Borrion³, and Aurelia Karina Hillary²

¹Department of Science, Technology, Engineering & Public Policy (STEaPP), University College London, London, W1T 6EY, UK

²Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

³Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

CHAPTER MENU

• Introduction
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• The Origin and Principles of Life Cycle Assessment
• Developing a Life Cycle Assessment
• Scope of the Life Cycle Assessment: Attributional verses Consequential
• Biofuels and Green Commodity Chemicals
• Feedstocks for Biofuels
• Conversion of Feedstock
• Supply Chain and Logistics
• Using LCA as a Tool to Assess GHG Emissions and Other Impacts Associated with Bioethanol Production and Supply
• Discussion on the Suitability of LCA
• Perspectives: Moving Forward with the LCA Concept
• References

14.1 Introduction

The concepts and technologies for making and using biofuels have been variously promoted for nearly 200 years, since the invention of the internal combustion engine in 1826 (Songstad et al. 2009). However, it has been the early twenty‐first century that has seen biofuels become a global commercial reality. The reason for their promotion and development at this time has been the result of concerns about energy security; economic development (to promote flagging rural economies ...