Life Cycle Assessment of Biofuels

Life cycle assessment (LCA) assesses the environmental burdens or impacts of products from cradle to grave. It is also possible to assess such burdens or impacts for parts of the life cycle. A brief overview is given of LCA methodology. A number of choices have to be made in the goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, and impact assessment stages of life cycle assessments. Such choices can have substantial impacts on LCA outcomes. There are uncertainties in outcomes linked to inventory data and modeling. In the case that future biofuels and production processes are studied, assessment outcomes are characterized by relatively large uncertainties. Choices and uncertainties should be considered in the interpretation stage of life cycle assessments. Methodologies applied to several important environmentally relevant aspects of biofuel life cycles are discussed. These aspects are: emissions of substances impacting climate, depletion of virtually nonrenewable abiotic resources, primary energy demand, and water footprint. LCA can be useful in identifying life cycle stages and processes that are major contributors to environmental burdens, for determining the energetic return on energy invested in biofuels, for the identification of environmental trade-offs, and for comparing the life cycle environmental burdens of products.