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Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Life Cycle Assessments for Wood Energy Services
Author(s) -
Wolf Christian,
Klein Daniel,
WeberBlaschke Gabriele,
Richter Klaus
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1111/jiec.12321
Subject(s) - life cycle assessment , industrial ecology , environmental science , greenhouse gas , global warming potential , environmental impact assessment , environmental economics , biomass (ecology) , global warming , operations management , engineering , climate change , economics , production (economics) , sustainability , ecology , biology , macroeconomics
Summary Environmental impacts of the provision of wood energy have been analyzed through life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques for many years. Systems for the generation of heat, power, and combined heat and power (CHP) differ, and methodological choices for LCA can vary greatly, leading to inconsistent findings. We analyzed factors that promote these findings by conducting a systematic review and meta‐analysis of existing LCA studies for wood energy services. The systematic review investigated crucial methodological and systemic factors, such as system boundaries, allocation, transportation, and technologies, for transformation and conversion of North American and European LCA studies. Meta‐Analysis was performed on published results in the impact category global warming (GW). A total of 30 studies with 97 systems were incorporated. The studies exhibit great differences in their systemic and methodological choices, as well as their functional units, technologies, and resulting outcomes. A total of 44 systems for the generation of power, with a median impact on GW of 0.169 kilograms (kg) of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 ‐eq) per kilowatt‐hour (kWh el ), were identified. Results for the biomass fraction only show a median impact on GW of 0.098 kg CO 2 ‐eq * kWh el −1 . A total of 31 systems producing heat exhibited a median impact on GW of 0.040 kg CO 2 ‐eq * kWh th −1 . With a median impact on GW of 0.066 kg CO 2 ‐eq * kWh el+th −1 , CHP systems show the greatest variability among all analyzed wood energy services. To facilitate comparisons, we propose a methodological approach for the description of system boundaries, the basis for calculations, and reporting of findings.