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Integrated life cycle sustainability assessment – A practical approach applied to biorefineries

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  • Keller, Heiko
  • Rettenmaier, Nils
  • Reinhardt, Guido Andreas

Abstract

Politics and industry increasingly request comprehensive ex-ante decision support from a sustainability perspective in complex strategic decision situations. Several approaches have been introduced in the last years to increase the comprehensiveness of life cycle based assessments from covering only environmental aspects towards covering all sustainability aspects. This way, (environmental) life cycle assessment (LCA) has been extended towards life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA). However, a practical application in ex-ante decision support requires additional features and flexibility that do not exist in the newly devised frameworks. Our methodology of integrated life cycle sustainability assessment (ILCSA) builds upon existing frameworks, extends them with features for ex-ante assessments that increase the value for decision makers and introduces a structured discussion of results to derive concrete conclusions and recommendations. At the same time, the flexibility allows for focussing on those sustainability aspects relevant in the respective decision situation using the best available methodology for assessing each aspect within the overarching ILCSA. ILCSA has so far been successfully applied in five large EC-funded projects. We discuss our methodology based on a concrete application example from these projects.

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  • Keller, Heiko & Rettenmaier, Nils & Reinhardt, Guido Andreas, 2015. "Integrated life cycle sustainability assessment – A practical approach applied to biorefineries," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 1072-1081.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:154:y:2015:i:c:p:1072-1081
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.095
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    6. Christina Wulf & Jasmin Werker & Christopher Ball & Petra Zapp & Wilhelm Kuckshinrichs, 2019. "Review of Sustainability Assessment Approaches Based on Life Cycles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-43, October.
    7. Nuri Cihat Onat & Murat Kucukvar & Anthony Halog & Scott Cloutier, 2017. "Systems Thinking for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: A Review of Recent Developments, Applications, and Future Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-25, April.
    8. Pasquale Marcello Falcone & Sara González García & Enrica Imbert & Lucía Lijó & María Teresa Moreira & Almona Tani & Valentina Elena Tartiu & Piergiuseppe Morone, 2019. "Transitioning towards the bio‐economy: Assessing the social dimension through a stakeholder lens," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(5), pages 1135-1153, September.
    9. Schlör, H. & Venghaus, S. & Zapp, P. & Marx, J. & Schreiber, A. & Hake, J.-Fr., 2018. "The energy-mineral-society nexus – A social LCA model," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 999-1008.
    10. Najmul Hoque & Wahidul Biswas & Ilyas Mazhar & Ian Howard, 2020. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Alternative Energy Sources for the Western Australian Transport Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-33, July.
    11. Budzianowski, Wojciech M. & Postawa, Karol, 2016. "Total Chain Integration of sustainable biorefinery systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1432-1446.
    12. Ramos, Ana & Rouboa, Abel, 2022. "Life cycle thinking of plasma gasification as a waste-to-energy tool: Review on environmental, economic and social aspects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    13. Togarcheti, Sarat Chandra & Mediboyina, Maneesh kumar & Chauhan, Vikas Singh & Mukherji, Suparna & Ravi, Sarada & Mudliar, Sandeep Narayan, 2017. "Life cycle assessment of microalgae based biodiesel production to evaluate the impact of biomass productivity and energy source," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 286-294.
    14. Oluwaseun Nubi & Stephen Morse & Richard J. Murphy, 2022. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Electricity Generation from Municipal Solid Waste in Nigeria: A Prospective Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Peter Tarne & Marzia Traverso & Matthias Finkbeiner, 2017. "Review of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment and Potential for Its Adoption at an Automotive Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-23, April.
    16. Paulo Peças & Lenin John & Inês Ribeiro & António J. Baptista & Sara M. Pinto & Rui Dias & Juan Henriques & Marco Estrela & André Pilastri & Fernando Cunha, 2023. "Holistic Framework to Data-Driven Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-21, February.
    17. Martin Kügemann & Heracles Polatidis, 2022. "Methodological Framework to Select Evaluation Criteria for Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis of Road Transportation Fuels and Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-18, July.
    18. Michael Martin & Frida Røyne & Tomas Ekvall & Åsa Moberg, 2018. "Life Cycle Sustainability Evaluations of Bio-based Value Chains: Reviewing the Indicators from a Swedish Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Zeug, Walther & Bezama, Alberto & Thrän, Daniela, 2020. "Towards a holistic and integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of the bioeconomy: Background on concepts, visions and measurements," UFZ Discussion Papers 7/2020, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).

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