IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v291y2021ics0306261921002610.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A life cycle analysis techno-economic assessment framework for evaluating future technology pathways – The residential air-conditioning example

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Yanjie
  • Nian, Victor
  • Li, Hailong
  • Liu, Shengchun
  • Wang, Yabo

Abstract

Clarity on cost and environmental benefits of individual technologies evaluated in a systemic and systematic manner is necessary in communicating the results at the policy level so as to enable effective decisions. Yet, the highly complex nature of many energy modelling tools makes it difficult for non-specialists to interpret and make sense of their results. An integrated life cycle analysis and techno-economic assessment framework is proposed in this study, as a first step towards developing an alternative and potentially more intuitive energy systems modelling tool. The residential air-conditioning sector in the Southeast Asian context is used as an example to demonstrate the advantages of the modelling methodology in profiling future technology pathways. The use of best available R32 technology can lead to cumulative savings of 2195 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in the region by 2050; while the best available R407C technology has an average cost of $40.85 per tonne of greenhouse gas abatement. In addition, our modelling tool is capable of profiling energy outlooks for emerging economies and will be further integrated with hourly energy analysis frameworks in the next steps of development.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Yanjie & Nian, Victor & Li, Hailong & Liu, Shengchun & Wang, Yabo, 2021. "A life cycle analysis techno-economic assessment framework for evaluating future technology pathways – The residential air-conditioning example," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:291:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921002610
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116750
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261921002610
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116750?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Yabo & Liu, Shengchun & Nian, Victor & Li, Xueqiang & Yuan, Jun, 2019. "Life cycle cost-benefit analysis of refrigerant replacement based on experience from a supermarket project," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    2. Yuan, Zhiyi & Ou, Xunmin & Peng, Tianduo & Yan, Xiaoyu, 2018. "Development and application of a life cycle greenhouse gas emission analysis model for mobile air conditioning systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 221(C), pages 161-179.
    3. Edwin, M. & Joseph Sekhar, S., 2018. "Techno- Economic evaluation of milk chilling unit retrofitted with hybrid renewable energy system in coastal province," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 66-78.
    4. Yabo Wang & Victor Nian & Hailong Li & Jun Yuan, 2018. "Life Cycle Analysis of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Power Generation in the Context of Southeast Asia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, June.
    5. Chau, C.K. & Leung, T.M. & Ng, W.Y., 2015. "A review on Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Energy Assessment and Life Cycle Carbon Emissions Assessment on buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 395-413.
    6. Gençer, Emre & Torkamani, Sarah & Miller, Ian & Wu, Tony Wenzhao & O'Sullivan, Francis, 2020. "Sustainable energy system analysis modeling environment: Analyzing life cycle emissions of the energy transition," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    7. Zhang, Lige & Spatari, Sabrina & Sun, Ying, 2020. "Life cycle assessment of novel heat exchanger for dry cooling of power plants based on encapsulated phase change materials," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    8. Karali, Nihan & Shah, Nihar & Park, Won Young & Khanna, Nina & Ding, Chao & Lin, Jiang & Zhou, Nan, 2020. "Improving the energy efficiency of room air conditioners in China: Costs and benefits," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 258(C).
    9. Olabomi, RasaqAdekunle & Jaafar, A. Bakar & Musa, Md Nor & Sarip, Shamsul & Ariffin, Azrin, 2017. "Techno-economic analysis of innovative production and application of solar thermal chilled water for agricultural soil cooling," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 215-224.
    10. Nian, Victor & Chou, S.K. & Su, Bin & Bauly, John, 2014. "Life cycle analysis on carbon emissions from power generation – The nuclear energy example," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 68-82.
    11. repec:reg:rpubli:98 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Nian, Victor, 2016. "Impacts of changing design considerations on the life cycle carbon emissions of solar photovoltaic systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1471-1487.
    13. Nian, Victor, 2016. "Analysis of interconnecting energy systems over a synchronized life cycle," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1024-1036.
    14. Nian, Victor & Liu, Yang & Zhong, Sheng, 2019. "Life cycle cost-benefit analysis of offshore wind energy under the climatic conditions in Southeast Asia – Setting the bottom-line for deployment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 1003-1014.
    15. Nian, Victor & Yuan, Jun, 2017. "A method for analysis of maritime transportation systems in the life cycle approach – The oil tanker example," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1579-1589.
    16. Arrow, K. & Cropper, M. & Gollier, C. & Groom, B. & Heal, G. & Newell, R. & Nordhaus, W. & Pindyck, R. & Pizer, W. & Portney, P. & Sterner, T. & Tol, R. S. J. & Weitzman, Martin L., 2013. "Determining Benefits and Costs for Future Generations," Scholarly Articles 12841963, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aljolani, Osama & Heberle, Florian & Brüggemann, Dieter, 2024. "Thermo-economic and environmental analysis of a CO2 residential air conditioning system in comparison to HFC-410A and HFC-32 in temperate and subtropical climates," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    2. Nian, Victor & Mignacca, Benito & Locatelli, Giorgio, 2022. "Policies toward net-zero: Benchmarking the economic competitiveness of nuclear against wind and solar energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nian, Victor & Mignacca, Benito & Locatelli, Giorgio, 2022. "Policies toward net-zero: Benchmarking the economic competitiveness of nuclear against wind and solar energy," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 320(C).
    2. Wang, Yabo & Liu, Shengchun & Nian, Victor & Li, Xueqiang & Yuan, Jun, 2019. "Life cycle cost-benefit analysis of refrigerant replacement based on experience from a supermarket project," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    3. Nian, Victor & Jindal, Gautam & Li, Hailong, 2019. "A feasibility study on integrating large-scale battery energy storage systems with combined cycle power generation – Setting the bottom line," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 396-408.
    4. Nian, Victor & Liu, Yang & Zhong, Sheng, 2019. "Life cycle cost-benefit analysis of offshore wind energy under the climatic conditions in Southeast Asia – Setting the bottom-line for deployment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 1003-1014.
    5. Yabo Wang & Victor Nian & Hailong Li & Jun Yuan, 2018. "Life Cycle Analysis of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Power Generation in the Context of Southeast Asia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Nian, Victor & Yuan, Jun, 2017. "A method for analysis of maritime transportation systems in the life cycle approach – The oil tanker example," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 1579-1589.
    7. Yang, Shuai & Yuan, Jun & Nian, Victor & Li, Lu & Li, Hailong, 2022. "Economics of marinised offshore charging stations for electrifying the maritime sector," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 322(C).
    8. Nian, Victor, 2016. "The carbon neutrality of electricity generation from woody biomass and coal, a critical comparative evaluation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1069-1080.
    9. Nian, Victor, 2016. "Impacts of changing design considerations on the life cycle carbon emissions of solar photovoltaic systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1471-1487.
    10. Dong, Haiyan & Fu, Yanbo & Jia, Qingquan & Zhang, Tie & Meng, Dequn, 2023. "Low carbon optimization of integrated energy microgrid based on life cycle analysis method and multi time scale energy storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 60-71.
    11. Freeman, Mark C. & Wagner, Gernot & Zeckhauser, Richard J., 2015. "Climate Sensitivity Uncertainty: When Is Good News Bad?," Working Paper Series rwp15-002, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
    12. Krexner, T. & Bauer, A. & Gronauer, A. & Mikovits, C. & Schmidt, J. & Kral, I., 2024. "Environmental life cycle assessment of a stilted and vertical bifacial crop-based agrivoltaic multi land-use system and comparison with a mono land-use of agricultural land," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    13. Koundouri, Phoebe & Roseta-Palma, Catarina & Englezos, Nikolaos, 2017. "Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind: Developments in Economic Models of Groundwater Management," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 11(1), pages 55-96, October.
    14. Ma, Chao & Liu, Zhao, 2022. "Water-surface photovoltaics: Performance, utilization, and interactions with water eco-environment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    15. Gollier, Christian, 2016. "Gamma discounters are short-termist," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 83-90.
    16. Patricia González-Vallejo & Radu Muntean & Jaime Solís-Guzmán & Madelyn Marrero, 2020. "Carbon Footprint of Dwelling Construction in Romania and Spain. A Comparative Analysis with the OERCO2 Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-22, August.
    17. Hänsel, Martin C. & Quaas, Martin F., 2018. "Intertemporal Distribution, Sufficiency, and the Social Cost of Carbon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 520-535.
    18. Li, Hui & Ni, Long & Yao, Yang & Sun, Cheng, 2020. "Annual performance experiments of an earth-air heat exchanger fresh air-handling unit in severe cold regions: Operation, economic and greenhouse gas emission analyses," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 25-37.
    19. Haicheng Jia & Ling Liang & Jiqing Xie & Jianyun Zhang, 2022. "Environmental Effects of Technological Improvements in Polysilicon Photovoltaic Systems in China—A Life Cycle Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-18, July.
    20. J. Doyne Farmer & John Geanakoplos & Matteo G. Richiardi & Miquel Montero & Josep Perelló & Jaume Masoliver, 2024. "Discounting the Distant Future: What Do Historical Bond Prices Imply about the Long-Term Discount Rate?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-25, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:291:y:2021:i:c:s0306261921002610. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.