A matter of meters: state of the art in the life cycle assessment of enhanced geothermal systems

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 2720-2743 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Menberg ◽  
Stephan Pfister ◽  
Philipp Blum ◽  
Peter Bayer
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Enhanced Geothermal Systems ◽  
Geothermal Systems ◽  
Comprehensive Review ◽  
Geothermal Drilling

This article provides a comprehensive review of the environmental performance of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGSs) with a focus on recent and potential future progress in geothermal drilling.

Life cycle assessment of geothermal power generation in the Southern German Molasse Basin – The binary plant Kirchstockach

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Bott ◽  
Kathrin Menberg ◽  
Florian Heberle ◽  
Dieter Brüggemann ◽  
Peter Bayer
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Molasse Basin ◽  
Geothermal Systems ◽  
System Parameters

<p>Under geologically beneficial conditions, geothermal facilities are often rated as efficient, as well as clean and climate-neutral energy technologies. In fact, for supporting a good environmental performance of a technology, the total environmental impact caused by all associated material and energy consumption needs to be examined. Life cycle assessment (LCA) according to ISO standards 14040 and 14044 considers not only operation, but also the construction and decommissioning phases while addressing different environmental impact categories. Therefore, LCA-based environmental evaluation has been proposed in several previous studies. A review of the state-of the art in this field shows that some critical system parameters are often disregarded. Furthermore, many existing studies are solely based on theoretical datasets without validation to specific application cases.</p><p>Our work addresses these two shortcomings by performing a comprehensive LCA using operational data of the binary, two-stage ORC, Kirchstockach power plant in the Southern German Molasse Basin. Given its technical specifications, a representative base case scenario provides an excellent reference for benchmarking against other power plants. Environmental impacts of different technical modifications are assessed in terms of global warming potential, non-renewable energy consumption, aquatic acidification and eutrophication. Using scenario analyses, we consider the influence of emerging key factors, such as refrigerant leakage, focusing on various system components. Firstly, we identify reinforcing effects due to interrelationships between these system parameters, e.g. when using environmentally friendly ORC refrigerants. Secondly, uncertainty analyses provide insights into potential measures for ecological system improvements by using different materials and methods in the construction and operation phases. For comparison and benchmarking purposes, conventional power generation resources and comparable studies in the field of binary geothermal systems, enhanced geothermal systems, and flash systems are included. Besides the general positive ranking of the Kirchstockach power plant environmental performance, our multi-objective study ultimately reveals not only key performance factors, but it also underlines the overall relevance of case studies to validate generic and global assumptions.</p>

scholarly journals Applying Harmonised Geothermal Life Cycle Assessment Guidelines to the Rittershoffen Geothermal Heat Plant

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3820
Author(s):  
Mélanie Douziech ◽  
Lorenzo Tosti ◽  
Nicola Ferrara ◽  
Maria Laura Parisi ◽  
Paula Pérez-López ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Heat Production ◽  
Hot Spot ◽  
Resource Depletion ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Geothermal Systems ◽  
Geothermal Heat ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact

Heat production from a geothermal energy source is gaining increasing attention due to its potential contribution to the decarbonization of the European energy sector. Obtaining representative results of the environmental performances of geothermal systems and comparing them with other renewables is of utmost importance in order to ensure an effective energy transition as targeted by Europe. This work presents the outputs of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed on the Rittershoffen geothermal heat plant applying guidelines that were developed within the H2020 GEOENVI project. The production of 1 kWhth from the Rittershoffen heat plant was compared to the heat produced from natural gas in Europe. Geothermal heat production performed better than the average heat production in climate change and resource use, fossil categories. The LCA identified the electricity consumption during the operation and maintenance phase as a hot spot for several impact categories. A prospective scenario analysis was therefore performed to assess the evolution of the environmental performances of the Rittershoffen heat plant associated with the future French electricity mixes. The increase of renewable energy shares in the future French electricity mix caused the impact on specific categories (e.g., land use and mineral and metals resource depletion) to grow over the years. However, an overall reduction of the environmental impacts of the Rittershoffen heat plant was observed.

scholarly journals Sustainable Agri-Food Processes and Circular Economy Pathways in a Life Cycle Perspective: State of the Art of Applicative Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2472
Author(s):  
Teodora Stillitano ◽  
Emanuele Spada ◽  
Nathalie Iofrida ◽  
Giacomo Falcone ◽  
Anna Irene De Luca
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Qualitative Synthesis

This study aims at providing a systematic and critical review on the state of the art of life cycle applications from the circular economy point of view. In particular, the main objective is to understand how researchers adopt life cycle approaches for the measurement of the empirical circular pathways of agri-food systems along with the overall lifespan. To perform the literature review, the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) protocol was considered to conduct a review by qualitative synthesis. Specifically, an evaluation matrix has been set up to gather and synthesize research evidence, by classifying papers according to several integrated criteria. The literature search was carried out employing scientific databases. The findings highlight that 52 case studies out of 84 (62% of the total) use stand-alone life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the benefits/impacts of circular economy (CE) strategies. In contrast, only eight studies (9.5%) deal with the life cycle costing (LCC) approach combined with other analyses while no paper deals with the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. Global warming potential, eutrophication (for marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems), human toxicity, and ecotoxicity results are the most common LCA indicators applied. Only a few articles deal with the CE assessment through specific indicators. We argue that experts in life cycle methodologies must strive to adopt some key elements to ensure that the results obtained fit perfectly with the measurements of circularity and that these can even be largely based on a common basis.

scholarly journals Life cycle assessment of interior partition walls: Comparison between functionality requirements and best environmental performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 102978
Author(s):  
Yovanna Elena Valencia-Barba ◽  
José Manuel Gómez-Soberón ◽  
María Consolación Gómez-Soberón ◽  
María Neftalí Rojas-Valencia
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Partition Walls
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