scholarly journals Full life cycle assessment of a wave energy converter

Author(s):  
R.C. Thomson ◽  
G.P. Harrison ◽  
J.P. Chick
Author(s):  
Hakan Karan ◽  
R Camilla Thomson ◽  
Gareth P Harrison

Wave energy has the potential to play an important role in the UK's electricity mix in the coming years and it is important to understand the interactions of wave energy converters with the environment before considering them viable alternatives for other technologies. The aim of this study was to identify the environmental impacts of the deployment of the Oyster wave energy converter to the EMEC test site at Orkney, UK over its lifetime across three general categories: resource use, human health and ecological consequences. A full life cycle assessment was performed on two different models of the Oyster wave energy converter: Oyster 1 and Oyster 800. It was found that the latter is a fitting upgrade for its predecessor as it has lower environmental impacts in all categories; however, the high infrastructural needs of the Oyster technology makes its environmental performance worse than most other wave energy converters. Key sustainability indicators for energy converters include carbon footprint and energy payback period, and these were found to be 79 and 57 gCO2 eq/kWh and 45 and 42 months for the Oyster 1 and Oyster 800, respectively. Although these are significantly higher than most estimates for other types of renewable energy converter, the carbon impacts are still significantly lower than for conventional fossil-fuelled power generation.


Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Zhai ◽  
Linsen Zhu ◽  
Shizhou Lu

This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) study for a buoy-rope-drum (BRD) wave energy converter (WEC), so as to understand the environmental performance of the BRD WEC by eco-labeling its life cycle stages and processes. The BRD WEC was developed by a research group at Shandong University (Weihai). The WEC consists of three main functional modules including buoy, generator and mooring modules. The designed rated power capacity is 10 kW. The LCA modeling is based on data collected from actual design, prototype manufacturing, installation and onsite sea test. Life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis and life cycle impact analysis (LCIA) were conducted. The analyses show that the most significant environmental impact contributor is identified to be the manufacturing stage of the BRD WEC due to consumption of energy and materials. Potential improvement approaches are proposed in the discussion. The LCI and LCIA assessment results are then benchmarked with results from reported LCA studies of other WECs, tidal energy converters, as well as offshore wind and solar PV systems. This study presents the energy and carbon intensities and paybacks with 387 kJ/kWh, 89 gCO2/kWh, 26 months and 23 months respectively. The results show that the energy and carbon intensities of the BRD WEC are slightly larger than, however comparable, in comparison with the referenced WECs, tidal, offshore wind and solar PV systems. A sensitivity analysis was carried out by varying the capacity factor from 20–50%. The energy and carbon intensities could reach as much as 968 kJ/kWh and 222 gCO2/kWh respectively while the capacity factor decreasing to 20%. Limitations for this study and scope of future work are discussed in the conclusion.


2017 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
pp. 3923-3923
Author(s):  
Philippe Blondel ◽  
Jodi Walsh ◽  
Jo K. Garrett ◽  
Philipp R. THIES ◽  
Brendan J. GODLEY ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 206
Author(s):  
Maria Apolonia ◽  
Teresa Simas

So far, very few studies have focused on the quantification of the environmental impacts of a wave energy converter. The current study presents a preliminary Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the MegaRoller wave energy converter, aiming to contribute to decision making regarding the least carbon- and energy-intensive design choices. The LCA encompasses all life cycle stages from “cradle-to-grave” for the wave energy converter, including the panel, foundation, PTO and mooring system, considering its deployment in Peniche, Portugal. Background data was mainly sourced from the manufacturer whereas foreground data was sourced from the Ecoinvent database (v.3.4). The resulting impact assessment of the MegaRoller is aligned with all previous studies in concluding that the main environmental impacts are due to materials use and manufacture, and mainly due to high amounts of material used, particularly steel. The scenario analysis showed that a reduction of the environmental impacts in the final design of the MegaRoller wave energy converter could potentially lie in reducing the quantity of steel by studying alternatives for its replacement. Results are generally comparable with earlier studies for ocean technologies and are very low when compared with other power generating technologies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 01035
Author(s):  
Jingming Jia ◽  
Fumin Ren ◽  
Jintong Zhu

It is critically important to synthesize the life-cycle assessment (LCA) and construction waste content, especially in term in recycling of construction waste resources[1] and optimizing critria in the lifecycle evaluation. That is, the development of construction waste resources is entitled to be boosted, as same as criteria and elements in periodic evaluation concentrating on the module of construction waste. This paper analyzes the disadvantages of construction waste and potential promotion in each stage, which is of great significance for improving the evaluation system and management of construction waste.


2014 ◽  
Vol 687-691 ◽  
pp. 1622-1627
Author(s):  
Ji Wen Chen ◽  
Hong Juan Yang ◽  
Nan Xu ◽  
Li Li

Considering the inheritance and hereditary of product structure life cycle assessment, full life cycle assessment properties of structure is introduced into expression of design scheme. Scheme evolution design is presented based on gene model of full life cycle assessment properties of structure. The gene model of life cycle assessment properties of structure is established. The variable length coding is converted to equal length coding to realize the quantitative representation of structure information. The fitness function is established for life cycle assessment of structure by Analytic Hierarchy Process. The genetic operators are designed. Scheme evolution design is realized based on gene model of life cycle assessment of structure, reflecting life cycle assessment properties of design schemes, improving the efficiency of product design generation. The evolution design example of multi-rope diamond wire saw verifies the feasibility of the imposed method.


2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Pennington ◽  
Anne R. Kapuscinski ◽  
Michael S. Morton ◽  
Anne M. Cooper ◽  
Loren M. Miller

1997 ◽  
pp. 301-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. F. Nissen ◽  
H. Griese ◽  
A. Middendorf ◽  
J. Müller ◽  
H. Pötter ◽  
...  

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