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Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States (2022)

Chapter: Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
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Appendix B
Committee Members’ Biographical Sketches

Valerie M. Thomas (Chair) is the Anderson-Interface Chair of Natural Systems in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Engineering. She holds a secondary appointment as professor in the School of Public Policy. She received a B.A. in physics from Swarthmore College in 1981, a Ph.D. in high-energy physics from Cornell University in 1987, and completed post-doctoral training at Carnegie Mellon University in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy. Before coming to Georgia Tech she worked at Princeton University in the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and at the Princeton Environmental Institute. She has also served as the American Physical Society Congressional Science Fellow. Her research is in the area of environmental life-cycle analysis, energy systems analysis, industrial ecology, and sustainability. Recent work has included evaluation of the environmental impacts of biofuels, direct air capture of carbon dioxide, and production of platform chemicals from biomass; comparison of electric vehicle technologies; smart-grid approaches to reducing health impacts from power plants; infrastructure resilience; and international electricity development pathways. She has also worked on leaded gasoline, dioxin, and nuclear issues. In the last several years she has had funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, Algenol Biotech, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Exxon Mobil Corporate Strategic Research, the National Science Foundation, Green Seal, and the JPB Foundation. She is a fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has previously served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board and on the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Energy’s Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee.

Amos A. Avidan has retired as Senior Vice President and manager of Corporate Engineering & Technology from Bechtel Corporation. His primary interest has been in energy systems, including transportation fuels, from conventional hydrocarbons fuels, synthetic fuels, biofuels, reformulated fuels, and various proposed alternative fuels. He started his career working on developing synthetic fuels, then moved on to the production of conventional and reformulated fuels, and then on to natural gas based fuels, especially liquefied natural gas (LNG). Amos holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the City University of New York. He has authored and co-authored numerous technical publications and patents and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009.

Jennifer B. Dunn is an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University. She studies emerging technologies, their energy and environmental impacts, and their potential to influence greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, water consumption, and energy consumption at the economy-wide level. Particular technologies of interest include biofuels and bioproducts, automotive lithium-ion batteries, waste plastics recycling and utilization, advanced manufacturing, and fuels and chemicals made from natural gas liquids. Techno-economic and life cycle analyses are primary tools in her research. She has published extensively on the life-cycle assessment of low-carbon transportation fuels and has served on a National Academies Committee on Developing a Research Agenda for Utilization of Gaseous Carbon Waste Streams (2017–2018). Jennifer enjoys leadership roles in sustainability research and practice at Northwestern as the director of the Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience and the co-chair of the Sustainability Council. Jennifer holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University.

Patrick L. Gurian is a professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Drexel University. He has an A.B. from Harvard in chemistry, an M.S. in environmental engineering

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
×

from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in engineering and public policy and civil and environmental engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He has over 20 years of experience in policy analysis of technological systems with particular attention to supporting regulatory decision making under uncertainty. He has studied how to address the uncertainty in the life-cycle impacts of biofuels, given the variety of conditions under which the feedstocks for these fuels are cultivated.

Jason D. Hill is professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He also serves as a resident fellow of the University’s Institute on the Environment. His research focuses on the environmental consequences of food, energy, agriculture, and natural resource use from a life-cycle perspective. He served on the National Research Council’s Committee on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of Increasing Biofuels Production and on the U.S. EPA Science Advisory Board Biogenic Carbon Advisory Panel. Dr. Hill received his A.B. in biology from Harvard College and his Ph.D. in plant biological sciences from the University of Minnesota.

Madhu Khanna is the ACES Distinguished Professor of Environmental Economics and the Alvin H. Baum Family Chair and Director of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. She is internationally renowned for developing economic models to analyze the direct lifecycle greenhouse gas savings, indirect land use change effects, and biogenic carbon emission effects of first- and second-generation biofuels and of bioelectricity. She has deep expertise in data needs, modeling assumptions, integrating economic and ecosystem models, and uncertainty analysis to study the implications of various methods for life-cycle analysis on the estimates of greenhouse gas savings and land use change due to low carbon fuels under a range of climate and renewable energy policies, including the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the Renewable Fuel Standard, carbon taxes, and others. Dr. Khanna has served on the Chartered Science Advisory Board of the U.S. EPA and chair of its Environmental Economics Advisory Committee. She is a fellow and past President of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. She obtained her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1995.

Annie Levasseur is a professor at the Department of Construction Engineering of École de technologie supérieure, an engineering faculty based in Montreal, Canada. She is also the chairholder of the Canada Research Chair in Measuring the Impact of Human Activities on Climate Change and the Scientific Director of the Centre of Intersectoral Studies and Research on Circular Economy. She is a chemical engineer by training (1999, Polytechnique Montreal) and worked in the oil refining industry for 8 years. She then got a Ph.D. degree (2011, Polytechnique Montreal) with a thesis about the development of a dynamic life-cycle assessment approach for global warming impact assessment. She teaches the integration of environmental and sustainability aspects in engineering projects. Her research expertise is about environmental impact assessment using different methods or combinations of approaches such as life-cycle assessment, greenhouse gas emission inventories, and so on. She works on projects in different sectors, especially in forestry, energy, and construction. She is a recognized expert on topics related to biofuels LCA such as the consideration of biogenic carbon fluxes and the timing of greenhouse gas emissions. She often acts as an expert in the field of life-cycle assessment of bioenergy. For instance, she was the chair of the critical review panel for the Fuel LCA Model Methodology developed by Environment and Climate Change Canada for the coming Canadian Clean Fuel Standard. A few years ago, she was part of the National Academy of Science project “Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda.”

Jeremy I. Martin is director of fuels policy and a senior scientist in the Clean Vehicles Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). Dr. Martin works on state and federal fuels policies and has testified before Congress and state legislatures and briefed legislators and regulators on key fuel policies. Dr. Martin is the author of more than 15 technical publications and 13 patents on topics including biofuels, autonomous vehicles, semiconductors, and polymer physics. His recent reports for UCS cover transportation fuels and fuel policy, ride-haling, and automated vehicles. Before coming to UCS, Dr. Martin worked in research and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
×

development and manufacturing of computer chips at Advanced Micro Devices. Dr. Martin has a Ph.D. in chemistry and a minor in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and English literature from Haverford College.

Jeremy J. Michalek is a professor of engineering and public policy, professor of mechanical engineering, and director of the Vehicle Electrification Group at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on technical, economic, environmental and policy aspects of vehicle electrification, automation, sharing, and other trends in advanced vehicle technologies. Michalek’s awards include the ASME Thar Energy Design Award, the Fenves Award for Systems Research, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award. He serves on the Alternative Transportation Fuels and Technologies Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies.

Steffen Mueller leads the Bioenergy and Sustainable Landscapes Research Group at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Research activities focus on life-cycle emissions analyses of fuel pathways including greenhouse gas emissions assessments from land use change related to biofuels and bioenergy production, quantification of carbon emissions and sequestration effects from production agriculture, and comparative emissions assessments between biofuel and electric vehicle use. Recently, Steffen has been serving as a technical expert to the U.S. Grains Council on the sustainability of U.S.-produced biofuels for export markets and has presented his research in Japan, Korea, China, India, Vietnam, Columbia, and Mexico. He served on the Expert Working Group on Land Use Change for the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard development in 2010 and has published widely on the use of remote sensing technologies for land cover and land use change assessments. Steffen is also a board member of International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC). Dr. Mueller has published over 20 peer-reviewed papers on life-cycle analysis with a wide network of collaborators including Argonne National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Prior to joining the University of Illinois in 2001, he worked in the private sector as director of business development for Skygen Energy and Calpine Corporation, a developer of electric generation power plants. Steffen holds a Ph.D. in energy policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an M.B.A. and a B.S. in environmental engineering from Karlsruhe, Germany.

Nikita Pavlenko is a senior researcher with the ICCT’s Fuels team. He evaluates the climate implications and techno-economics of advanced alternative fuels, with a focus on the aviation sector. He has been nominated as a participant at the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Fuels Task Workgroup to develop the implementation of alternative fuels crediting under CORSIA, and has presented his research on lifecycle assessment at Coordinating Research Council workshop at Argonne National Laboratory. Mr. Pavlenko has a background in carbon accounting and comparative life-cycle analysis, particularly as applied to fuel production. Prior to joining the ICCT, Mr. Pavlenko supported the EPA’s life-cycle material management model, the Waste-Reduction Model (WARM), as well as contributed life-cycle assessment expertise to a variety of environmental impact statements on fossil fuel infrastructure and vehicle efficiency.

Donald W. Scott has 14 years of experience in life-cycle analysis of transportation fuels. He has contributed to the U.S. Life Cycle Inventory Database and numerous publications quantifying the direct and consequential life-cycle impacts of biofuels including land management and land use change. As the director of sustainability for the National Biodiesel Board (Aug. 2008–Aug 2020), Scott led consensus on the development of sustainability principles adopted by the U.S. industry. Scott also chairs the subcommittee on biomass sustainability under ASTM International. Scott currently audits producers and purveyors of biofuels and circular materials under the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification framework. Scott is a licensed professional engineer with a degree in civil engineering from the University of Missouri–Columbia, where he graduated in 1995. Scott also served as chief of surface water for the Missouri Water Resources Center and served 12 years enhancing watershed protection for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
×

Corinne D. Scown is a staff scientist and deputy division director in the Energy Analysis & Environmental Impacts Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, jointly appointed in the Energy & Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley. She also leads the Life-cycle, Economics, and Agronomy Division at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI). Dr. Scown is an expert in life-cycle assessment and technoeconomic analysis, with a focus on bio-based transportation fuel, waste-to-energy systems, and bioproducts. Her prior awards include the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering Lectureship, and the Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award. She has published more than 60 articles in journals including PNAS, Energy & Environmental Science, Science Advances, and Nature. She also serves on the editorial boards at ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Agronomy Journal, and Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability. Dr. Scown received a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering with a double major in engineering and public policy in 2006 from Carnegie Mellon University. She received her M.S. in 2008 and Ph.D. in 2010 in civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley.

Dev S. Shrestha is a professor at the University of Idaho Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. The University of Idaho has a long history of biofuel research since 1979. Dr. Shrestha joined University of Idaho in 2004 after receiving his Ph.D. in agricultural engineering from Iowa State University. One of his research areas includes life-cycle analysis of agricultural systems, primarily biofuel. Dr. Shrestha has published several research papers related to the topic area including indirect land use change and food versus fuel issues. Currently Dr. Shrestha maintains a national website for biodiesel education called BiodieselEducation.org, which he and his colleagues developed during last 15 years as a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Biodiesel Education program. He teaches a course at the university related to energy and environmental policies.

Farzad Taheripour is a research professor in energy economics in the Department of Agricultural Economics of Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006. Professor Taheripour’s research interests are in the areas of energy, agriculture, policy analysis, economic modeling, and life-cycle assessment. He is the leading scholar in assessing biofuels induced land use change emissions. He collaborates with several national and international organizations and institutions. Currently, Dr. Taheripour is a U.S. delegate in the Alternative Fuels Task Force (AFTF) group of the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). As a delegate in the AFTF, Dr. Taheripour leads the efforts to assess induced land use change values for aviation biofuels, a major component of the life-cycle assessment for aviation biofuels. He is the GTAP Research Fellow for the term of 2017–2020. He has over 110 professional publications including journal papers, book chapters, conference papers, and reports with more than 2,800 citations. His i10 publication index is 53, meaning that he has 53 books, book chapters, or papers with at least 10 citations each. His h index is 29, meaning he has 29 publications with 29 or more citations.

Yuan Yao is an assistant professor of industrial ecology and sustainable systems at the Yale School of the Environment. Before joining Yale, she was an assistant professor of sustainability science and engineering at North Carolina State University. She has expertise in life-cycle assessment, technoeconomic analysis, carbon footprint accounting, data analytics, and systems modeling. Her current research focuses on carbon emissions and life-cycle assessment modeling of biofuels and biomass-based products. She received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER), and the Laudise Medal from the International Society of Industrial Ecology. She has been named to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers “35 Under 35” list for emerging chemical engineering leaders. Yao serves as the associate editor for the journal Resources, Conservation & Recycling. Yao published papers in leading journals such as Science, Nature Sustainability, and Environmental Science and Technology. She also served on the Technical Advisory Group for LEAP Partnership in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. She received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Northwestern University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
×
Page 215
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
×
Page 216
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
×
Page 217
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Committee Members' Biographical Sketches." National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2022. Current Methods for Life-Cycle Analyses of Low-Carbon Transportation Fuels in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/26402.
×
Page 218
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Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, with petroleum accounting for 90 percent of transportation fuels. Policymakers encounter a range of questions as they consider low-carbon fuel standards to reduce emissions, including total emissions released from production to use of a fuel or the potential consequences of a policy. Life-cycle assessment is an essential tool for addressing these questions. This report provides researchers and practitioners with a toolkit for applying life-cycle assessment to estimate greenhouse gas emissions, including identification of the best approach to use for a stated policy goal, how to reduce uncertainty and variability through verification and certification, and the core assumptions that can be applied to various fuel types. Policymakers should still use a tailored approach for each fuel type, given that petroleum-based ground, air, and marine transportation fuels necessitate different considerations than alternative fuels including biofuels, hydrogen, and electricity. Ultimately, life-cycle assessments should clearly document what assumptions and methods are used to ensure transparency.

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