Expanding Biofuel Production and the Transition to Advanced Biofuels Lessons for Sustainability from the Upper Midwest: Summary of a Workshop (2010) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix E: Assessing the Sustainability of Biofuels: Metrics, Models, and Tools for Evaluating the Impact of Biofuels
Appendix E: Assessing the Sustainability of Biofuels: Metrics, Models, and Tools for Evaluating the Impact of Biofuels
Pages 117-140
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SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORKS The use of the term "sustainability" is so widespread in the discussion of anthropogenic impacts on our planet that its meaning in several contexts, includ ing biofuels, is ill defined. Multiple sustainability frameworks are available, most or all of which are applicable to biofuel production: The Triple Bottom Line.
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(3) Ac tions that may cause species extinction or violate human rights.
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BIOFUEL SUSTAINABILITY PRINCIPLES, CRITERIA, AND INDICATORS To determine whether individual instances of biofuel production are sustain able within the general frameworks above, principles, criteria, and indicators have been developed. Principles are general tenets that adapt the sustainability frameworks discussed above for biofuel production.
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TABLE 1 Summary of Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels Sustainability Principles and Applicable Levels of the Marshall-Toffel Sustainability Hierarchy Hierarchy Principles Levels 1-3 Level 4 1 Obey all local laws and international treaties. X 2 Consider all relevant stakeholders.
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5 Renewable energy production should be energy efficient X and conserve natural resources. 6 Renewable energy production should reduce greenhouse gas X emissions compared to fossil fuels.
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The Inter TABLE 3 Summary of the United Nations Sustainable Bioenergy Framework and Applicable Levels of the Marshall-Toffel Sustainability Hierarchy Hierarchy Issues Levels 1-3 Level 4 1 Ability of modern bioenergy to provide energy services to X the poor. 2 Implications for agro-industrial development and job ?
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European Frameworks Some European sustainability frameworks that are complete with principles, criteria, and indicators are the European Union's Biofuel Directive and Fuel Quality Directive (European Commission, 2008) , the United Kingdom's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO, 2007)
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As concerns of climate change have increased and the life-cycle energy of fuels was better understood, much of the attention has shifted to focus on greenhouse gas emissions from fuels. Within the last several decades, numerous software packages have been developed that contain databases of relevant fuel life-cycle data and frameworks for accounting for greenhouse gas emissions.
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The GREET model converts all greenhouse gas emissions to carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC's)
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. A second study using EBAMM showed that biomass was better used to reduce total greenhouse gas emissions by displacing coal in co-fired burners to generate electricity than by displacing gasoline by produc ing ethanol.
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. The LEM calculates emissions for fuels from the largest numbers of countries of the LCA models and includes inputs for 30 different countries.
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GHGenius is publicly available and is primarily used by researchers within Canada for the calculation of fuel life-cycle emissions. GHGenius focuses on the calculation of past, current, and future fuel emissions using historical trends as a guide for future emissions.
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In addition to greenhouse gases, BESS tracks the use of other resources necessary for the production of ethanol, including water, which other models neglect to track. The model calculates emissions and resource use from four separate modules that consist of crop production, ethanol biorefin ing, cattle feeding, and anaerobic digestion (Liska et al., 2008)
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recently proposed changes to the RFS, which included guidelines that establish standards for evaluating fuel life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. As a part of the RFS framework, qualifying biofuels are required to reduce life-cycle emissions by defined percentages rela tive to the traditional fossil fuels that they replace.
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.10 Swiss Life-Cycle Assessment of Energy Products The Swiss government developed a method for evaluating fuels to determine the full energy, greenhouse gas, and environmental costs of transportation fuels used in Switzerland, The method uses a life-cycle assessment model based on input data from Ecoinvent 1.3 to determine the overall energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of the fuels. The method also evaluates fuels on their overall environmental impacts using Eco-Indicator 99 and Environmental Impact Points, UBP 06.
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The Energy Choice Simulator is a Web-based tool that draws on outputs from GREET to cal culate the change in full life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions based on changes to future policies. In addition to greenhouse gas emissions, the simulator tracks the same regulated pollutants that are included in GREET.
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POLYSYS is a partial-equilibrium model, meaning that it considers the interrelatedness of the agricultural sector with some other sectors, but not all sectors. For instance, it can model the interdependence of biofuel production and prices with livestock feed production and prices, but it cannot model the interdependence of biofuel production and prices with oil production prices.
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Therefore, it is necessary to model the increase in bioenergy production in the form of a mandate, rather than in reaction to energy prices. POLYSYS also cannot simulate forestland, and thus cannot model biomass pro duction from forest residue.
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Since climate instability and the frequency of extreme weather events are projected to increase in the future, the use of historical weather data may decrease the accuracy of runoff and erosion predic tions (BRDI, 2008)
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, RIMS II does not have an appropriate category for biofuels. They fall under the larger category of "organic chemical industry," which does not have sufficiently similar characteristics to those of biofuel production plants.18 IMPLAN -- The Impact Analysis and Planning (IMPLAN)
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(2003) SUMMARY This document has reviewed the proposed and extant frameworks to explore and label the sustainability of biofuel production and the software tools available to quantify different aspects of that sustainability.
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2008. European Parliament legislative resolution of 17 December 2008 on the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 98/70/EC as regards the specification of petrol, diesel and gas-oil and introducing a mechanism to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the use of road transport fuels and amending Council Directive 1999/32/EC, as regards the specification of fuel used by inland waterway vessels and repealing Directive 93/12/EEC.
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A Model for Life-Cycle Energy & Emissions Analysis of Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Production Systems." Available at http://www. bess.unl.edu [Accessed June 2, 2009]
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2003. Bioenergy crop production in the United States: potential quantities, land use changes, and economic impacts on the agricultural sector.
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