Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, and Research and Development A Final Report (2024) / Chapter Skim
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3 Life Cycle, Techno-Economic, and Societal/Equity Assessments of CO2 Utilization Processes, Technologies, and Systems
3 Life Cycle, Techno-Economic, and Societal/Equity Assessments of CO2 Utilization Processes, Technologies, and Systems
Pages 65-106
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From page 65... ...
Thus, as CO2 utilization technologies are being developed, decision-support tools are important to ascertain not just economic competitiveness but also the environmental sustainability and equity outcomes associated with their deployment. Such tools can quantify and inform the progress of emerging CO2 utilization technologies and strategies for reaching net zero and a circular carbon economy.
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Carbon utilization technologies range in their technological development from early technology readiness level (TRL) 2 through pilot, demonstration, and full commercialization (IEA 2021; Sick et al.
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. In the case of CO2 capture and utilization technologies, such assessments are far from straightforward, owing to both technology and market factors.
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The goal for a TEA is to address techno-economic questions, such as the cost or potential profitability of a new technology, process, product, plant, or project. TEA is often carried out for a specific audience (e.g., assessment of a CO2 utilization reaction concept for a funding agency, assessment of a CO2 utilization plant concept for industry managers, assessment of CO2 utilization technology options for policy makers)
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LCC increasingly includes environmental costs. • Hotspot Assessment and Analysis: Hotspots are points, areas, or steps in the value chains of a product where significant environmental, cost, or equity problems may arise as a consequence of deploying a technology.
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After substantial technical changes are made or more accurate data is obtained, repeated assessments will allow practitioners to obtain updated information and guidance for decisions on whether and how to proceed. 3.2 TECHNO-ECONOMIC ASSESSMENTS FOR CARBON UTILIZATION TEAs are routinely conducted for CO2 utilization technologies across TRLs, resulting in a wide range of published estimates.
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2020) ,3 while production costs from CO2 utilization technologies were estimated to be $0.39 (0.18–0.64)
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FIGURE 3-3 Visual overview of the methodological building blocks that comprise an ex-ante techno-economic assessment of a future low-temperature CO2 electrolysis-based plant. For a low-TRL technology like a CO2 electrolysis-based plant, data and uncertainties about the performance impact the design and cost evaluation.
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and 11 distinct carbonaceous products, leveraging results to compare the minimum selling prices (i.e., required price to break even with production costs) to market prices (Huang et al.
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. Assessments for low TRL necessarily will be very limiting, driven by the lack of sufficiently accurate data, technology details, and information about potential applications, and can provide only high-level insights.
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. 3.2.3.2 CO2 Purity The CO2 stream will contain multiple source-dependent impurities that may negatively impact the performance and costs of CO2 utilization technologies.
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. To date, most experimental studies of CO2 utilization technologies have used near-pure CO2.
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LIFE CYCLE, TECHNO-ECONOMIC, AND SOCIETAL/EQUITY ASSESSMENTS 77 FIGURE 3-5 Illustrative cost trajectory of an advanced technology from first-of-its-kind to mature plant. SOURCE: Roussanaly et al.
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Overall supply chain factors -- for example, raw material availability, cost, transportation modes, and product distribution channels -- are highly context-specific. An International Energy Agency (IEA)
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LIFE CYCLE, TECHNO-ECONOMIC, AND SOCIETAL/EQUITY ASSESSMENTS 79 FIGURE 3-7 An assessment model can use probability functions of uncertainties for the input variables. NOTE: These functions are the input for a simulation model that predicts the values of the selected indicators, including their uncertainty.
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For CO2 utilization technologies at early TRL, selecting the most likely competitor technology is not straightforward. Figure 3-9 shows a selection of 69 process routes to produce ethylene from alternative carbon sources (e.g., biomass, CO2, waste)
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Use of wind power resulted in lower environmental impacts across most impact categories compared to grid mixes that include fossil fuels. Given the challenges in completing consistent and comparable LCAs of CO2 utilization technologies, the committee compiled additional guidance on LCA for CO2 utilization, clarifying how to conduct these assessments and how decision makers can make use of results across TRLs.
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. 3.3.2 What LCA Can and Cannot Do in Assessing CO2 Utilization Technologies 3.3.2.1 Dependencies The accuracy and certainty of LCA results depend on the representativeness of the input data, which will be more uncertain for earlier-stage technologies.
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Additionally, LCAs of presently deployed and future CO2 utilization technologies will face different challenges in the uncertainty of impacts. Impact assessment models and the associated characterization factors can rapidly become outdated, so the accuracy of LCA results is tied to the data vintage associated with the most recent update.
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. Specific to CO2 utilization, uncertainty will be further challenged by scarcity in life cycle inventory data (i.e., the data inputs and outputs for different life cycle stages)
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For example, one LCA compared CO2 utilization technologies based on the treatment of 1 kg of CO2 (Thonemann and Pizzol 2019)
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Application of LCA to CO2 utilization technologies is often challenged by making assumptions about the duration of storage, as actual duration is unknown. Carbon storage duration is also an important consideration for uncertainty and/or sensitivity analyses.
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Complex trade-offs on weighting factors among categories may depend on local stakeholder values and drive substantial complexity that goes beyond results provided by LCA. 3.3.4.6 Addressing Uncertainty Owing to the emergent nature of most CO2 utilization technologies, uncertainty analyses are of particular importance.
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For example, with the 45Q carbon utilization tax credit, DOE engages LCA for environmental assessment, but not for societal implications. Instead, DOE addresses societal implications for project funding by requiring Community Benefits Plans as a means of attaining Justice40 Initiative outcomes (see Chapter 4 for more detail)
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. 3.4.1.2 Equity Assessment Tools and Uncertainties No standardized s-LCA tools or methods are of similar quality to life cycle costing or e-LCAs (Reijnders 2022)
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Promoting social responsibility The improvement of social responsibility contributed by the whole value chain of the investigated system. Supplier relationships The cooperation between the supplies and the investigated system should be facilitated stably.
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. Policies and programs that acknowledge these shortcomings and incorporate supplemental equity and justice elements -- such as meaningful community engagement or an explicit focus on environmental justice -- could be beneficial for equity assessments.
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. Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products.
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This is especially relevant if an incumbent product exists and the CO2-derived version might have additional societal contributions that could either avoid or remedy injustices created by the existence or waste-stream of a particular product. 3.5 HANDLING CIRCULAR ECONOMY SYSTEMS A key aspect when discussing CO2 utilization technologies is their ability to achieve circular carbon chains.
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focus on identifying key elements for BC-LCA, including mapping of value chains, identification of tracking methods, and data collection and validation protocols. The cases investigated in the literature examine products like leather for fashion and have yet to be applied to CO2 utilization technologies.
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Recommendation 3-2: Research needs for CO2 purity in techno-economic and life cycle assessments -- The Department of Energy (DOE) and other relevant funding agencies should fund projects that examine the robustness of CO2 utilization technologies to different CO2 purities, as well as fund fur ther research and development of CO2 purification technologies.
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Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology should support research into improving evaluation of non-CO2-emissions impacts within life cycle assessments (LCAs) of CO2 utilization technologies, including a.
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Environmental Protection Agency, should evaluate life cycle assessment tools for their applicability to equity assessments and environmental justice, based on technology readiness level, time to deployment, and challenges and opportunities for selecting the sites of facilities. Finding 3-9: Circularity of carbon products -- The use of circularity strategies that keep carbon in products through multiple cycles of use and recycling, are starting to be considered as a way to significantly extend the storage duration of carbon, including fossil carbon.
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Environmental Protection Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology should support research into improving evaluation of non-CO2-emissions impacts within life cycle assessments (LCAs) of CO2 utilization technologies, including a. Evaluating the appropriate but differentiated applications for global and local impact categories, as the latter generally involves data and information with high spatial and temporal granularity (e.g., processes versus facilities, technology readiness level of various components of the technology)
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2013. "Development of a Social Impact Assessment Methodology for Recycling Systems in Low-Income Countries." International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 18(5)
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2022. "Clarification to Recent Publication -- Incremental Approach for the Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Analysis of Carbon Capture and Utilization." Technical Publications.
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2021. "Analytical Review of Life-Cycle Envi ronmental Impacts of Carbon Capture and Utilization Technologies." ChemSusChem 14(4)
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2010. "Considering Time in LCA: Dynamic LCA and Its Application to Global Warming Impact Assessments." Environmental Science and Technology 44(8)
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2024. "Improving Life Cycle Assessment for Carbon Capture and Circular Product Systems." The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 29(3)
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2014. "Seven Simple Steps to Improve Cost Estimates for Advanced Carbon Capture Technologies." Presented at the Department of Energy Transformational Carbon Capture Technology Workshop.
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2019. "Consequential Life Cycle Assessment of Carbon Capture and Utilization Technologies Within the Chemical Industry." Energy and Environmental Science.
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2017. "Assessing Early-Stage CO2 Utilization Technologies -- Comparing Apples and Oranges?
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