Challenges of LCA Methods and Applications

Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to estimate the full environmental impacts from producing goods and services. LCA has recently been used to assess transportation fuels and other energy systems. This use has been extended to the regulatory arena, with life-cycle-based regulations being developed in the US and the European Union. Despite this expanding use of LCA, a number of challenges arise in applying LCA for comparative assessment of technologies. This session will address applications of LCA to energy systems for GHG emissions analysis, with an emphasis on addressing the above challenges.