(390d) Regionalized Dynamic Life Cycle Assessment of Waste Biomass Utilization

Agriculture and forest residues are waste biomass currently underutilized, e.g., they are burned or left on-site, both of which generate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Valorizing waste biomass is a promising solution for enhancing resource utilization efficiency, reducing GHG emissions, and producing bio-based materials/products to replace fossil-based counterparts. Many valorization pathways, such as biofuels, biochar, and bio-based chemicals, have been explored. Previous studies have used life cycle assessment (LCA) to quantify the potential environmental impacts of different valorization pathway, but most of them have not considered the regional and temporal differences in biomass quality and quantity and how biomass removal affects ecosystems and land-related GHG emissions. Understanding the net carbon consequence and potential environmental benefits/risks of different biomass utilization pathways across diverse temporal and spatial scales is critical to support timely decision-making related to engineering, supply chain, and policies.

This talk will present a life cycle modeling framework that integrates LCA with spatial and dynamic modeling for both biomass conversion and ecosystems. The framework allows for regionalized LCA to understand region-specific environmental impacts of biomass utilization within short- or long-term timeframes. This talk will present two case studies related to forest-residue-derived biofuels for demonstration. The first case study will demonstrate how the temporal effects of GHG emissions from both biorefineries and forests affect the life cycle GHG emissions of biofuels and how dynamic LCA can be used to support short- and long-term decision-making related to engineering design and policies. The second case study will discuss how the spatial and temporal factors of forest ecosystems and biorefineries (e.g., regional environmental conditions and biorefinery locations) affect the GHG emissions from both industrial systems and ecosystems (e.g., soil) that ultimately determines the life cycle GHG emissions of biofuels.