Sustainability Assessment of Renewables-Based Products E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Serie: Wiley Series in Renewable Resources
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 809

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Over the past decade, renewables-based technology and sustainability assessment methods have grown tremendously. Renewable energy and products have a significant role in the market today, and the same time sustainability assessment methods have advanced, with a growing standardization of environmental sustainability metrics and consideration of social issues as part of the assessment.

Sustainability Assessment of Renewables-Based Products: Methods and Case Studies is an extensive update and sequel to the 2006 title Renewables-Based Technology: Sustainability Assessment. It discusses the impressive evolution and role renewables have taken in our modern society, highlighting the importance of sustainability principles in the design phase of renewable-based technologies, and presenting a wide range of sustainability assessment methods suitable for renewables-based technologies, together with case studies to demonstrate their applications.

This book is a valuable resource for academics, businesses and policy makers who are active in contributing to more sustainable production and consumption.

For more information on the Wiley Series in Renewable Resources, visit www.wiley.com/go/rrs

Topics covered include:

• The growing role of renewables in our society
• Sustainability in the design phase of products and processes
• Principles of sustainability assessment
• Land use analysis
• Water use analysis
• Material and energy flow analysis
• Exergy and cumulative exergy analysisCarbon and environmental footprint methods
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), social Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing (LCC)
• Case studies: renewable energy, bio-based chemicals and bio-based materials.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

List of Contributors

Series Preface

Preface

References

1 The Growing Role of Biomass for Future Resource Supply—Prospects and Pitfalls

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Global Ecological and Socioeconomic Biomass Flows

1.3 Global Biomass Potentials in 2050

1.4 Critical Socio-Ecological Feedbacks and Sustainability Issues

1.5 Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

2 The Growing Role of Photovoltaic Solar, Wind and Geothermal Energy as Renewables for Electricity Generation

2.1 General Introduction

2.2 Photovoltaic Solar Energy

2.3 Wind Energy

2.4 Geothermal Energy

2.5 Conclusion

References

3 Assessment of Sustainability within Holistic Process Design

3.1 Introduction: Holistic Process Design from Unit Operations to Systems Science Methods

3.2 Use of Life Cycle Assessment in Holistic Process Design

3.3 A Decision-Tree Methodology for Complex Process Design

3.4 Generation of New Synthesis Routes in Bio-Based Supply Chains

3.5 Conclusions

Acknowledgements

References

4 A Mass Balance Approach to Link Sustainable Renewable Resources in Chemical Synthesis with Market Demand

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Renewable Feedstock: Market Drivers, Political Frame

4.3 Traceability of Biomass as Feedstock in the Chemical Industry

4.4 Standard of Mass Balance in Chemical Synthesis

4.5 Sustainability Aspects of Renewable Resources

4.6 Discussion

4.7 Vision and Summary

References

5 Early R&D Stage Sustainability Assessment

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Methodology

5.3 Case Study

5.4 Validation Case Study

5.5 Critical Review and Outlook

5.6 Conclusion

References

6 Assessing the Sustainability of Land Use

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Methodological Issue 1: Consequential Analysis of Land Use Decisions

6.3 Methodological Issue 2: Land Use Impacts on Ecosystems

6.4 Methodological Issue 3: Land Use Impacts on Climate

6.5 Methodological Issue 4: Economic and Social Impact Assessment

6.6 Methodological Issue 5: Integrating Environmental and Economic Assessments

6.7 Discussion

6.8 Conclusions

References

7 Water Use Analysis

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Methods and Tools for Assessing the Sustainable Use of Water

7.3 Case Study: Water Consumption Analysis of Biofuels and Fossil Fuels

7.4 Discussion and Conclusion

References

8 Material Intensity of Food Production and Consumption

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Material Flow Based Approaches for Assessing Sustainable Production and Consumption Systems

8.3 MIPS Concept and Methodology

8.4 Material Intensity of Food Systems

8.5 Results of MIPS for Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs

8.6 Conclusions

References

9 Material and Energy Flow Analysis

9.1 Background

9.2 Methodology

9.3 Case Study

9.4 Conclusion

Acknowledgements

References

10 Exergy and Cumulative Exergy Use Analysis

10.1 What Is Exergy?

10.2 Calculation of Exergy

10.3 Applications of Exergy

10.4 Cumulative Exergy Use Analysis

10.5 Conclusions

References

11 Carbon and Environmental Footprint Methods for Renewables-based Products and Transition Pathways to 2050

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Carbon and Environmental (or Eco) Footprinting

11.3 The Relationship between Environmental Footprint Analysis (EFA) and Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA)

11.4 Carbon and Environmental Footprints Associated with Global Biofuel Production

11.5 Carbon and Environmental Footprints of Low Carbon Transition Pathways

11.6 Concluding Remarks

Acknowledgements

References

12 Tracking Supply and Demand of Biocapacity through Ecological Footprint Accounting

12.1 Summary and Rationale

12.2 Methodology

12.3 Usage Recommendations

12.4 Future Developments

References

13 Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability

13.1 Life Cycle Assessment: A Systemic Approach to Evaluate Impacts