Increasing The Reliability Of Lca Through Process Simulation, With An Application In Lignocellulosic Ethanol Production In Sweden

Conference poster, 2011

One of the prerequisites for LCA is the supply with reliable data, which can be achieved in various manners like for example use of data bases or collection of primary data from industrial operations. However, especially for emerging technologies the already established ways of data procurement do not apply and other options need to be found. One possible choice is the use of process simulation, whose mass and energy balances can deliver reliable data especially on not yet industrialized processes. This makes the integration of process simulation a valuable extension of the current LCA methodology. Implementing the knowledge from a recent literature review of ours, we demonstrate the usefulness of process simulation for LCA purposes using the example of lignocellulosic ethanol production in Sweden. This process is currently not established in an industrial scale and therefore the study also serves as an environmental assessment of an emerging technology. With this we also demonstrate that LCA can be extended to the reliable assessment of new and not yet industrialized processes.