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Life-Cycle Assessment of Cookstove Fuels in India and China
Citation:
Cashman, S. Life-Cycle Assessment of Cookstove Fuels in India and China. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-15/325, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
To conduct LCA study of the cookstove fuels being used in India and China to determine how fuels and stoves compare based on a holistic assessment considering the LCA environmental tradeoffs
Description:
A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to compare the environmental footprint of current and possible fuels used for cooking within China and India. Current fuel mix profiles are compared to scenarios of projected differences in and/or cleaner cooking fuels. Results are reported for a suite of relevant life cycle impact assessment indicators: global climate change, energy demand, fossil depletion, water consumption, particulate matter formation, acidification, eutrophication and photochemical smog formation. Traditional fuels demonstrate notably poor relative performance in particulate matter formation, photochemical oxidant formation, freshwater eutrophication, and black carbon emissions. Most fuels demonstrate trade-offs between impact categories. Stove efficiency is found to be a crucial variable determining environmental performance across all impact categories. The study shows that electricity and many of the processed fuels, while yielding emission reductions in homes at the point of use, transfer many of those emissions upstream into the processing and distribution life cycle stage.