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STUDYING THE EFFECT ON SYSTEM PREFERENCE BY VARYING CO-PRODUCT ALLOCATION IN CREATING LIFE CYCLE INVENTORY
Citation:
CURRAN, MARY ANN. STUDYING THE EFFECT ON SYSTEM PREFERENCE BY VARYING CO-PRODUCT ALLOCATION IN CREATING LIFE CYCLE INVENTORY. DOI10/1021/es070033f, J. Schnoor (ed.), ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC, 41(20):7145-7151, (2007).
Impact/Purpose:
to publish information
Description:
How one models the input and output data for a life cycle assessment can greatly affect the results. Although much attention has been paid to allocation methodology by researchers in the field, general guidance is still lacking. Current research investigated the effect of applying various allocation schemes when creating life cycle inventories, limited to air and water emissions, for alternate fuel systems (conventional gasoline, gasoline with ethanol, and E85) in order to observe the impact, if any, on the ultimate preference of the products. This paper presents a brief explanation of the allocation issue; a summary of the results from a recent literature search; and the results from testing various allocation schemes (weight, volume, market value, energy and demand-based) when viewed across an entire system. Impact indicators for three categories (global warming, ozone depletion, and human health noncancer water impact) are lower for the ethanol fuel systems, while impact indicators for six categories (acidification, ecotoxicity, eutrophication, human health cancer, human health criteria, and photochemical smog) are lower for conventional gasoline. The relative ranking of conventional gas to the ethanol fuels was consistent in all cases, suggesting that the choice of allocation methodology has no impact on the final decision.
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STUDYING THE EFFECT ON SYSTEM PREFERENCE BY VARYING CO-PRODUCT ALLOCATION IN CREATING LIFE CYCLE INVENTORY