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Life Cycle Assessment of Cooking Fuel Systems in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana (Slides)
Citation:
Thorneloe, S. Life Cycle Assessment of Cooking Fuel Systems in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana (Slides). Presented at Alliance Webinar, NA, March 01, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
To provide overview of EPA research products that will assist the Global Alliance in their goal of reducing air toxics from the use of cookstoves and fuels that are used in a majority of the world's households. This work provides holistic understanding of the LCA environmental tradeoff of improved stoves and fuels as changes occur in improved access to electricity in India, China, Ghana, and Kenya.
Description:
This presentation was requested by the Global Alliance to augment they scheduled to present update on the use of LCA to better understand implications of future policy that consider all pollutants including criteria, air toxics, and other pollutants impacting air quality concerns in these countries. EPA research quantitatively demonstrates through the application of LCA that both cooking fuel mix substitutions and stove technology upgrades provide promising avenues for reducing particulate matter and black carbon emissions. India’s continued reliance on crop residue and dung contributes disproportionately to particulate matter and black carbon environmental impacts. The greatest environmental benefit in China can be realized by promoting fuel mix substitutions or stove technology improvements to replace the combustion of coal powder in traditional stoves. Kenya and Ghana would benefit from adoption of improved stove designs for both firewood and charcoal fuel. Use of improved charcoal kiln technology also has the potential to significantly reduce the impact of charcoal use and production. The study generally demonstrates the positive relative environmental results associated with LPG and natural gas, which show a limited tendency to shift environmental burdens away from indoor air pollutants and to other impact categories such as fossil fuel depletion, freshwater eutrophication, and terrestrial acidification potential when substituted for traditional fuels.