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Life Cycle Assessment of Cooking Fuel Systems in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana
Citation:
Morelli, B., S. Cashman, AND M. Rodgers. Life Cycle Assessment of Cooking Fuel Systems in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-17/225, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
This report documents research to evaluate life cycle assessment environmental tradeoffs from changes in fuels and stove usage in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana. Daily use of traditional cooking fuels and stoves in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana emits harmful air pollutants that are reported to result in over a million premature deaths annually. This research expands on a report published in 2016 (Life Cycle Assessment of Cookstove Fuels in India and China, EPA/600/R-15/325, April 2016) to include Kenya and Ghana and to include results from an extensive series of sensitivity analyses that test the effect of stove thermal efficiency, stove technology use, electrical grid mix, forest renewability factor, and allocation approach on environmental impacts of cookstove use. The data is to ultimately be used in a decision support tool for use in evaluating life-cycle environmental tradeoffs for changing fuels and stoves taking site-specific priorities and constraints into account. The tool will be available for use for those in policy decisions regarding how to reduce household air pollution and what that means in overall life cycle environmental tradeoffs. The study demonstrates the positive environmental results associated with replacing traditional fuels with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas. The results suggest a tendency to shift environmental burdens away from indoor air pollutants and to other impact categories such as fossil fuel depletion, fresh water eutrophication, and terrestrial acidification potential. Electric cookstoves demonstrate positive environmental performance in both Kenya and Ghana, where they are characterized by relatively clean electrical grids. Without a reduction in reliance on the use of coal as a source of electrical energy in India and China, electric cookstoves are not able to match the environmental performance of other modern cooking fuels. Dynamic results workbooks are available to customize selection of national cooking fuel mix, stove technology use, and sensitivity parameters to support the analysis of potential effects on environmental impacts to support cookstove policy development in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana. The research was conducted to support the international cooperation to help reduce household air pollution while considering other unintended consequences from changes in stoves and fuels. This document is of interest in policy development through both international and national efforts to provide more effective and efficient environmental management. Stakeholders interested include the World Health Organization, UNEP, Alliance, and other organizations working to improve human health and the environment.
Description:
Daily use of traditional cooking fuels and stoves in India, China, Kenya, and Ghana emits harmful air pollutants that result in over a million premature deaths annually. Reducing pollution from cookstoves is a key priority, as emissions from traditional cookstoves and open fires with solid fuels are a major health concern and yield numerous environmental impacts. This research expands the geographic scope of the Phase I study to include both Kenya and Ghana. This phase of work developed new stove use emission life cycle inventories (LCIs) based on the results of a literature search and used this information to conduct an uncertainty analysis for each fuel and stove type combination. The current study also performs an extensive series of sensitivity analyses that test the effect of stove thermal efficiency, stove technology use, electrical grid mix, forest renewability factor, and allocation approach on environmental impacts of cookstove use. The study quantifies the effect that potential shifts in the cooking fuel mix may have on the environmental impact of delivered cooking energy for India, China, Kenya, and Ghana. The data is to ultimately be used in a decision support tool for use in evaluating environmental tradeoffs for changing fuels and stoves taking site-specific priorities and constraints into account.
URLs/Downloads:
https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi/P100T7UD.PDF?Dockey=P100T7UD.PDFSupporting Information