Life Cycle Assessment of Power Generation Systems and Energy Storage Units

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Science and Technology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 May 2021) | Viewed by 5023

Special Issue Editors

Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
Interests: energy; exergy and economic analyses; power plant design; optimization and dynamic modelling; waste heat recovery units; organic Rankine cycle; life cycle
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
Interests: CHP; energy storage; thermal energy storage; waste heat recovery; ORC; LCA; operation of energy conversion plants and systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As is already widely known, power generation units fed by fossil fuels are characterized by a not-negligible environmental impact. Thus, since the early 1990s, several countries around the world started to invest in plants fed by renewable energy sources (RES). However, as a consequence of the large penetration of variable and unpredictable RES, the need for installing energy storage units has been growing year by year.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to evaluate the environmental impacts of both energy storage units and power generation plants regardless of whether they are fed by fossil fuels or renewable resources.

In this context, the Special Issue encourages the submission of research which adopts life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques to assess the environmental impacts of:

- Power units fed by both fossil and biofuels;

- Renewable energy sources plants, e.g., plants adopting RES such as solar, wind, biomass, etc.;

- Large- to small-scale energy storage units, such as pumped hydro energy storage (LAES), compressed air energy storage (CAES), batteries, liquid air energy storage (LAES), pumped thermal energy storage (PTES), flywheel, etc.;

- Hybrid systems composed by RES plants, fossil fuel units, and energy storage devices;

- Waste heat recovery units;

- Complex or innovative energy systems.

The Special Issue also welcomes methodological papers about the problems of impact allocation in energy systems, papers concerning novel methods for global environmental assessment of energy systems, papers introducing the concept of circular economy in energy systems, or papers presenting deep LCA analyses of energy systems’ key components.

Submitted manuscripts will be rigorously reviewed by experts in the field with the aim of rapidly publishing and disseminating results of high-quality research on power plants and storage systems life cycle assessment.

Prof. Dr. Alberto Benato
Prof. Dr. Anna Stoppato
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Life cycle assessment 
  • Energy system environmental impacts 
  • Energy storage environmental impacts

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 2824 KiB  
Article
Environmental Impact of Energy Systems Integrated with Electrochemical Accumulators and Powered by Renewable Energy Sources in a Life-Cycle Perspective
by Anna Stoppato, Alberto Benato and Francesco De Vanna
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(6), 2770; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11062770 - 19 Mar 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2686
Abstract
The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of storage systems integrated with energy plants powered by renewable sources. Stationary storage systems proved to be a valid solution for regulating networks, supporting frequency, and managing peaks in electricity supply and [...] Read more.
The aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of storage systems integrated with energy plants powered by renewable sources. Stationary storage systems proved to be a valid solution for regulating networks, supporting frequency, and managing peaks in electricity supply and demand. Recently, their coupling with renewable energy sources has been considered a strategic means of exploiting their high potential since it permits them to overcome their intrinsic uncertainty. Therefore, the storage systems integration with distributed generation can improve the performance of the networks and decrease the costs associated with energy production. However, a question remains regarding the overall environmental sustainability of the final energy production. Focusing on electrochemical accumulators, the problems mainly concern the use of heavy metals and/or impacting chemical components of storage at the center of environmental hazard debates. In this paper, an environmental assessment from a life-cycle perspective of the hybrid energy systems powered by fossil and renewable sources located on two non-interconnected minor islands is presented. Existing configurations are compared with new ones obtained with the addition of batteries for the exploitation of renewable energy. The results show that, for batteries, the assembly phase, including raw material extraction, transport, and assembly, accounts for about 40% of the total, while the remaining part is related to end-of-life processes. The reuse and recycling of the materials have a positive effect on overall impacts. The results also show that the overall impact is strongly related to the actual energy mix of the place where batteries are installed, even if it is usually lower than that of the solution without the batteries. The importance of a proper definition of the functional unit in the analysis is also emphasized in this work. Full article
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17 pages, 1939 KiB  
Article
Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Carbon Dioxide Emissions of Agricultural Residue Feedstock for Bioenergy
by Valerii Havrysh, Antonina Kalinichenko, Anna Brzozowska and Jan Stebila
Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(5), 2009; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11052009 - 24 Feb 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 1757
Abstract
The depletion of fossil fuels and climate change concerns are drivers for the development and expansion of bioenergy. Promoting biomass is vital to move civilization toward a low-carbon economy. To meet European Union targets, it is required to increase the use of agricultural [...] Read more.
The depletion of fossil fuels and climate change concerns are drivers for the development and expansion of bioenergy. Promoting biomass is vital to move civilization toward a low-carbon economy. To meet European Union targets, it is required to increase the use of agricultural residues (including straw) for power generation. Using agricultural residues without accounting for their energy consumed and carbon dioxide emissions distorts the energy and environmental balance, and their analysis is the purpose of this study. In this paper, a life cycle analysis method is applied. The allocation of carbon dioxide emissions and energy inputs in the crop production by allocating between a product (grain) and a byproduct (straw) is modeled. Selected crop yield and the residue-to-crop ratio impact on the above indicators are investigated. We reveal that straw formation can consume between 30% and 70% of the total energy inputs and, therefore, emits relative carbon dioxide emissions. For cereal crops, this energy can be up to 40% of the lower heating value of straw. Energy and environmental indicators of a straw return-to-field technology and straw power generation systems are examined. Full article
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