Training up on lifecycle analysis for biomass systems
In February, we welcomed representatives from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) projects to Aston University for a training session on lifecycle analysis (LCA) for biomass systems.
Lifecycle analysis is an invaluable tool for understanding the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with technologies and systems and highlighting routes to improve them, and it is essential in supporting the deployment of technologies that actually deliver greenhouse gas emission reductions.
The session was organised by our Policy Fellow Joanna Sparks at the request of DESNZ, and led by LCA experts Patricia Thornley, Mirjam Röder (both Aston University), Rachael Rothman (University of Sheffield), Gioia Falcone (University of Glasgow), Isabela Butnar (UCL), Andrew Welfle (University of Manchester) and Sam Cooper (University of Bath).
In the morning, industry representatives from the NZIP projects had the opportunity to hear from the experts on a range of key topics covering:
- What is an LCA, understanding system boundaries and framing your LCA question
- Accounting for biogenic carbon
- Embodied emissions in LCAs
- Dealing with counterfactuals
- Consequential vs attributional assessment
- Allocation procedures for LCA results.
This was followed by a series of presentations from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero covering the Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard and greenhouse gas removal standards in the UK. Joanna Sparks closed the morning with her presentation on the UK Biomass Strategy.
The afternoon was focused on giving the NZIP projects the opportunity to discuss their LCA challenges with facilitated group sessions to share current processes and systems and to think about the LCA questions they are aiming to address. A presentation on data quality followed, and then finally an opportunity for each project to work on their own LCA plan using a worksheet template with experts on hand to help.
The day was wrapped up with information on the UN Environment Programme’s biogenic carbon guidance project and final words from Patricia Thornley, Director of the Supergen Bioenergy Hub.
We are planning to run more training sessions in the future, so if you’re interested in a session on LCA or another topic, please get in touch.
