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Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) has long been utilized for decision making about the sustainability of products. LCA provides information about the total emissions generated for a given functional unit of a product, which is utilized by industries or consumers for comparing two products with regards to environmental performance. However, many existing LCAs utilize data that is representative of an average system with regards to life cycle stage, thus providing an aggregate picture. It has been shown that regional variation may lead to large variation in the environmental impacts of a product, specifically dealing with energy consumption, related emissions and resource consumptions. Hence, improving the reliability of LCA results for decision making with regards to environmental performance needs regional models to be incorporated for building a life cycle inventory that is representative of the origin of products from a certain region. In this work, we present the integration of regionalized data from process systems models and other sources to build regional LCA models and quantify the spatial variations per unit of biodiesel produced in the state of Indiana for environmental impact. In order to include regional variation, we have incorporated information about plant capacity for producing biodiesel from North and Central Indiana. The LCA model built is a cradle-to-gate. Once the region-specific models are built, the data were utilized in SimaPro to integrate with upstream processes to perform a life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). We report the results per liter of biodiesel from northern and central Indiana facilities in this work. The impact categories studied were global warming potential (kg CO2 eq) and freshwater eutrophication (kg P eq). While there were a lot of variations at individual county level, both regions had a similar global warming potential impact and the northern region had relatively lower eutrophication impacts.
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Lithium and water: Hydrosocial impacts across the life cycle of energy storage
Abstract As a key ingredient of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), lithium plays a significant role in climate change mitigation, but lithium has considerable impacts on water and society across its life cycle. Upstream extraction methods—including open‐pit mining, brine evaporation, and novel direct lithium extraction (DLE)—and downstream processes present different impacts on both the quantity and quality of water resources, leading to water depletion and contamination. Regarding upstream extraction, it is critical for a comprehensive assessment of lithium's life cycle to include cumulative impacts related not only to freshwater, but also mineralized or saline groundwater, also known as brine. Legal frameworks have obscured social and ecological impacts by treating brine as a mineral rather than water in regulation of lithium extraction through brine evaporation. Analysis of cumulative impacts across the lifespan of lithium reveals not only water impacts in conventional open‐pit mining and brine evaporation, but also significant freshwater needs for DLE technologies, as well as burdens on fenceline communities related to wastewater in processing, chemical contaminants in battery manufacturing, water use for cooling in energy storage, and water quality hazards in recycling. Water analysis in lithium life cycle assessments (LCAs) tends to exclude brine and lack hydrosocial context on the environmental justice implications of water use by life cycle stage. New research directions might benefit from taking a more community‐engaged and cradle‐to‐cradle approach to lithium LCAs, including regionalized impact analysis of freshwater use in DLE, as well as wastewater pollution, cooling water, and recycling hazards from downstream processes. This article is categorized under:Human Water > Human WaterHuman Water > Water GovernanceHuman Water > Water as Imagined and RepresentedScience of Water > Water and Environmental Change
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- Award ID(s):
- 2215409
- PAR ID:
- 10524537
- Publisher / Repository:
- WIREs Water
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- WIREs Water
- ISSN:
- 2049-1948
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Energy transitions are reshaping hydrosocial relations. How they will be reshaped, however, depends on location and water's material relationship to other resources and industrial activities embedded within energy transitions. To highlight this, we focus on three different resources—coal, natural gas, and lithium—to signal how the water–energy nexus will be reworked in a transition away from fossil fuels. We examine the water–coal nexus as an example of a resource relationship that is transitioningout, or that is being moved away from in the green energy transition. Natural gas represents the “bridge fuel” usedthroughthe transition. Lithium illustrates a resourceinsidethe green transition, as it is a fundamental material for green technologiesinthe transition to a low‐carbon future. Coal, natural gas, and lithium each have their own material impacts to water resources that stem from their industrial lifecycle and different implications for communities shaped by coal, natural gas, and lithium activities. To explore this, we review each of these resources' connection to water, their legal and regulatory dimensions, and their impact on communities and water justice. We argue that the energy transition is also a hydrosocial transition that will create uneven water‐related benefits and burdens. To maximize sustainability and equity, efforts to decarbonize energy systems must examine the localized, place‐based hydrosocial relations that differentially affect communities. This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Planning WaterHuman Water > Water GovernanceHuman Water > Rights to Watermore » « less
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Advances in hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) technologies and horizontal drilling have enabled the extraction of previously unviable unconventional oil and gas resources. However, as global environmental concerns have become more prominent and unconventional oil and gas developments have moved ever closer to residential centers, public scrutiny of the industry and its methods and impacts of extraction have increased. Water impacts feature prominently among the contemporary societal concerns about fracking. These concerns include the large water requirements of the process itself, as well as concerns about the potential pollution of groundwater and the (underground) environment more broadly. Anthropologists have undertaken qualitative field research on unconventional gas developments in a variety of settings, largely among local communities in regions of extraction. The perspectives employed by anthropologists are commonly drawn from the broader social science literature, including the anthropology of water and natural resources, science and technology studies, studies of social movements, and studies which examine the energy‐society nexus. Based on the shortcomings of the published anthropological accounts, interdisciplinary research collaboration with hydrologists, engineers and economists, as well as a more fulsome engagement with the variety of hopes, fears and dreams of fracking and unconventional gas, is recommended.WIREs Water2018, 5:e1272. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1272 This article is categorized under:Engineering Water > Sustainable Engineering of WaterScience of Water > Water QualityHuman Water > Methodsmore » « less
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Summary Human‐caused climate change is predicted to bring more frequent droughts and higher temperatures in the western United States, which threaten ecologically important trembling aspen forests.We used ring‐specific vulnerability curves of aspen branches along two climate gradients to determine whether damages to pit membranes accumulate as the xylem ages.We found that rings older than 3 yr have a significant decline in hydraulic conductivity, especially at average summer water potentials for the species. These differences were not due to differences in the diameter of the vessels, but a difference in how much xylem was active between rings older than 3 yr and 1 yr, suggesting the presence of accumulated damage to pit membranes impairing water transport.Vulnerability to embolism differs across ring age and between wetter and drier populations, underscoring that damages due to drought may accumulate to lethal levels if the xylem does not acclimate to climate change in newer growth.more » « less
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Critical minerals are essential for sustaining the supply chain necessary for the transition to a carbon-free energy source for society. Copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements are particularly in demand for batteries and high-performance magnets used in low-carbon technologies. Copper, predominantly sourced from porphyry deposits, is critical for electricity generation, storage, and distribution. Nickel, which comes from laterite and magmatic sulfide deposits, and cobalt, often a by-product of nickel or copper mining, are core components of batteries that power electric vehicles. Lithium, sourced from pegmatite deposits and continental brines, is another key battery component. Rare earth elements, primarily obtained from carbonatite- and regolith-hosted ion-adsorption deposits, have unique magnetic properties that are key for motor efficiency. Future demand for these elements is expected to increase significantly over the next decades, potentially outpacing expected mine production. Therefore, to ensure a successful energy transition, efforts must prioritize addressing substantial challenges in the supply of critical minerals, particularly the delays in exploring and mining new resources to meet growing demands.▪The energy transition relies on green technologies needing a secure, sustainable supply of critical minerals sourced from ore deposits worldwide.▪Copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements are geologically restricted in occurrence, posing challenges for extraction and availability.▪Future demand is expected to surge in the next decades, requiring unprecedented production rates to make the green energy transition viable.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.1748
