College of Engineering, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Department of Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt.
Environ Res. 2022 Sep;212(Pt D):113404. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.113404. Epub 2022 May 12.
Bioenergy is a promising solution for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation. However, the emissions resulting from the different production stages must be quantified and evaluated. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was used to compare and quantify the environmental burdens of three rice straw (RS) utilization scenarios for producing biogas, briquette fuel, and syngas. To our knowledge, this is the first study that applies the LCA approach to assess these three bioenergy scenarios in a single study where the main goal was to determine the most sustainable option. A total of 10 mid-point impact categories were investigated. The results indicated that the three scenarios achieved net positive energy and net negative GHG balances. The briquette fuel scenarios had the highest net energy balance (11,115 MJ/tonne dry RS), while the syngas scenario had the highest net GHG (-2,315 kg CO-eq./tonne dry RS). Moreover, the syngas scenario was the most beneficial to the environment, achieving negative results in 9 out of the 10 impact categories; the largest was marine ecotoxicity (-853,897 kg 1,4-DB-eq./tonne dry RS). The biogas scenario achieved emission savings in 3 out of the 10 categories. Although the briquette fuel scenario had no negative values in the 10 categories, its overall contribution to environmental burdens was relatively low. Overall, the order of the three scenarios in terms of the most sustainable option is syngas > briquette fuel > biogas.
生物能源是减少温室气体 (GHG) 排放的一种有前途的解决方案。然而，必须对不同生产阶段产生的排放进行量化和评估。生命周期评估 (LCA) 方法用于比较和量化三种稻秸 (RS) 利用生物气、型煤燃料和合成气生产的环境负担。据我们所知，这是首次应用 LCA 方法在单一研究中评估这三种生物能源情景的研究，主要目的是确定最可持续的选择。共研究了 10 个中点影响类别。结果表明，这三个方案实现了净正能量和净负温室气体平衡。型煤燃料方案的净能量平衡最高（11115MJ/吨干 RS），而合成气方案的净温室气体平衡最高（-2315kg CO-eq./吨干 RS）。此外，合成气方案对环境最有利，在 10 个影响类别中的 9 个中取得了负面结果；最大的是海洋生态毒性（-853897kg 14-DB-eq./吨干 RS）。沼气方案在 10 个类别中的 3 个类别中实现了排放节约。虽然型煤燃料方案在 10 个类别中没有负面值，但它对环境负担的总体贡献相对较低。总的来说，三种方案中最可持续选择的顺序是合成气>型煤燃料>沼气。
