Garcia‐Garcia, G., Fernandez, M.C., Armstrong, K. orcid.org/0000-0003-3827-9951 et al. (2 more authors) (2021) Analytical review of life‐cycle environmental impacts of carbon capture and utilization technologies. ChemSusChem, 14 (4). pp. 995-1015. ISSN 1864-5631
Abstract
Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has been proposed as a sustainable alternative to produce valuable chemicals by reducing the global warming impact and depletion of fossil resources. To guarantee that CCU processes have environmental advantages over conventional production processes, thorough and systematic environmental impact analyses must be performed. Life‐Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a robust methodology that can be used to fulfil this aim. In this context, this article aims to review the life‐cycle environmental impacts of several CCU processes, focusing on the production of methanol, methane, dimethyl ether, dimethyl carbonate, propane and propene. A systematic literature review is used to collect relevant published evidence of the environmental impacts and potential benefits. An analysis of such information shows that CCU generally provides a reduction of environmental impacts, notably global warming/climate change, compared to conventional manufacturing processes of the same product. To achieve such environmental improvements, renewable energy must be used, particularly to produce hydrogen from water electrolysis. Importantly, different methodological choices are identified that are being used in the LCA studies, making results not comparable. There is a clear need to harmonize LCA methods for the analyses of CCU systems, and more importantly, to document and justify such methodological choices in the LCA report.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Authors. ChemSusChem published by Wiley-VCH GmbH. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
Keywords: | carbon capture and utilization; environmental analysis; life-cycle analysis; sustainable chemistry; renewable resources |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EUROPEAN COMMISSION - HORIZON 2020 837733 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 25 Feb 2021 15:28 |
Last Modified: | 25 Feb 2021 15:28 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/cssc.202002126 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:170499 |