Evaluating the Emissions of the Heat Supplied by District Heating Networks through A Life Cycle Perspective

Francesco Neirotti, Michel Noussan and Marco Simonetti
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Francesco Neirotti: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy
Michel Noussan: Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei, Corso Magenta 63, 20123 Milano, Italy
Marco Simonetti: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 Torino, Italy

Clean Technol., 2020, vol. 2, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: The Life Cycle Assessment methodology has proven to be effective in evaluating the impacts of goods production throughout their life cycle. While many studies are available on specific products, in recent years a growing interest is related to the analysis of services, including energy supply for final customers. Different LCA evaluations are available for electricity, while the heating and cooling sector has not yet been properly investigated. The objective of this study is the analysis of the specific impacts of the heat supplied to the final users connected to a district heating system, in comparison with traditional individual natural gas boilers, which represent the baseline heating solution in several urban contexts in Europe. The results show that the comparison is heavily dependent on the allocation method used for combined heat and power plant production. District Heating impact on heat supplied to the users can vary from 0.10 to 0.47 kg CO 2 eq /kWh, while distributed natural gas boilers present an overall impact equal to 0.27 kg CO 2 eq /kWh.

Keywords: LCA; district heating systems; decarbonization; climate change; environmental impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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