Life Cycle Assessment and Energy Balance of a Polygeneration Plant Fed with Lignocellulosic Biomass of Cynara cardunculus L

Ramoon Barros Lovate Temporim, Gianluca Cavalaglio, Alessandro Petrozzi, Valentina Coccia, Paola Iodice, Andrea Nicolini and Franco Cotana
Additional contact information
Ramoon Barros Lovate Temporim: CIRIAF—Interuniversity Research Centre on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli”, Via G. Duranti, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Gianluca Cavalaglio: Centro Direzionale Isola F2, Pegaso Telematic University, 80143 Naples, Italy
Alessandro Petrozzi: CIRIAF—Interuniversity Research Centre on Pollution and Environment “Mauro Felli”, Via G. Duranti, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Valentina Coccia: Department of Engineering, UNIPG—University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Paola Iodice: Centro Direzionale Isola F2, Pegaso Telematic University, 80143 Naples, Italy
Andrea Nicolini: Department of Engineering, UNIPG—University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti, 06125 Perugia, Italy
Franco Cotana: Department of Engineering, UNIPG—University of Perugia, Via G. Duranti, 06125 Perugia, Italy

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 7, 1-21

Abstract: This article aims to present an evaluation of the environmental performance of a combustion polygeneration plant fed with lignocellulosic material from cardoon ( Cynara cardunculus L.) through the technique of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The system boundaries encompassed macro-phases of crop production, transportation, and polygeneration processes that were able to produce 100 kW of electricity, a residual thermal energy recovery system and district heating and cooling with 270 kW of heating, and a 140 kW of cooling. The LCA was performed using Cumulative Energy Demand and ReCiPe Life Cycle Impact Assessment methods through midpoint and endpoint indicators. From 2000 h/year, 165.92 GJ of electricity and 667.23 GJ of primary energy were consumed, and 32.82 tCO 2 eq were emitted. The rates of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and energy demand per MJ produced were 0.08 MJ SE /MJ PD , 0.30 MJ PE /MJ PD , and 0.01 kgCO 2 eq/MJ PD . According to the ReCiPe method, the impact categories with the highest impact loads were Terrestrial ecotoxicity (2.44%), Freshwater ecotoxicity (32.21%), Marine ecotoxicity (50.10%), Human carcinogenic toxicity (8.75%), and Human non-carcinogenic toxicity (4.76%). Comparing the same energy outputs produced by Italian power and gas grids, the proposed polygeneration plant was able to reduce primary energy demand and GHG emissions by 80 and 81%, respectively, in addition to reducing the emissions of the five main categories of impacts by between 25 and 73%.

Keywords: polygeneration; Life Cycle Assessment; global warming potential; cumulative energy demand; lignocellulosic biomass; Cynara cardunculus L. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2397/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/7/2397/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:7:p:2397-:d:779037

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().