Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment of Data Centre Heat Recovery Technologies Combined with Fuel Cells for Energy Generation

Camila Andrea Puentes Bejarano, Javier Pérez Rodríguez (), Juan Manuel de Andrés Almeida, David Hidalgo-Carvajal, Jonas Gustaffson, Jon Summers and Alberto Abánades
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Camila Andrea Puentes Bejarano: Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Javier Pérez Rodríguez: Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Juan Manuel de Andrés Almeida: Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain
David Hidalgo-Carvajal: Department of Organization Engineering, Business Administration and Statistics, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Jonas Gustaffson: Research Institutes of Sweden, 431 53 Luleå, Sweden
Jon Summers: Research Institutes of Sweden, 431 53 Luleå, Sweden
Alberto Abánades: Energy Engineering Department, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-17

Abstract: The energy sector is essential in the transition to a more sustainable future, and renewable energies will play a key role in achieving this. It is also a sector in which the circular economy presents an opportunity for the utilisation of other resources and residual energy flows. This study examines the environmental and social performance of innovative energy technologies (which contribute to the circularity of resources) implemented in a demonstrator site in Luleå (Sweden). The demo-site collected excess heat from a data centre to cogenerate energy, combining the waste heat with fuel cells that use biogas derived from waste, meeting part of its electrical demand and supplying thermal energy to an existing district heating network. Following a cradle-to-gate approach, an environmental and a social life cycle assessment were developed to compare two scenarios: a baseline scenario reflecting current energy supply methods and the WEDISTRICT scenario, which considers the application of different renewable and circular technologies. The findings indicate that transitioning to renewable energy sources significantly reduces environmental impacts in seven of the eight assessed impact categories. Specifically, the study showed a 48% reduction in climate change impact per kWh generated. Additionally, the WEDISTRICT scenario, accounting for avoided burdens, prevented 0.21 kg CO 2 eq per kWh auto-consumed. From the social perspective, the WEDISTRICT scenario demonstrated improvement in employment conditions within the worker and local community categories, product satisfaction within the society category, and fair competition within the value chain category. Projects like WEDISTRICT demonstrate the circularity options of the energy sector, the utilisation of resources and residual energy flows, and that these lead to environmental and social improvements throughout the entire life cycle, not just during the operation phase.

Keywords: data centre; heat recovery; energy efficiency; SOFC; biogas; LCA; S-LCA; sustainability; district heating (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: 2024
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