GREET life cycle analysis of biomass production, preprocessing, and entire value chain.
Argonne National Laboratory
Description
The Systems Assessment Center (SAC) offers life cycle analysis (LCA) and sustainability modeling expertise to help the U.S. bioenergy industry and stakeholders enhance sustainability of the biomass value chain that encompasses biomass production, harvest, preprocessing, and conversion to biofuels/bioproducts. The SAC develops and applies the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) model to inform and advance research, development, and deployment (RD&D) of production and valorization of sustainable biomass resources at scale. The GREET model has been applied to support RD&D investments by BETO and adapted in federal and state regulations/legislations to address life cycle carbon intensities and advance the development and deployment of renewable fuels that can be produced from purpose-grown biomass and energy crops. Water analysis involves the developing estimates for water consumption from both terrestrial and aquatic biomass feedstocks, aiming to assess their influence on freshwater resources and water quality in a geospatial analytical framework containing WATER, AwareUS, and SWAT models. This assessment spans county-level and watershed scales across the United States.
Capability Bounds
The SAC has been expanding and improving its GREET LCA model to address a wide range of biomass including purpose-grown energy crops and their supply chains for biofuel and bioproduct production purposes. The GREET LCA addresses sustainability of supply chain processes and unit operations including carbon intensities, water consumption, and criteria air pollutant emissions, identifying opportunities to enhance sustainability and addressing trade-offs across the biomass supply chain.
Unique Aspects
The GREET model has been widely applied to conduct detailed LCA of biomass/energy crop production and conversion to biofuels and bioproducts, benchmarking against conventional incumbents and advancing the sustainability of biomass supply chains. Water analysis framework provides county level water footprint, resulting nutrient loss, water stress and water availability changes.
Availability
The GREET model is publicly available free of charge. It has been widely used by over 55,000 registered users across the bioenergy, bioproducts, biochemicals, and the broader energy sector, forestry and agricultural sector, and manufacturing sector in the United States and abroad. WATER model is available at https://water.es.anl.gov
Benefit
The GREET model provides reliable and informative LCA results and insights to help biomass producers and supply chain stakeholders enhance the sustainability value propositions and performances of biomass production and supply chain technologies.
