The CO2nsistent project builds on the previous project which developed guidelines for conducting TEA and LCA of carbon capture and utilization (CCU) projects. The aim is to further enhance guidance to ensure comparability and transparency across technologies in the CCU arena.
As interest continues to grow in the potential for the utilization of CO2 to replace and reduce dependence on fossil carbon sources and products, the need to assess the economic and environmental capabilities of these emerging, competing CCU technologies also grows.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic assessment (TEA) studies can provide insight into deployment potential however challenges exist in ensuring these studies are fit for purpose.
Despite the existence of general good practice guidance (such as the ISO standards for LCA), the CCU guideline project was driven by the acknowledgement of TEA & LCA practitioners and other stakeholders that too many substantial methodological decisions remained open allowing for significant divergence in reported outcomes from studies specifically for CCU projects.
Fundamental differences in the scope of studies; the designation of a suitable functional unit and other elements such as the method for selecting a suitable system boundary made like-for-like comparisons difficult.
Published as part of the CCU guideline project, the Techno-Economic Assessment & Life Cycle Assessment Guidelines for CO2 Utilization Version 2.0 provide significant guidance for practitioners when making methodological decisions and aiding in the avoidance of common pitfalls that have been identified and addressed through consultation with a broad range of practitioners.
CO2nsistent’s updating the initial guidelines with Version 2.0 improves upon Version 1.0 by
- Incorporating feedback from the initial launch phase including addition of further worked examples
- Expanding the scope to include guidance for policy makers, commissioners of studies and other decision makers
- Providing guidance for conducting low TRL-related assessments
- Integrating TEA & LCA for CCU technologies to allow for analysis of both environmental and economic factors simultaneously and to produce composite environmental-economic performance metrics. Such an analysis can also be useful in determining the effects of prioritising of specific environmental and economic factors over others as part of a structured analytical decision-making process
- Removing other barriers to harmonisation such as the need to develop a common assessment language as part of a wider attempt to improve communication throughout the community
Further information about the CO2nsistent project’s work can be found in the following documents:
- Making Sense of Techno-Economic Assessment & Life Cycle Assessment Studies for CO2 Utilization: A guide on how to commission, understand, and derive decisions from TEA and LCA studies
- Multi-Attributional Decision Making in LCA & TEA for CCU: An Introduction to Approaches and a Worked Example (DOI 10.7302/805)
- SNG Worked Example for the TEA Guidelines for CO2 Utilization (DOI 10.7302/1057)
- A Guide to Goal Setting in TEA: A Worked Example Considering CO2 Use in the Domestic Heating Sector (DOI 10.3998/2027.42/154988)
- Building an LCA Inventory: A Worked Example on a CO2 to Fertilizer Process (DOI 10.3998/2027.42/154989)
- Interpretation of LCA results: A Worked Example on a CO2 to Fertilizer Process (DOI 10.3998/2027.42/154990)
Like the guideline project that proceeded it, CO2nsistent featured significant stakeholder engagement to ensure that future iterations of the guidelines remain a reflection of best practices as dictated by the assessment community. The work was conducted by research groups at the University of Sheffield (P. Styring), IASS Potsdam (B. Olfe-Kräutlein), TU Berlin (R. Schomäcker), and RWTH Aachen (A. Bardow).
To be a part of this collaborative approach please contact us for further details.
This project is co-funded by the Global CO2 Initiative and EIT Climate-KIC.