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CHAPTER 5

Life cycle sustainability

assessment in the energy sector

Laurence Stamford
School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science, The University of Manchester, Manchester,
United Kingdom

Contents

1 Introduction 115
1.1 The UN sustainable development goals as a common
frame of reference 116
1.2 Energy, biofuels, and their relevance to sustainable development 117
1.3 Sustainability issues and indicators 119
2 Life cycle sustainability assessment 122
2.1 Life cycle assessment 123
2.2 Life cycle costing and associated techniques 129
2.3 Social life cycle assessment 131
2.4 Allocation of impacts 134
2.5 Benefits, limitations, and weaknesses of LCSA 135
3 Application of life cycle sustainability assessment: Illustrative case studies 136
3.1 Large-scale biomass combustion 137
3.2 Future electricity scenarios for the United Kingdom 148
4 Conclusions 158
References 158

1 Introduction
The overarching aim of sustainable development is to ensure that all people,
in current and future generations, benefit from continuing prosperity
(WCED, 1987). The energy sector is critical to this endeavor as it provides
the foundations for most other sectors of the economy and society: without a
sustainable energy mix, there cannot be sustainable development. It is partly
for this reason that the energy sector has seen more vigorous attempts at
environmental impact reduction than most other sectors. In particular,
attempts to decouple energy generation from greenhouse gas (GHG) emis-
sions have gathered momentum and are drawing enormous industrial

Biofuels for a More Sustainable Future © 2020 Elsevier Inc.
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-815581-3.00005-1 All rights reserved. 115