Abstract
Purpose
There are many recent proposals in life cycle assessment (LCA) to calculate temporary storage of carbon in bio-based products. However, there is still no consensus on how to deal with the issue. The main questions are: how do these proposals relate to each other, to what extent are they in line with the classical LCA method (as defined in ISO 14044) and the global mass balances as proposed by the IPCC, and is there really a need to introduce a discounting system for delayed CO2 emissions?
Methods
This paper starts with an analysis of the widely applied specification of PAS 2050 and the ILCD Handbook, both specifying the credit for carbon sequestration as ‘optional’ in LCA. From this analysis, it is concluded that these optional calculations give rather different results compared to the baseline LCA method. Since these optional calculations are not fully in line with the global carbon mass balances, a new calculation method is proposed. To validate the new method, two cases (one on wood and one bamboo products) are given. These cases show the practical application and the consequences of the new approach. Finally, the main issue is evaluated and discussed: is it a realistic approach to allocate less damage to the same emission, when it is released later in time?
Results and discussion
This paper proposes a new approach based on the global carbon cycle and land-use change, translated to the level of individual products in LCA. It is argued that only a global growth of forest area and a global growth of application of wood in the building industry contribute to extra carbon sequestration, which might be allocated as a credit to the total market of wood products in LCA. This approach is different from approaches where temporary storage of carbon in trees is directly allocated to a product itself.
Conclusions
In the proposed approach, there seems to be no need for a discounting system of delayed CO2 emissions. The advantage of wood and wood-based products can be described in terms of land-use change on a global scale in combination with a credit for heat recovery at the end-of-life (if applicable).
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Notes
The new ISO 14067 specifies that the calculation has to be done ‘without the effect of timing’; however, the effect of timing may be included in a separate report (section 6.3.8)
Besides the trunks, branches, and shrub, there is CO2 stored below ground in the soil and roots of a plantation. Zhou and Jiang (2004) found that, for a medium intensity managed Moso bamboo plantation in Lin'an, Zhejiang province, the distribution of biomass above ground versus below ground is 32.2 and 68.8 %, respectively.
Here is a similar argumentation as in footnote 2 for European wood. It must be mentioned here that this growth does not require extra agricultural land. Much of the bamboo production in the past comes from better forest management (Lou et al. 2010). Moreover, bamboo is planted in areas where farming is not feasible, e.g., at slopes for erosion prevention, and for rehabilitating land (Kuehl Y et al. 2011)
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Vogtländer, J.G., van der Velden, N.M. & van der Lugt, P. Carbon sequestration in LCA, a proposal for a new approach based on the global carbon cycle; cases on wood and on bamboo. Int J Life Cycle Assess 19, 13–23 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0629-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-013-0629-6