Last modified: 2014-09-11
Abstract
governing biofuels in the US and EU. It focuses specifically on the
European Commission Renewable Energy Directive, the US Renewable
Fuel Standard II, and the Californian Low Carbon Fuel Standard, with
emphasis on the respective LCA methodologies described. All three
regulations use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify the variation in
GHG emissions relative to a fossil baseline fuel. Different definitions for
system boundaries and life cycle phases make results difficult to
disaggregate and one-to-one comparison of the models difficult. Overall,
co-product allocation, N2O emissions and land use change (LUC) are
identified as the major methodological differences. These differences can
result in significantly different outcomes when assessing identical pathways.
Keywords
References
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