Project Number: 3620-41000-158-09
Project Type: General Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Jan 01, 2013
End Date: May 30, 2016

Objective:
Develop life-cycle assessments (LCAs) informed by inputs from multiple landscape scales to evaluate the environmental impacts of land-use change on greenhouse gas emissions, fossil energy demand, and water use.

Approach:
Cooperator will assess the environmental indicators listed above for the proposed processes to convert Brassica crop (rapeseed) to hydrotreated renewable jet (HRJ) fuel. Inputs will be received from each project team across the production chain and LCA results will be communicated frequently back to the Feedstock Development and Biofuel Development project team components. Preliminary LCA data for renewable fuel production will be developed using laboratory or literature data from the project partners. In addition to the process-level data received (attributional inputs), the LCA will also include inputs from indirect effects of the production system, so called consequential inputs that have not been thoroughly investigated for their impacts on the sensitivity of LCAs. The consequential inputs will come from “beyond system boundary” effects captured in the modeling efforts involving EPIC, SWAT, and GTAP on indirect effects that affect water quality and indirect land use change emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. LCA results will be communicated early in the project and continue throughout the four-year program. These communications (inputs to the LCA and LCA results) will help achieve a cohesive and integrated research program and will aid in focusing the research team members on actions to overcome barriers to sustainability and protection of the environment.