Innovative Life Cycle Assessment for Improved Technology Design and Simulation

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The overall objective of this program is to create novel tools and methods that advance life cycle assessment (LCA) techniques to better inform decisions in the design of new energy systems technologies. Recent global developments suggest an imminent and significant energy system transition. The relative competitiveness of emerging technologies in the energy sector has been transformed which means that engineers must not only develop new energy technologies that lower environmental impacts at competitive costs, but also build more efficient systems to manage and integrate emerging technologies and processes. In addition, evidence-based decision-making requires transparent and analysis. Current research in this area uses individual assessment techniques that often fail to capture the full life cycle (LC) of a technology, both over its lifetime and with respect to upstream/downstream activities within the supply chain. ***The main innovation from the proposed research program will be the development and application of an open source integrated LCA framework that bridges the gap between technology developers and LCA practitioners by incorporating LC economic and environmental impacts into decisions across the technology development process. This program is novel in that it will provide key insights about energy technology development and deployment with a broader set of analytical tools using an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach. There are three short-term objectives to this program over the next 5 years:***I. Assessing LC impacts of Canadian natural gas exploration, production, and use including mitigation opportunities.***II. Provide insights about potential impacts of energy technologies at an early stage of development.***III. Increase impact and use of LCA in technology development by deploying an open source framework to integrate LCA and chemical process design.****The program will deliver technical assessments, methods, models and open source tools that consider a broad set of impacts in a consistent manner. Enhanced decision-making will result from better information about the potential to improve both techno-economic and environmental performance of energy systems. Specifically, evaluating technologies at an early stage, and throughout the development cycle, will help to prioritize research and development, improve process designs, ensure that the goals of innovation are achieved and help to avoid potential unintended negative environmental consequences.*****