Innovative Life Cycle Assessment for Improved Technology Design and Simulation

该计划的总体目标是创建新的工具和方法，推进生命周期评估（LCA）技术，以更好地为新能源系统技术的设计决策提供信息。最近的全球事态发展表明，能源系统即将发生重大转变。新兴技术在能源领域的相对竞争力已经发生了变化，这意味着工程师不仅必须开发新的能源技术，以具有竞争力的成本降低对环境的影响，而且还必须建立更有效的系统来管理和整合新兴技术和工艺。此外，循证决策需要透明和分析。目前在这一领域的研究使用的是个别评估技术，这些技术往往无法涵盖一项技术的整个生命周期，既包括其生命周期，也包括供应链中的上游/下游活动。* 拟议研究计划的主要创新将是开发和应用开源集成LCA框架，通过将LC经济和环境影响纳入整个技术开发过程的决策，弥合技术开发人员和LCA从业人员之间的差距。该计划是新颖的，因为它将提供有关能源技术开发和部署的关键见解，并使用综合的多学科方法提供更广泛的分析工具。在未来五年内，该计划有三个短期目标：*I。评估加拿大天然气勘探、生产和使用的LC影响，包括缓解机会。二.在发展的早期阶段提供关于能源技术潜在影响的见解。三.通过部署一个开源框架来整合生命周期评估和化学工艺设计，增加生命周期评估在技术开发中的影响和使用。*该计划将提供技术评估，方法，模型和开源工具，以一致的方式考虑广泛的影响。更好地了解能源系统的技术经济和环境绩效的潜力将有助于加强决策。具体而言，在早期阶段和整个开发周期对技术进行评估，将有助于确定研究和开发的优先次序，改进工艺设计，确保实现创新目标，并有助于避免潜在的意外负面环境后果。

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.*****