Innovative Life Cycle Assessment for Improved Technology Design and Simulation

该项目的总体目标是创造新的工具和方法，推进生命周期评估（LCA）技术，以更好地为新能源系统技术设计决策提供信息。最近的全球发展表明，能源系统的重大转型迫在眉睫。新兴技术在能源领域的相对竞争力已经发生了转变，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流程。此外，基于证据的决策需要透明和分析。目前在这一领域的研究使用的是单独的评估技术，这些技术往往无法捕捉到一项技术的整个生命周期（LC），无论是在其生命周期内还是在供应链内的上游/下游活动方面。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从业者之间的差距。该项目的新颖之处在于，它将使用综合的多学科方法，通过更广泛的分析工具，提供有关能源技术开发和部署的关键见解。该项目在未来5年有三个短期目标：1。评估加拿大天然气勘探、生产和使用的LC影响，包括减缓影响的机会。提供关于能源技术在早期发展阶段的潜在影响的见解。通过部署一个开源框架来集成LCA和化学过程设计，增加LCA在技术开发中的影响和使用。该项目将提供技术评估、方法、模型和开源工具，以一致的方式考虑广泛的影响。关于提高能源系统的技术经济和环境绩效的潜力的更好的信息将会加强决策。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级，改进流程设计，确保实现创新目标，并有助于避免潜在的意想不到的负面环境后果。

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.