In:
GCB Bioenergy, Wiley, Vol. 7, No. 4 ( 2015-07), p. 608-617
Abstract:
Biofuels are a potentially important source of energy for our society. Common practice in life cycle assessment ( LCA ) of bioenergy has been to assume that any carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ) emission related to biomass combustion equals the amount absorbed in biomass, thus assuming no climate change impacts. Recent developments show the significance of contributions of biogenic CO 2 emissions during the time they stay in the atmosphere. The goal of this article is to develop a global, spatially explicit method to quantify the potential impact on human health and terrestrial ecosystems of biogenic carbon emissions coming from forest wood extraction for biofuel production. For this purpose, changes in aboveground carbon stock (Δ C forest ) due to an increase in wood extraction via changes in rotation time are simulated worldwide with a 0.5° × 0.5° grid resolution. Our results show that both impacts and benefits can be obtained. When the extraction increase is reached by creating a longer rotation time, new growth is allowed resulting in carbon benefits. In a case study, we assessed the life cycle impacts of heat production via wood to determine the significance of including biogenic CO 2 emissions due to changes in forest management. Impacts of biogenic CO 2 dominate the total climate change impacts from a wood stove. Depending on the wood source country, climate change impacts due to heat production from wood either have an important share in the overall impacts on human health and terrestrial ecosystems, or allow for a large additional CO 2 sink.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1757-1693
,
1757-1707
DOI:
10.1111/gcbb.2015.7.issue-4
Language:
English
Publisher:
Wiley
Publication Date:
2015
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2495051-8
SSG:
12
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