0000000001257807
AUTHOR
Le Quyen Luu
Life Cycle Environmental Impacts and Health Effects of Protein-Rich Food as Meat Alternatives: A Review
The food sector is responsible for a considerable impact on the environment in most environmental contexts: the food supply chain causes greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, reduction in cultivable land, and other environmental impacts. Thus, a change in food supply is required to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the food supply chain and to meet the increasing demand for sufficient and qualitative nutrition. Large herds of livestock are inappropriate to achieve these goals due to the relevant impact of meat supply chain on the environment, e.g., the land used to grow feed for animals is eight times more than that for human nutrition. The search for meat alternatives, espe…
CLCA for Assessing Environmental Impacts of Power Sector in the GHG Policy Context
Purpose: Current greenhouse gas (GHG) policy aims at reducing emissions from power sector. However, there are some known trade-offs of GHG emission reductions, in terms of other types of environmental impacts and impacts on other economic sectors. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) has been developed to assess the environmental impacts of the power sector in relation with changes in the policy and its indirect impacts on other economic sectors. Methods: A systematic review of CLCA method is conducted in the power sector. CLCA studies since 2005 are reviewed in terms of obtained results and methodology to identify whether CLCA is a more suitable approach for assessing environmental i…
A Review on Consequential Life Cycle Assessment in the Power Sector
The existing policy for greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement aims at decarbonisation of the power sector. The interrelations between the power sector and other economic sectors raise a question of whether the GHG emission reduction policy in the power sector is as effective as it is claimed. Consequential life cycle assessment (CLCA) has been developed to assess the environmental impacts of any industrial/productive sector in relation with changes in the policy and its indirect impacts on other economic sectors. This review is conducted on CLCA studies in the power sector in terms of system boundaries expansion and socio-economic interactions and the ability to quantify indirect environmental imp…
Critical Raw Materials and Supply Chain Disruption in the Energy Transition
The energy transition towards efficient energy production, transport, and use, renewable energy (RE) technologies and innovative energy management brings benefits to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieving climate targets. The transition requires resources, minerals, metals, and materials for RE technologies themselves, for example, solar photovoltaics (PV), hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs) as well as innovative supporting technologies for variable RE, for example, energy storage systems (ESSs). This requirement of resources and materials occurs over the whole supply chain of the technologies, from the extraction of resources, the manufacture of technology, and the deployme…
Life Cycle Energy Consumption and Air Emissions Comparison of Alternative and Conventional Bus Fleets in Vietnam
The study (a) assesses the life cycle energy consumption and air emissions impacts of battery electric buses (e-buses) and conventional buses operated in Vietnam, and (b) compares them with those of hydrogen buses. The results indicate that e-buses and hydrogen buses are preferred options compared to conventional buses in terms of energy consumption, GHG emissions and other air quality impacts over their whole life cycle. Life cycle energy consumption of diesel buses is triple that of e-buses, and is significantly higher than that of hydrogen buses. Replacing conventional buses with e-buses can reduce energy consumption by 50%. For GHG emissions and air quality impacts, the adoption of elec…
Life-Cycle Land-Use Requirement for PV in Vietnam
Over the last 15 years, photovoltaics (PV) in Vietnam has experienced development. The increased installed capacity of PV requires more land for installation sites as well as for manufacturing the plants’ component and waste treatment during the plants’ decommissioning. As a developing country, in which more than 80% of the population’s livelihood depends on agriculture, there are concerns about the competition of land for agriculture and solar development. This paper estimates the life-cycle land-use requirement for PV development in Vietnam, to provide the scientific-based evidence for policy makers on the quantity of land required, so that the land budget can be suitably allocated. The d…
Consequential life cycle assessment of the Italian power system
Energy production and consumption contribute to 76% of the European greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2018, and 90% of global GHG emissions with land use, land use change and forestation (LULUCF) in the same year. By applying energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) technologies, the GHG emission intensity of the energy sector reduced by 1.3% in 2018 compared to the previous year. The current climate change policy aims at decarbonization, sustainable environment, economic prosperity and social equity. It requires the deep decarbonisation of the economies, meaning that the energy and power systems as well as other emission intensive sectors need to transform into zero-emission ones. …