title: Analysis of the Global Warming Potential of Biogenic CO2Emission in Life Cycle Assessments.
abstract: Biomass is generally believed to be carbon neutral. However, recent studies have challenged the carbon neutrality hypothesis by introducing metric indicators to assess the global warming potential of biogenic CO2(GWPbio). In this study we calculated the GWPbiofactors using a forest growth model and radiative forcing effects with a time horizon of 100 years and applied the factors to five life cycle assessment (LCA) case studies of bioproducts. The forest carbon change was also accounted for in the LCA studies. GWPbiofactors ranged from 0.13-0.32, indicating that biomass could be an attractive energy resource when compared with fossil fuels. As expected, short rotation and fast-growing biomass plantations produced low GWPbio. Long-lived wood products also allowed more regrowth of biomass to be accounted as absorption of the CO2emission from biomass combustion. The LCA case studies showed that the total life cycle GHG emissions were closely related to GWPbioand energy conversion efficiency. By considering the GWPbiofactors and the forest carbon change, the production of ethanol and bio-power appeared to have higher GHG emissions than petroleum-derived diesel at the highest GWPbio.
authors.affiliation: School of Natural Resources, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, United States.
authors.forename: Weiguo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Jilin Province Academy of Forestry Research, Changchun, 130033, China.
authors.forename: Zhonghui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, United States.
authors.forename: Xinfeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology (EEOB), Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, United States.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Burckhardt Institute, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: von Gadow
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemical Industry of Forest Products CAF, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
authors.forename: Junming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Jilin Province Academy of Forestry Research, Changchun, 130033, China.
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Jilin Province Academy of Forestry Research, Changchun, 130033, China.
authors.forename: Yuchun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D057486:Carbon Cycle; D065928:Forests; D057232:Global Warming; D008962:Models, Theoretical