Deriving biomass for biofuels from agricultural land in Sweden as a climate change mitigation measure

Kontakt: Raül López (CEC), raul.lopez_i_losada@cec.lu.se

 

In the Land4BiomassLänkar till en externa sida. project at CEC we focus on the challenges and opportunities linked to deriving biomass for biofuels from agricultural land in Sweden as a climate change mitigation measure. In my research, I focus on quantifying the environmental implications of agricultural intensification resulting from economic policy promoting biomass for biofuels. I would like to team up with a MSc student who would be interested in producing a carbon inventory of an agriculture system using Life Cycle Assessment tools and methods. The focus would be on biomass cultivation in Sweden, and including both biogenic (i.e. plant and soil carbon) and anthropogenic (e.g. farming operations) carbon sources. This is the right opportunity for you if you want to improve your knowledge of LCA methodologies and get some applied experience using LCA-related tools and databases.

In this project, you can expect to:

• Get familiarized with carbon accounting and impact assessment methodologies in LCA.
• Search LCI libraries for carbon data on farming operations and other activities and processes involved in agricultural biomass production in Sweden.
• Since soil carbon is currently not incorporated into LCI libraries, you will complement the above with data from papers on soil carbon depletion based on crop type in a thoughtful way.
• Select the data that is the most relevant to our context applying criteria such as spatial/temporal relevance, critical thinking, review of impact methods and data comparability.
• Provide an overview of the Life Cycle Impact of carbon in a cradle-to-gate approach to growing agricultural biomass for biofuels in Sweden.

Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment, carbon accounting, agriculture

 

Uppdaterat: Nina Reistad  |  2022-07-07