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The goal of this work was to evaluate the socio-economic and environmental life cycle advantages of alternative defossilization pathways for a bio-based industrial network in Central Germany. Five scenarios were defined considering the potential energy utilization of further regionally available biomass capacities. The evaluation was made using an integrated approach, i.e., using a traditional life cycle assessment methodology, complemented by a regionalized socio-economic life cycle assessment framework. The results show that the environmental advantages from the change in energy provisioning reduced about 5% of the total environmental impacts. The analysis of the socio-economic impacts shows that the path to defossilization of the integrated network provides a clear enhancement of the expected regional socio-economic impacts. These results show that 100% decoupling from natural gas brings overall positive sustainability advantages to all organizations participating in the evaluated value chains. The methodological approach presented in this work can allow the identification of hotspots and opportunities within the regions where the implementation of technological alternatives takes place.

Lignocellulosic biomass as can be derived from post-harvesting process in agricultural section in Thailand are abundant resources, which could potentially replace conventional feedstocks and benefit in saving plantation areas and avoiding food-energy competition. The current work aims to propose schematic designs of decentralized production in order to effectively exploit dispersedly available residual biomass. Determination of optimal locations for decentralized facilities is conducted through the suitability analysis, using integrated methods from multi-criteria decision analysis and geographical information systems (GIS-MCA). The present study explores the optimal numbers of installation units based on the best installation proposal for maximizing residues collection. Moreover, by increasing facility units in respective regions, agricultural residues could be spatially covered in broader areas, leading to more accessibility to higher utilization rates in total. The advantage of decentralized function has also been discovered regarding the logistics cost reduction due to shorter delivery distances per bioethanol capacity. Although implementing decentralized biorefineries involves small-scale productions that would result in higher total capital investment, the decentralized configuration is a promising system that allows the regionalized biomass to be systematically valoraized and developed into higher valued biobased products.

The tea industry in Kenya is among the main consumers of firewood for its intensive thermal energy demand. Along with the growing concerns about firewood depletion, tea factories have begun transitioning to alternative fuels to power their boilers. Briquettes made of biomass residues are among the promising solutions; however, they are not yet widely adopted. This study was conducted to identify the factors that motivate the tea factories to use biomass briquettes instead of firewood and the factors hindering such substitution. The substitution potential was assessed, and the drivers and barriers of the substitution were examined using a combination of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis and a PESTEL (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) framework. The findings suggest that even though using biomass briquettes is technically possible, it is not economically favorable for tea factories. The SWOT/PESTEL analysis identified 27 factors influencing the substitution. Among the key drivers are the depleting supply of firewood, the availability of biomass residues, and the external support from development organizations to improve the technical capacity in both tea and briquette industries. The study revealed the barriers to substitution include the cost competitiveness, insufficient supply, and varying quality of briquettes, as well as the lack of awareness and knowledge of briquettes.

Turkey is a member of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that enjoys suitable geography for renewable resources and, simultaneously, suffers from modest domestic fossil fuel reserves. The combination of mentioned factors supports devising new strategies through which renewable resources are not only being used in the power sector but also in industries and transportation. Unfortunately, bioenergy is underplayed in the past despite the country’s potential; nonetheless, this view is transforming rapidly. In this chapter, using a bottom-up optimization model, we analyze bioenergy sources in Turkey and offer a pathway in which renewable resources are utilized to lower future greenhouse gas emissions. Although Turkey is chosen as the case study, the outcomes and recommendations are generic; thus, they can be used by policymakers in other developing countries.Transitioning to Affordable and Clean Energy is a collective volume which combines original contributions and review papers that address the question how the transition to clean and affordable energy can be governed. It will cover both general analyses of the governance of transition, including policy instruments, comparative studies of countries or policies, and papers setting out scientifically sound visions of a clean and just energy system.

A future bioeconomy pursues the transformation of the resource base from fossil to renewable materials in an effort to develop a holistic, sustainable production and provision system. While the significance of this change in the German context is not yet entirely explored, scenarios analysing possible pathways could support the understanding of these changes and their systemic implications. Bioeconomy in detail depends on respective framework conditions, such as the availability of biomass or technological research priorities. Thus, for scenario creation, transferable methods for flexible input settings are needed. Addressing this issue, the study identifies relevant bioeconomy scenario drivers. With the theoretical approach of narrative analysis, 92 statements of the German National Bioeconomy Strategy 2020 have been evaluated and 21 international studies in a STEEPLE framework were assessed. For a future German bioeconomy 19 important drivers could be determined and specific aspects of the resource base, production processes and products as well as overarching issues were exploratively characterised on a quantitative and qualitative basis. The developed method demonstrate an approach for a transparent scenario driver identification that is applicable to other strategy papers. The results illustrate a possible future German bioeconomy that is resource- and technology-driven by following a value-based objective, and which is supplied by biogenic residue and side product feedstocks. As such, the bioeconomy scenario drivers can be used as a starting point for future research like scenario development or modelling of a future German bioeconomy.

The German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) has been deemed successful in promoting German biogas production. However, the German state-level biogas production development (BPD) under the EEG has not been systematically studied and compared. This research aimed to study the German state-level BPD using the multivariate linear regression model with a dummy variable, and to spatially quantify the environmental and agricultural consequences using the geographic information system (GIS) technique to identify the necessities of regional-based analysis on Germany’s BPD. The empirical results indicated that Saxony-Anhalt was advanced in BPD, while farmers’ response from Bavaria to EEG was the weakest. The reason behind could be the differences in farmers’ personality traits and risk cognitions toward the biogas production investment. The spatial analysis indicated that Saxony-Anhalt had more severe environmental problems caused by the biogas production expansion than Bavaria. Therefore, to promote BPD in states such as Bavaria, an increase in the nationwide unified subsidy might lead to an overreaction of the EEG strong response states, e.g., Saxony-Anhalt, leading to more serious environmental problems. In the end, there is a need for more regional-based research on studying the BPD in Germany in the future to avoid the ambiguity of large-scale studies.

As urbanization processes happen all over the world, an increasing attention is being given to the management of the resources that feed these urban areas. When addressed from a systems perspective, the connection between resources, production, and manufacture sectors and society can be clarified, especially when viewed from a life cycle perspective. The goal of this chapter is therefore to provide an analysis of the state-of-the-art resources management tools that take a life cycle management approach, with a particular focus on bio-based resources and the latest experiences in the bioeconomy sector. This analysis is the basis for discussing the necessary steps and needs for establishing an “urban bioeconomy metabolism,” whose definition can help to managing the material streams within the city limits in connection with the bio-based resources of the city’s surroundings.

As bioeconomy strategies strive to integrate industrial sectors for achieving innovative materials alternative to the ones produced from non-renewable resources, the development of monitoring systems and tools to assess the implementation of such value chains is still a work in progress. This work intended to integrate the traditional life cycle assessment with a regionalized social life cycle assessment method to evaluate alternative production scenarios of a hybrid construction system with a wood-based lightweight concrete panel as a core component currently in its final stages of technical development. The life cycle impact assessment was carried out by comparing the relative advantages of two product development scenarios against the reference system’s results. The social life cycle assessment was carried out using the model “REgional SPecific cONtextualised Social life cycle Assessment” (RESPONSA), which was developed for assessing wood-based value chains under a regional scope. The results showed that both alternative scenarios present large advantages when compared to the reference system. Moreover, the implementation of the production value chain was found to imply positive socioeconomic advantages in the region, in particular, due to the quality of the jobs found in the organizations associated with the production system.

Rapeseed is the dominant feedstock for biodiesel production in Germany, however, significant decline in crop yields observed during the 2018 drought in Europe pose economic and environmental risks for its sustained use as a fuel crop. Many Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies were conducted to quantify the potential environmental impacts of biodiesel production; however, only a few studies have considered the spatial and temporal heterogeneities of the studied regions. Furthermore, previous studies have usually only focused on the GHG savings of biodiesel and have ignored the environmental burden and economic profits of biodiesel production. For the first time, we combined the Regional Environmental LCA model with an economic analysis to evaluate both the environmental impact and the economic benefits of biodiesel production in Central Germany (CG). Our results showed that emissions from rapeseed cultivation were the largest contributor to both global and regional environmental impact categories. In our study region, we found that GHG emissions were around 56% to 71% lower for rapeseed-based biodiesel than for fossil fuels. Due to the drought in 2018, we also observed that the regional rapeseed supply could not meet the demand of biodiesel production in CG. An economic analysis of biodiesel production found significant economies of scales effect in the biodiesel industry. In addition, none of the studied biodiesel plants were able to operate at their designed installed capacities without causing indirect land use change. Furthermore, the profitability of biodiesel production was closely related to the feedstock cultivation cost. Based on these findings, we concluded that a regionalized LCA model would be able to more accurately evaluate the environmental influence of biodiesel production by taking site-specific conditions into consideration. We also suggest that potential biodiesel plant operators take the regional biodiesel production density and feedstock cultivati

This review examines how life cycle methodologies are presently used by regional authorities in their sustainable development programmes. The review incorporates formal methods of life cycle assessment (LCA) as well as non-standardised approaches like life cycle management (LCM). The review describes the sustainability agenda facing regions, and a ‘life cycle toolbox’ that can be used at territorial level. Several parallel literature research methods were used to collect representative examples from around the world of regional life cycle approaches, identifying a variety of common and still-evolving methodologies used to address sustainability issues and applications. Results show that regional use of various life cycle methodologies from the toolbox is growing although scope is often constrained to short life chains, and with limited consideration of secondary (“spillover”) impacts. The conclusions confirm earlier findings that current life cycle tools are not always ideally structured for public sector organisations, with some not yet mature for addressing regional sustainability issues, such as biodiversity, land use and social impacts. Regional data aggregation is currently insufficient for certain methods. Further research is needed to adapt certain life cycle methodologies for regional application, but many available tools could already be further applied than is currently the case.

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Life cycle management has become increasingly important in the formulation of regional sustainable development policies and programs, while research on and the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) methodologies are predominantly conducted in a business context or for materials and product-related issues. In light of the growing importance of regional policymaking, this article discusses the current scientific landscape of regional life cycle management approaches. It conducts a bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database and integrates a co-word analysis to highlight important linkages. Our analysis reveals that an increasing number of papers have been published on regional-level LCAs in recent years; however, they remain focused on issues related to the traditional materials-oriented aspects. Conversely, little research appears to be conducted on regional life cycle management issues and activities. The research is strongly centralized, with a clustering of regional LCA studies within a relatively small group of countries, institutes, journals and authors. Despite a rapid increase in recently published papers, our analysis reveals a gap in research and knowledge transfer of regional LCA results to public policymakers and regional planners.

Current economic and social systems transgress several ecological planetary boundaries by far but without sufficiently fulfilling human needs and this in a globally unequal way, posing enormous challenges to political strategies and economic structures. To tackle these challenges, under a bioeconomy, a variety of industrial metabolisms, strategies and visions on substituting fossil resources by renewables and hereto associated societal transformations is formulated. Social, ecological and economic (holistic) sustainability, however, is not an intrinsic character of bioeconomy but rather a possible potential which has to be assessed. Life Cycle Assessments and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments provide promising frameworks and methods for such holistic sustainability assessments, but face major challenges in regard to underlying sustainability concepts and implementation. First, we discuss and analyze the status quo of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment especially in regard to underlying sustainability and economic concept and identify their strengths, weaknesses and research gaps. Secondly, we characterize the current bioeconomy discourse and propose a transdisciplinary, holistic and integrated framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment. Based on this discussion and the proposed framework, holistic and integrated Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment can provide a transdisciplinary understanding and specific information on the absolute and relative holistic sustainability of provisioning systems to allow efficient and effective governance.

Der Pilotbericht gibt einen ersten Überblick über wesentliche Merkmale und Trends der deutschen „biobasierten Ökonomie“ im nationalen und internationalen Kontext. Er wurde im Rahmen des SYMOBIO-Projekts koordiniert vom CESR der Universität Kassel in Kooperation mit dem Thünen-Institut.

Der Pilotbericht gibt einen ersten Überblick über wesentliche Merkmale und Trends der deutschen „biobasierten Ökonomie“ im nationalen und internationalen Kontext. Er wurde im Rahmen des SYMOBIO-Projekts koordiniert vom CESR der Universität Kassel in Kooperation mit dem Thünen-Institut.

The efficient use of biogenic residues can make a significant contribution to increase resource efficiency. Due to its high energy efficiency, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is being discussed as a potentially suitable technology for particularly wet and sludgy biogenic residues. In Germany, however, it has not yet been established at industrial continuous operation. Among others, this is due to missing solutions for the economic treatment of the high organic loads in the liquid by‐product and insufficient knowledge on long‐term processing. Nevertheless, it is still expected that HTC could be able to contribute in the future, especially for sewage sludge disposal. Whether and under what conditions this could be the case is the subject of this study. The competitiveness of modeled cases for industrial sewage sludge HTC, which address different future paths, compared to thermal sludge treatment is investigated by using a multi‐criteria instrument. Results show that HTC can only compete with the reference technology if certain framework conditions are given. Particularly, an efficient phosphorus recycling should be integrated and the production costs of the solid product should be at least less than €325 per metric ton according to this case study. The treatment performance of the liquid phase should be as high as possible whereby costs for further treatment equipment should be minimized, so that mentioned productions costs are not exceeded.

Bioeconomy regions are a young concept representing emerging amalgamation points for the implementation of cross-sectoral value-added chains. When sustainable bioeconomy strategies are rolled out, their proof-of-concept implies that industrial R&D activities should lead to impact decoupling and that the valorization of locally available lignocellulosic biomass has to contribute to an increase in added value. Furthermore, regional co-benefits for society and a positive influence on local environmental and socioeconomic conditions are major factors. The fulfillment of these strategic goals would be a milestone achievement when progressing from the blueprint development and the road-mapping stage towards socially accepted and sustainable wood-based bioeconomy strategies. For regional industrial and science stakeholders who run pilot facilities for process upscaling and for energy and material flow integration, this requires well-orchestrated integrative processes, which go beyond conventional “Life Cycle Management” approaches. It is obvious that assessing and monitoring such integrative systems will have to account for different stakeholder perspectives and fordetailed technology deployment and resource conversion scenarios. Applying a sustainability index methodology in a case study region must include an evaluation of the whole supply chain and the process networks associated with the characteristic products of the evaluated region. To date, no such integrative assessment methods exist in the literature. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to lay out, on the basis of a practical example in the case study region of Central Germany, an assessment of the sustainability level of wood-based bioeconomy networks by applying the Sustainability Monitoring Tool -SUMINISTRO”- to examine regional bio-based industry networks.

A bioeconomy tackles sustainable development at both the global and regional levels, as it relies on the optimized use of renewable bio-based resources for the provisioning of food, materials, and energy to meet societal demands. The effects of the bioeconomy can be best observed at a regional level, as it supports regional development and affects the social dimension of sustainability. In order to assess the social impacts of wood-based production chains with regional differentiation, the social life cycle assessment framework “RESPONSA” was established in 2018. We present an initial study, in which this method is applied to an exemplary production chain in a case study of laminated veneer lumber produced in central Germany. The results show a relatively better social performance compared to the reference economic sector, reflecting a relatively low rate of female employees as a major social hotspot. Several social opportunities are identified, in terms of health and safety, equal opportunities, and adequate remuneration, for the organization taking part in the value chain. Finally, considering the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global normative framework, a number of additional indicators for RESPONSA, as well as further developments and recommendations regarding its application in other regions and the upcoming social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) guidelines, are identified.

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A large-scale biogas upgrading plant using the CarboTech® technology with a treatment capacity of 1333 Nm3 biogas per hour was analyzed. Our scope of evaluation encompasses all technology steps that are necessary for upgrading biogas, i.e., both pretreatment and biogas upgrade. A cradle-to-gate life-cycle and life-cycle cost assessment (LCA and LCCA) methodology was used with the functional unit (FU) of 1 Nm3 of biogas upgraded in order to ease comparison with other biogas upgrading technologies. The calculation was made using the GaBi8 LCA software and databases of GaBi Professional, Construction materials, Food&Feed, and the ecoinvent3. We applied the CML characterization model with all its mid-point indicators. The mid-point indicators of the CML characterization model were aggregated after normalization by the CML2001 - Jan.2016 normalization factors. The normalized environmental impact was 541.74·10−15/Nm3 raw biogas. The highest environmental impacts were the marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential (15.705 kg dichlorobenzene-equiv./Nm3 raw biogas), the abiotic depletion potential (1.037 MJ/Nm3 raw biogas), and global warming potential (0.113 kg CO2-equiv./Nm3 raw biogas). The unit production cost of the PSA technology was 0.05-0.063 €/Nm3 raw biogas. The most considerable source of expenses was the operational cost from which 77% was spent on electricity. The initial investment, personal costs, and the reinvestment amounted to only 34% of the total costs for the whole life cycle. Strategies to lower the environmental burden of the PSA technology are to use green electricity and to optimize the size of the plant in order to reduce unnecessary material flows of building material and their indirect energy use. This can also lower investment expenditures while automatization and remote control may spare personnel costs.