Life cycle analysis for the use of Salix feedstock for production of fuel and chemical

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has emerged as a powerful tool for quantifying the environmental impacts of biobased production. This has been especially clarified by the intensive research and policy development on greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels in recent years.

Newly published methodology, including dynamic modelling of carbon dynamics and global temperature increase using response functions, has further increased the power and usability of LCA. A major strength of LCA is its ability to estimate environmental impacts per unit of product. For integrated strategies the environmental impact of biorefineries should be divided over several high-value end products.

Recent time dynamic LCAs have shown the capability of a Salix field to both produce energy carriers and cool the global climate. The cooling effect is mainly due to increased amounts of carbon in soil and above ground biomass, carbon otherwise released as CO2 to the atmosphere.

Our specific aims with this project is to:

• Evaluate, in terms of environmental impact and especially time dynamic global temperature effects in life cycle perspective, the improvements reached by using specially selected Salix clones as raw material for valuable biofuels and biochemicals described in project 1-3
• Give recommendations for Salix characteristics especially important to address in coming plant breeding in order to obtain even more positive climate effects in life cycle and final product perspective