Combination of Life Cycle Assessment with Decomposition Analysis：Case Study of Fossil Power Plant

• Main Authors: Wen-hsiu Kuo, 郭紋秀
• Other Authors: Sue-Jane Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/06192697386808833723

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 環境工程學系碩博士班 === 97 === Life cycle assessment was applied in this study to explore the environmental impacts caused by fossil-power plants in Taiwan. We used three models including Eco-Indicator 95, EPS 2000 and CML 2 from the SimaPro 7.1 program to compare the environmental impacts generated from various fossil fuels in power generation. In addition, the application of decomposition method was used to identify the major factors affecting CO2 emissions from the sector of power generation and results were comparied with other countries. We hope that results of this study can be of value for relevant study in life cycle assessment and how to reduce CO2 emissions for domestic power sector. The results showed that different types of fuels have similar influence on the environment categories. Major impact categories in Eco-Indicator 95 model include heavy metals, greenhouse and energy resources. The abiotic stock resource and human health were the mainly impact categories in EPS 2000 model categories. In the CML 2 model, the major impact category was marine aquatic ecotoxicity. Also, we analyzed the electricity consumption, CO2 emissions and economic growth changes from 1971 to 2006 in Taiwan, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, China, Britain, the United States and the Czech Republic. The results indicated that the power sector is an important source of CO2 emissions for all countries. New Zealand has the fastest growth rate in electricity CO2 emission coefficient and total CO2 emissions intensity; China has the fastest growth rate in per capita CO2 emissions of electricity; Korea has the fastest growth rate in per capita electricity consumption and electricity intensity; Australia's per capita CO2 emissions of electricity was the largest comparied to other countries. Results from decomposition analysis indicated that GDP per capita was the major incremental factor to cause the increase of CO2 emissions for most countries. The electricity CO2 emission coefficient and electricity intensity were the mainly factors in reducing CO2 emission. Furthermore, the largest incremental of CO2 emissions was found in China, while Italy had the best performance with a total reduction up to 1.55 million tons during 1990 to 2005.