This study compares two production pathways for ammonia with low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO) used as fuel in shipping. The ammonia is produced through the Haber‐Bosch process, where nitrogen (N2) and hydrogen (H2) are combined into NH3. The main difference between the two ammonia production pathways lies in the H2 production, as the H2 can be from natural gas (CH4) in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS) or via electrolysis of water (H2O) with renewable electricity sources. Within the industry, the two pathways are often called ‘blue’ and ‘green’ ammonia.
Ammonia must be ignited by a pilot fuel, which is assumed to be VLSFO, and the study therefore compares 1 MJ of ammonia, where VLSFO accounts for 9.6% of the total fuel energy of 1 MJ ammonia, with 1 MJ of VLSFO. Throughout the report, the share of VLSFO as a pilot fuel needed to ignite ammoni a is referred to as ‘ammonia with 9.6% e/e VLSFO’.
The LCA includes all life cycle stages from cradle to grave of ammonia fuel and VLSFO, i.e., production of fuel feedstock, fuel production, distribution and bunkering, as well as storage and combustion on board of the ship. This system boundary is often referred to as ‘well-to-wake’ (WtW).
The report includes two modelling approach: a consequential model and an attributional model aligned with the revised version of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) guidelines for renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs).
This report is commissioned by A.P. Moller – Maersk and internal quality assurance has been ensured by inviting several relevant stakeholders to take part in the project scoping, data collection, and review of methods and assumptions. While the partners have contributed to validating the technical aspects, they have not participated in the interpretation of the results.
The project partners include: A.P. Moller – Maersk, Environmental Defense Fund Europe, Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, CMA CGM, DFDS A/S, American Bureau of Shipping, MAN Energy Solutions, Svitzer A/S and Havenbedrijf Rotterdam N.V.
Appendix 9 – Marginal electricity mixes
Appendix 11 – Final review statement and itemized review report
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We helped B’ZEOS compare the environmental impact of their seaweed packaging solution by analyzing the cradle to grave impact of their product and compare it with other biobased and fossil fuel based solutions on the market. Project completed October 2024.B'ZEOS wanted to know how their product design performed against their competitors and know more about how the choice of input materials affected the overall environmental impact of their product.
The study constituted a prospective LCA of a packaging solution currently under development by the company, produced from seaweed extracts. This was then compared, on a cradle-to-grave basis, to equivalent products based on other petrochemical and bio-based materials available on the market. The results allowed B’ZEOS to not only benchmark the environmental performance of their product against potential competitors, but also to gain insights as to how to improve this performance regarding aspects such as product design, choice of raw materials and implications in terms of product disposal at the end of its useful life.
This report evaluates the sustainability of various used for biofuel production. The assessment covers ten different feedstocks, including Used Cooking Oil (UCO), Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) oil, Spent Bleach Earth (SBE) oil, soap stock acid oils, animal fats, Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) bottoms, brown grease, sewage, and food waste. The key aspects analysed for each feedstock include overall sustainability concerns, plausible global volumes, competing industries, potential risks of indirect land use change (iLUC), geographical dependencies, and potential mitigating actions.
Amidst the energy transition and ongoing climate change, solar fuels are a sustainable solution for environmental-friendly energy supply for mobility, households and industry, for instance. A promising approach for solar fuel production is artificial photosynthesis (AP) – however, current systems are inefficient, expensive and unsuitable for industrial deployment. The EU project „SUNGATE“, aims to overcome these limitations by combining the principles of AP with photoelectrocatalysis and flow microreactor technology. As a result, the project will bring about the first modular full-cell continuous flow microreactor technology that requires sunlight as its only energy source as well as water and CO2 as simple, abundant feedstocks for conversion into solar fuels such as methanol and formate.
In contrast to state-of-the-art photoelectrochemical (PEC) technologies, SUNGATE will not use toxic or critical raw materials, and will combine efficient water oxidation catalysts with novel biohybrid CO2 reducing catalysts onto nanostructured electrodes to radically improve the efficiency of conversion. The unique modular and scalable design of SUNGATE technology will allow a flexible defossilised production of solar fuels for diverse applications ranging from decentralised energy infrastructure to closed carbon cycles for sectors that emit large amounts of CO2 (e.g. cement, steel and chemical industry).
SUNGATE aims to achieve proof of concept at TRL 5. This would result in a technology breakthrough that has the potential to secure the future global energy supply at an affordable cost and meets the central goal of the European Green Deal and the European Climate Law to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The project’s interdisciplinary consortium of 12 academic, RTO and industry partners from six EU countries and Turkey will engage in the full validation of the technology, including life cycle assessment, as well as effective dissemination and knowledge transfer to accelerate industrial take up. SUNGATE (HE 101122061) received a total budget of about 4.9 million euros from the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme under the Grant Agreement 101122061and will run until September 30, 2027.
Under the coordination of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, the project has the collaboration of 11 partners from research and industry: Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM (Germany), Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC (Germany), University of Warsaw (Poland), Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (Spain), University of Stuttgart (Germany), Ulm University (Germany), Ghent University, (Belgium), Tarsus University, (Turkey), 2.-0 LCA consultants, (Denmark), Danish Board of Technology, (Denmark) and Chemtrix BV, (Netherlands).
This report presents a summary of a detailed life cycle assessment (LCA) study of palm oil production at United Plantations Berhad (Teluk Intan, Malaysia). LCA is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the life cycle stages of a product or service from ‘cradle to grave’. The current study is a desk‐study performed on the distance, carried out January to March 2024, and it builds on top of six other large studies carried out for United Plantations in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2020, and 2023. The study in 2008 was the first LCA of palm oil ever, which is fully compliant with and critical reviewed according to the international standards on LCA: ISO 14040 and 14044.
The environmental impact of palm oil is presented as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, i.e. carbon footprint, as well as for a number of other impact categories such as biodiversity, respiratory effects and toxicity. The environmental impacts relate to the life cycle of palm oil from cultivation to the gate of the refinery, including all upstream emissions, e.g. from the production of fertilisers, fuels and machinery. The results are shown per kg of refined palm oil, as well as for United Plantations total product portfolio (corporate GHG footprint).
Over the last decades, United Plantations Berhad has worked intensively in reducing their environmental impacts. The effect of this work is illustrated by tracking the carbon footprint for the company’s production of palm oil from 2004 to 2023.
The primary purpose of the LCA is to document and assess the environmental impacts from the production of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad. Secondly, the purpose is to follow over time the GHG emissions from the production of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad. Thirdly, to quantify the absolute impact of United Plantations’ product portfolio, fourthly, to compare United Plantation’s production of palm oil with average Malaysian/Indonesian palm oil and other major vegetable oils, and fifthly, to analyse improvement options for United Plantation’s production of palm oil.
The study consisted of a consequential LCA of electricity produced at an average BeGreen solar photovoltaic (PV) park. Inventory data included materials, lifetime, maintenance, electricity production etc. The most significant impact categories were identified, and a detailed contribution analyses was provided for the three most relevant impact categories. The predominant hotspots and improvement potentials for the average BeGreen Solar Park were identified. This project was reviewed by a single expert reviewer, between October and November 2023, according to ISO 14044.
This report is prepared for Concito by 2.-0 LCA consultants January 2020 to February 2021. The report is the technical documentation of The Big Climate Database (“Den store klimadatabase”), which is published by Concito and funded by the Salling Foundations. It should be noted that all linked LCA activities and their flows can be accessed on the webpage: http://denstoreklimadatabase.dk/
Tropical peatland stores a large amount of carbon. In the last 20 years, drainage of Asian peat soil has increased to satisfy the demand of land for plantation agricultures. Industrial oil palm plantations occupy large areas of peatland in Indonesia and Malaysia, with associated GHG emissions and biodiversity loss, here referred to as nature occupation impact. This study performs a detailed Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of 1 kg of palm oil for two case studies: PT SMART's Hanau and Sungai Rungau facilities in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. The objective is to quantify the reduction in GHG emissions and nature occupation that has been achieved by implementing the following industry-driven measures: reducing the area of cultivated peat soil, reducing the peat drainage depth, and setting aside part of the land-bank for nature conservation. The results show that 1 kg of palm oil causes 2.72 and 2.25 kg CO2-eq./kg palm oil from Hanau and Sungai Rungau facilities respectively. These are 20%–34% lower than average RSPO certified palm oil and 49%–58% lower than average non-certified palm oil. Sungai Rungau achieves the reduction mainly due to a completely peat soil-free supply base. Hanau's peat emissions are instead 0.28 kg, compared to the 0.77 and 2.36 kg CO2-eq for RSPO certified and non-certified palm oil respectively, due to a very low drainage depth (18–25 cm compared to 57–73 cm in average of RSPO certified and non-certified respectively) and an overall lower share of oil palms on peat land. The impact on nature occupation is 24%–43% lower in Hanau and Sungai Rungau compared to non-certified oil and 4%–29% lower compared to RPSO certified respectively. About 8% of the total land bank of the Hanau supply-base has been set aside for nature conservation, reducing GHG emissions by 2% and nature occupation by 9%. Both Hanau and Sungai Rungau could also significantly reduce GHG emissions in the palm oil milling stage, by implementing biogas capture in palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment.
LCA is a technique to assess environmental impacts associated with all the life cycle stages of a product or service from ‘cradle to grave’. Over the last decade, United Plantations Berhad has worked intensively to reduce their environmental impacts and this ongoing project is part of the underlying research.
The primary purpose of the project is to document and assess the environmental impacts from the production of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad. Secondly, the purpose is to follow over time the GHG emissions from the production of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad. Thirdly, to compare United Plantation Berhad’s production of palm oil with average Malaysian/Indonesian palm oil and other major vegetable oils, and fourthly, to analyse improvement options for United Plantation Berhad’s production of palm oil.
This project currently consists of eight studies carried out for United Plantations Berhad in 2008, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. The study in 2008 was the first LCA of palm oil ever, which was fully compliant with and critical reviewed according to the international standards on LCA: ISO 14040 and 14044.
The environmental impact of palm oil is presented in the reports as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, i.e. carbon footprint, as well as for a number of other impact categories such as biodiversity, respiratory effects and toxicity. The environmental impacts relate to the life cycle of palm oil from cultivation to the gate of the refinery, including all upstream emissions, e.g. from the production of fertilisers, fuels and machinery.
Recent reports:
LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2023 (Results 2004-2022)
LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2022 (Results 2004-2021)
LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2021 (Results 2004-2020)
LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2020 (Results 2004-2019)
LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2019 (Results 2004-2018)
LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2017 (Results 2004-2016)
LCA of palm oil at United Plantations Berhad 2014 (Results 2004-2013)
