An Evaluation Methodology with Applied Life-Cycle Assessment of Coal-Biomass Cofiring in Philippine Context

Abstract

The study assesses the net environmental impact of deploying biomass cofiring in terms of GHG emissions in the province of Bataan, a potential region for cofiring in Central Luzon Region in the Philippines. It presents a methodology framework that involves the resources and logistics mapping stage and the environmental life- cycle assessment stage. The first stage includes biomass resource assessment to specify the biomass material and potential biomass share for cofiring, the logistics planning to select the optimal and realistic logistical choices, and the technology review to look at the actual technological capabilities for cofiring. Biomass resource assessment selects the most dependable biomass feedstock for cofiring from different locally available biomass: forest residues, agricultural residues, and energy crop. It also quantifies the realistic and sustainable cofiring share of the different biomass feedstock that can be effectively taken. The second stage sets up the base case scenario which consider combustion of pure coal only and two cofiring scenarios with the most dependable biomass type at different biomass shares as drawn from the previous stage. The second stage follows the standard four-phased LCA using emission factors available in literature for the comparative and contribution analysis of the reference scenarios and drawn up cofiring scenarios in the selected region. Results reveal important insights with potential energy planning and policy implications.