This study evaluates the potential environmental impacts of deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for pulverized coal power plants in Japan by using LCA, focusing on selected environmental impact categories including global warming. The LIME (Life-cycle impact assessment method based on endpoint modeling) method is used to assess and compare the environmental impacts between three cases, a typical ultra-supercritical pulverized coal-fired power generation system (case 1) and two CCS systems, one comprised of CO2 capture with monoethanolamine (MEA) solvent, compression, seafloor pipeline transportation and below seafloor storage (case 2) and the other case was the same as case 2 except that CO2 transportation by ship was used (case 3). The life cycle GHG emissions for case 1 were 0.89 kg-CO2 (eq.)/kWh. GHG emissions for case 2 and case 3 were 20% and 29%, respectively, of emissions for case 1. However non-GHG emissions increased for case 2 and case 3, especially emissions of NH3 from the CO2 capture process and ethylene oxide from the MEA production process. The results for the 3 cases at the endpoint level, which estimated the damage on four safeguard subjects (human health, social asset, biodiversity and primary production), showed that for case 2 and 3, damage to biodiversity and primary productivity increase by 40% respectively caused by increased feed coal to meet energy consumption on CO2 capture process while the damage to human health decreased by approximately 60% due to the large reduction in CO2 emissions. The increased damage to social assets caused by NH3 emission and increased energy consumption due to CCS is similar with the reduction in damage due to reduction of CO2 emissions

Purpose: Despite the long-standing demand for research on dynamic lifecycle assessment (LCA) for policymaking, only a few studies have addressed this subject in conjunction with other systems thinking disciplines, such as energy systems models (ESMs) and integrated assessment models (IAMs), which have achieved tremendous success in assessing climate policies in future scenarios. This study explains our methodological advances in the global application of LCA incorporated in IAMs, specifically dose-response functions, models, and future scenarios. Methods: We investigate the application of the lifecycle impact assessment method based on endpoint modeling (LIME), developed under the current environmental situation in Japan and globally, to be consistent and compatible with our IAM, which comprises three resource balance models and a simplified climate model. The IAM endogenously generates most inventories consistent with energy scenarios and climate policies linked with the applied LIME. The IAM and LIME are formulated to minimize the discounted sum of supplying the cost of resources over their lifecycles (i.e., from development to end-of-life) to generate time evolutions for the endpoint impacts over this century on a global scale with/without the 2-degree Celsius (2DC) target in a 100% renewable energy scenario. Results and discussion: Unlike existing LCA+ESM/IAM studies, which focus on power generation technologies and related (in)direct embedded energy consumption on a lifecycle basis, our model’s expansion to mineral and biomass resources, in addition to energy, has the following novel results: (1) The following inventories in the 2DC target are generally lower than those in business as usual (BAU): temperature and sea level rise, natural resource, and waste discharge; further, SOx emissions are significantly reduced by reducing coal production while increasing forestry. (2) The environmental impacts on the four endpoints of minerals, land use, and land-use change, with the exclusion of energy-related impacts, are significantly larger than those related to energy. (3) Finally, by ensuring inventory reduction, the 2DC target scenario can reduce overall endpoint impacts (by maximum around 20%), except the impacts on biodiversity resulting from forestry expansion to meet predetermined targets. Conclusions: Unlike mainstream IAM analyses, we incorporate LIME, instead of energy- and biomass-related resource and climate change impacts alone; our model thus provides a comprehensive perspective on various natural resources and their impacts on a lifecycle basis. The exclusion of the weighting process and retention of the four endpoints enable us to easily interpret the results. Further, this application of LCA to IAM enables us to further understand and assess natural resources and environmental impacts.