Stefan Füchsl and Josef Huber examine current biogenic carbon assessment methods and their ability to accurately capture environmental impacts. They introduce a new conceptual framework - the Green Carbon Cycle (GCC) - a sub-cycle of the global carbon cycle that supports understanding the accuracy of methods to capture all significant biogenic carbon fluxes.
By applying the GCC, they analyse the advantages and disadvantages of dynamic LCA, GWPbio and the -1/+1 method under identical assumptions in four examples. The methods show both differences and similarities, depending on the specific application. If we focus only on growth cycles, dynamic LCA and GWPbio provide almost identical results for the assessment of biogenic carbon. However, when considering the entire life cycle of a biomass-based cladding, dynamic LCA finds significantly lower impacts than GWPbio, mainly due to the different assumptions about the period from biomass growth to the end of product life.
Based on the different strengths and weaknesses of the application of GCC, the authors offer a decision matrix for practitioners to facilitate the right choice for each application. This article enables researchers and practitioners to accurately assess biogenic carbon and determine the best available approximation to the conditions in the GCC.
For those interested in sustainability, life cycle assessment, and the bioeconomy, this is a valuable read.
