30th LCA Discussion Forum Life cycle approaches applied on biofuels
Tuesday 28th November 2006, 9:00 - 17:00h, Berne-Ittigen,
UVEK-Verwaltungszentrum
We are pleased to invite you to the 30th Discussion Forum on Life Cycle
Assessment.
Today, transportation almost entirely relies on oil-based fuels and is
responsible for about 30% of the world's fossil fuel consumption.
According to the principles of sustainability, a modern society should
preserve non-renewable energy sources and replace them by renewable
energy. The depletion of fossil energy reserves and the associated
environmental impacts are the two main reasons leading to consider
alternative fuels for transportation. Fuels derived from biomass, also
referred to as biofu-els, are not only potentially renewable, but are
also sufficiently similar to fossil fuels to provide for direct
substitution. Also practically, it seems to be a promising alternative
to fossil fuels in the short term. But, what are the environmental
impacts of using biofuels on a large scale?
The goal of this one-day forum is to discuss the present status of life
cycle assessment with regard to biofuels. It aims to inform
practitioners from Switzerland and surrounding countries about the
follow-ing issues:
· Short introduction to LCA methodology.
· Are organic agricultural products a basis for environmentally
friendly biofuels, or which other possibilities exist to minimize the
environmental impacts in the agricultural production stage?
· Which approaches exist to investigate the environmental impacts of
future production chains?
· What are the current results of LCA studies of biofuels and what
are reasons for diverging re-sults? Presentation of current research
works in Switzerland with regards to LCA of biofuels (ex-tension of the
ecoinvent database)
· What are competitive uses of biomass resources, e.g. for
materials, and how can the best use op-tions for a biomass resource be
assessed in LCA?
· Are imported biofuels a proper way to reduce the environmental
impacts due to fuel consumption in Switzerland?
· What are the consequences for the national fuel policy that can be
derived from the LCA results?
Proposals for additional short presentations (5 to 10 min, 3 to 6
slides, depending on the number of submitted presentations) are
welcome.
The forum will be held in German. Practitioners from industry,
representatives from authorities and NGOs, and polititians are welcomed
as well as LCA experts. We are persuaded that this forum will be of
interest to all actors involved in producing, marketing and using of
biofuels and we look forward to welcome you in Berne-Ittigen.
Please find more information on the 30th LCA Discussion Forum in the
attached invitation. The forum will be held in German with one workshop
in French.Please send your application to the following contact: [log in to unmask]
Proposal for additional short presentation (5-10 min) are appreciated.
We are looking forward to welcome you in Berne.
Best regards,
Niels Jungbluth, ESU-services, Uster (project leader of the Swiss “Life
Cycle Assessment of bioenergy” project)