Chapter 13: Case Study – Bioenergy Life-cycle Analysis and Implications on Bioenergy-driven Circular Economy

Circular Economy pursues regenerative use of limited materials to sustain the production and consumption of valuable products and services with reduced energy and environmental impacts relative to conventional practices. Bioenergy offers unique opportunities to promote and establish a circular carbon economy by recycling and reusing carbon sources participating in the life-cycle of bioenergy that often encompasses sequestration, transportation, conversion, and end-use of the carbon. Bioenergy life-cycle analysis offers holistic and robust evaluation approaches to identifying bottlenecks and choosing the best strategies of sustaining the production and consumption of bioenergy to achieve optimal resource efficiency and minimal environmental impacts, which a circular carbon economy aspires to fulfil. In this chapter, five bioenergy production systems that are representative of major commercialized and emerging bioenergy technologies are evaluated from a life-cycle analysis perspective, highlighting the implications of managing, utilizing, and circulating biogenic carbon resources to promote a circular bioeconomy that contributes to reduced environmental impacts.