National Academies to conduct study on methods of LCA of low-carbon transportation fuels
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is forming a committee that will conduct a study on the current methods for life cycle analyses (LCA) of low-carbon transportation fuels in the United States.
Low carbon fuel standards, such as the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard and the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), are major US programs for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation fuels. These standards rely on life cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to estimate fuel GHG emissions.
However, current LCAs differ notably in how they are implemented, with disagreements pertaining to data quality, modeling approaches, and key assumptions.