Video: GREET energy use and emissions model updated for 2021
S. Himmelstein | October 15, 2021U.S. Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has finalized the 2021 release of the suite of Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) models and associated documentation. The life-cycle analysis (LCA) tool is designed to examine systematically the energy and environmental effects of diverse transportation fuels and vehicle technologies in major transportation sectors and other end-use sectors, and energy systems.
Within the transportation sector, GREET covers road, air, water, and rail transportation sub-sectors. The platform, which includes the GREET.net model and the GREET Excel model, supports LCA of various materials such as steel, aluminum, cement and plastics types, and was recently expanded to cover the building sector.
Other revisions include updates to corn ethanol pathways to reflect the evolution of that industry over the past two decades. The 2021 release also includes the Supply Chain Sustainability Analysis (SCSA) fuel Source: ANLpathways for renewable gasoline, diesel, and hydrocarbon fuel pathways from lignocellulosic biomass and municipal wastewater sludge. The SCSA tracks and demonstrates the progress of energy and environmental performances of the individual biofuel pathways that undergo continuous development.
Eight pathways are now delineated for fuels for use in engines co-optimized with drop-in biofuel blends to improve engine efficiency performance and reduce engine-out emissions. One pathway produces methanol from biomass gasification, which is blended with a petroleum gasoline blendstock and designed to improve engine efficiency for light-duty multi-mode engines. The other seven pathways, representing a combination of biochemical and thermochemical conversion technologies, produce bio-blendstocks capable of reducing engine-out emissions for mixing-controlled compression ignition engines in heavy-duty vehicles. GREET 2021 also adds eight sustainable aviation fuel production pathways.