L. SCHEBEK and O. MR AN I, Technische Universitat Darmstadt, Germany

DOI: 10.1533/9780857097385.1.67

Abstract: Given the fact that biorefineries are gaining increasing attention as a technology for mitigation of climate change and sustainable development in general, it is not surprising that sustainability assessment of biorefineries has also become an issue. The interaction of biorefineries with their environment is very complex. In general, it can be stated that biorefineries may have impacts on the natural or physical as well as on the economic and social-cultural environment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systematic approach to analyze and examine the impacts of products or services on the environment. Most LCA studies on biorefineries consider or compare products or raw materials, thus such other classification features of biorefineries as platform and process appear only in the background. Challenges in the future include assessment of the expected competition between material and energetic use on one hand, and land for cultivation of food and feed production on the other hand. As a general prerequisite, the technological processes must be most efficient. In addition to that, social and economic implications of a broad implementation of biorefineries must be better understood, in order to facilitate implementation of solutions.

Key words: sustainability assessment, biorefineries, life cycle assessment (LCA).

3.1 Introduction

The concept of sustainability was introduced by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987) in its famous report ‘Our Common Future’, delivered on behalf of the United Nations in 1987. Since then, it has been broadly discussed in scientific literature as well as in public debates at various levels of society. The WCED report defines sustainable development as ‘Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. The popularity of this concept resides in its comprehensive and inclusive idea of fairness today and in future, with nature conservation as prerequisite to implement this idea of global equity. However, its universal applicability raised the need for further specification of goals and strategies

© 2014 Woodhead Publishing Limited

to make it operational. A widespread idea of sustainability states that sustainable development must be based on three dimensions: environmental, economic and social (Janicke et al., 2001). From this generic view, individual strategies for stakeholders may be derived. As one example, Alles and Jenkins propose that in organizational strategies three objectives must be considered (Alles and Jenkins, 2010):

• people — the social consequences of its actions

• planet — the ecological consequences of its actions

• profits — the economic profitability of companies (being the source of ‘prosperity’).

So far, many international, national and company indicator systems to assess sustainability have been worked out. Assefa and Frostell report that more than 500 projects have been implemented to develop quantitative indicators for sustainable development (Assefa and Frostell, 2007). These may be used to assess progress of sustainability on various levels and for different applications. Research and political interest in sustainability assessment of technologies increased during the last decade. The reason is the far-reaching impact of novel technologies, which may contribute to sustainable development, but may also raise novel problems of sustainability.

Given the fact that biorefineries are gaining increasing attention as a technology for mitigation of climate change and sustainable develop­ment in general, it is not surprising that the sustainability assessment of biorefineries has also become an issue. Biorefineries are supposed to have a considerable potential to replace fossil fuels and to develop a new concept of economic production in the chemical industry. At the same time, this might pose new challenges. The demand for biomass supply and new patterns for production and workplace surroundings are an example for these. Consequently, environmental impacts are the focus of all sustainability assessments, but also other issues have to be taken into account to obtain a comprehensive picture.