Best Practices for Life Cycle Assessment of BiCRS

Life cycle analysis/assessment (LCA) is an existing framework that is well suited to evaluate the environmental implications of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). By design, LCA provides a holistic perspective of the potential environmental impacts of a product or process across the different life cycle phases. Two International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards provide the principles and framework (14040) and requirements and guidelines (14044) for conducting LCA. Even though the approaches for LCA are codified in the ISO standards, we recognize the need to establish specific best practices for the subjective elements in those standards to harmonize data and methods to allow for consistent assessments of CDR approaches. This document focuses specifically on one subset of CDR approaches— biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS).

The purpose of this effort is to provide specific best practices for implementing the ISO standards to BiCRS systems to enable consistent and robust LCAs across the four phases of LCA. We envision the audiences for this document to be multifaceted, including to include technology developers, federal funding awardees, state- and federal-level policymakers and regulators, entities (companies, organizations, individuals) interested in evaluating BiCRS procurement, and potential host communities for BiCRS technologies.

This is not a legal document and thus the recommendations included are provided as best practices based on the experience of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its national laboratories. This document is not intended to qualify or disqualify any particular BiCRS pathway, but rather provide best practices for how LCAs of those approaches ought to be conducted in a robust and consistent manner.

DOE recognizes that the broader CDR landscape, inclusive of BiCRS, is in a period of rapid evolution in terms of scientific understanding, methods for robust monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV), and market creation for commoditized credits. Those developments may result in modifications to Best Practices over time. This document is proposed as an initial proposal for applying LCA to BiCRS approaches. Additionally, as described in this document, some factors of LCA pertaining to biomass carbon accounting are individual to the type, location, and circumstance of the biomass being utilized, and require specific analytical considerations (e.g., spatial scales, temporal scales). Those considerations are only addressed in this document at a high level. 

DOE is interested in feedback on these Best Practices. Comments can be submitted to [email protected]. The deadline for submissions is February 21, 2025. 

Note: All comments received are considered a Federal record and will be stored and potentially accessed in the future as part of our official documentation. Personal identifying information (e.g., name, address, etc.), confidential business information, or otherwise sensitive information submitted voluntarily may be subject to public release under the Freedom of Information Act.