Sustainability Assessment of Renewables-Based Products

Over the past decade, renewables-based technology and sustainability assessment methods have grown tremendously. Renewable energy and products have a significant role in the market today, and the same time sustainability assessment methods have advanced, with a growing standardization of environmental sustainability metrics and consideration of social issues as part of the assessment.
“Sustainability Assessment of Renewables-Based Products: Methods and Case Studies” is an extensive update and sequel to the 2006 title Renewables-Based Technology: Sustainability Assessment. It discusses the impressive evolution and role renewables have taken in our modern society, highlighting the importance of sustainability principles in the design phase of renewable-based technologies, and presenting a wide range of sustainability assessment methods suitable for renewables-based technologies, together with case studies to demonstrate their applications.
This book is a valuable resource for academics, businesses and policy makers who are active in contributing to more sustainable production and consumption.
Topics covered include:
• The growing role of renewables in our society
• Sustainability in the design phase of products and processes
• Principles of sustainability assessment
• Land use analysis
• Water use analysis
• Material and energy flow analysis
• Exergy and cumulative exergy analysisCarbon and environmental footprint methods
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), social Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing (LCC)
• Case studies: renewable energy, bio-based chemicals and bio-based materials.