Environmental assessment of CCHP (combined cooling heating and power) systems based on biomass combustion in comparison to conventional generation

Biomass CCHP (combined cooling heating and power) systems based on biomass combustion have already demonstrated their benefits in some operating conditions. However, their environmental and energy performance might not always be better than that of conventional stand-alone generation systems. In order to assess the possible benefits, these plants are evaluated by means of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to provide some guidelines regarding their environmental feasibility. A thermodynamic model, which considers the integration of different sizes of cogeneration and cooling units, was developed to contribute to properly defining the life cycle inventory stage. Moreover, the model outputs were used to develop a primary energy savings ratio (PESR) analysis and compare its results with those of the LCA.