IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i9p3912-d1140171.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Life Cycle Assessment of District Heating Infrastructures: A Comparison of Pipe Typologies in France

Author

Listed:
  • Mahaut Vauchez

    (Efficacity, 14 Boulevard Newton, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France)

  • Jacopo Famiglietti

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milan, Italy)

  • Kevin Autelitano

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milan, Italy)

  • Morgane Colombert

    (Efficacity, 14 Boulevard Newton, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France
    LAB’URBA, Université Gustave Eiffel, Université Paris Est Creteil, EIVP, F-77454 Marne-la-Vallée, France)

  • Rossano Scoccia

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milan, Italy)

  • Mario Motta

    (Department of Energy, Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

Identifying decarbonization strategies at the district level is increasingly necessary to align the development of urban projects with European climate neutrality objectives. It is well known that district heating and cooling networks are an attractive energy system solution because they permit the integration of renewable energies and local excess of hot or cold sources. The detailed design and optimization of network infrastructures are essential to achieve the full potential of this energy system. The authors conducted an attributional life cycle assessment to compare the environmental profile of five distribution network infrastructures (i.e., pipes, heat carrier fluid, trenches, heat exchangers, valves, and water pumps) based on a study case in Marseille, France. The work aims to put into perspective the environmental profile of subsystems comprising a district heating infrastructure, and compare pipe typologies that can be used to guide decision-making in eco-design processing. Rigid and flexible piping systems were compared separately. The results show that the main impact source is the pipe subsystem, followed by the trench works for most impact categories. The authors underlined the importance of pipe typology choice, which can reduce emissions by up to 80% and 77% for rigid and flexible systems, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Mahaut Vauchez & Jacopo Famiglietti & Kevin Autelitano & Morgane Colombert & Rossano Scoccia & Mario Motta, 2023. "Life Cycle Assessment of District Heating Infrastructures: A Comparison of Pipe Typologies in France," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-23, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:9:p:3912-:d:1140171
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3912/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3912/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Camille Jeandaux & Jean-Baptiste Videau & Anne Prieur-Vernat, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of District Heating Systems in Europe: Case Study and Recommendations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-32, October.
    2. Luca Ciacci & Fabrizio Passarini, 2020. "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Environmental and Energy Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-8, November.
    3. Oliver-Solà, Jordi & Gabarrell, Xavier & Rieradevall, Joan, 2009. "Environmental impacts of the infrastructure for district heating in urban neighbourhoods," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4711-4719, November.
    4. Turski, Michał & Nogaj, Kinga & Sekret, Robert, 2019. "The use of a PCM heat accumulator to improve the efficiency of the district heating substation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    5. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Vallès, Manel & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Boer, Dieter, 2020. "A framework for the optimal integration of solar assisted district heating in different urban sized communities: A robust machine learning approach incorporating global sensitivity analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    6. Francesco Neirotti & Michel Noussan & Marco Simonetti, 2020. "Evaluating the Emissions of the Heat Supplied by District Heating Networks through A Life Cycle Perspective," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-14, October.
    7. Rehman, Hassam ur & Hirvonen, Janne & Sirén, Kai, 2018. "Performance comparison between optimized design of a centralized and semi-decentralized community size solar district heating system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 1072-1094.
    8. Michał Turski & Agnieszka Jachura, 2022. "Life Cycle Assessment of Dispersed Phase Change Material Heat Accumulators for Cooperation with Buildings in the District Heating System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-24, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jacopo Famiglietti & Hicham Madioum & Mario Motta, 2023. "Developing a New Data-Driven LCA Tool at the Urban Scale: The Case of the Embodied Environmental Profile of the Building Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-30, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Golmohamadi, Hessam & Larsen, Kim Guldstrand & Jensen, Peter Gjøl & Hasrat, Imran Riaz, 2022. "Integration of flexibility potentials of district heating systems into electricity markets: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Gangwar, Sachin & Spiekman, Marleen & Vallès, Manel & Jiménez, Laureano & Boer, Dieter, 2021. "Sustainability insights on emerging solar district heating technologies to boost the nearly zero energy building concept," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 893-913.
    3. Guelpa, Elisa, 2021. "Impact of thermal masses on the peak load in district heating systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    4. Wang, Yang & Zhang, Shanhong & Chow, David & Kuckelkorn, Jens M., 2021. "Evaluation and optimization of district energy network performance: Present and future," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    5. Waqar Muhammad Ashraf & Ghulam Moeen Uddin & Syed Muhammad Arafat & Sher Afghan & Ahmad Hassan Kamal & Muhammad Asim & Muhammad Haider Khan & Muhammad Waqas Rafique & Uwe Naumann & Sajawal Gul Niazi &, 2020. "Optimization of a 660 MW e Supercritical Power Plant Performance—A Case of Industry 4.0 in the Data-Driven Operational Management Part 1. Thermal Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-33, October.
    6. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Vallès, Manel & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Boer, Dieter, 2020. "A framework for the optimal integration of solar assisted district heating in different urban sized communities: A robust machine learning approach incorporating global sensitivity analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    7. Dawid Czajor & Łukasz Amanowicz, 2024. "Methodology for Modernizing Local Gas-Fired District Heating Systems into a Central District Heating System Using Gas-Fired Cogeneration Engines—A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(4), pages 1-30, February.
    8. Dorota Chwieduk & Bartosz Chwieduk, 2023. "Application of Heat Pumps in New Housing Estates in Cities Suburbs as an Means of Energy Transformation in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Colmenar-Santos, Antonio & Rosales-Asensio, Enrique & Borge-Diez, David & Collado-Fernández, Eduardo, 2016. "Evaluation of the cost of using power plant reject heat in low-temperature district heating and cooling networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 892-907.
    10. Ma, Qijie & Wang, Peijun & Fan, Jianhua & Klar, Assaf, 2022. "Underground solar energy storage via energy piles: An experimental study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).
    11. Guo, Fang & Zhu, Xiaoyue & Zhang, Junyue & Yang, Xudong, 2020. "Large-scale living laboratory of seasonal borehole thermal energy storage system for urban district heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    12. Bartolozzi, Irene & Rizzi, Francesco & Frey, Marco, 2017. "Are district heating systems and renewable energy sources always an environmental win-win solution? A life cycle assessment case study in Tuscany, Italy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 408-420.
    13. Tongpool, Rungnapa & Jirajariyavech, Athiwatr & Yuvaniyama, Chantana & Mungcharoen, Thumrongrut, 2010. "Analysis of steel production in Thailand: Environmental impacts and solutions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 4192-4200.
    14. Martin, Nick & Zinck Thellufsen, Jakob & Chang, Miguel & Talens-Peiró, Laura & Madrid-López, Cristina, 2024. "The many faces of heating transitions. Deeper understandings of future systems in Sweden and beyond," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    15. Wang, Bing & Kocaoglu, Dundar F. & Daim, Tugrul U. & Yang, Jiting, 2010. "A decision model for energy resource selection in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(11), pages 7130-7141, November.
    16. Àlex Alonso-Travesset & Diederik Coppitters & Helena Martín & Jordi de la Hoz, 2023. "Economic and Regulatory Uncertainty in Renewable Energy System Design: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-30, January.
    17. Björnebo, Lars & Spatari, Sabrina & Gurian, Patrick L., 2018. "A greenhouse gas abatement framework for investment in district heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 1095-1105.
    18. Chu, Shunzhou & Sethuvenkatraman, Subbu & Goldsworthy, Mark & Yuan, Guofeng, 2022. "Techno-economic assessment of solar assisted precinct level heating systems with seasonal heat storage for Australian cities," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 201(P1), pages 841-853.
    19. Chuat, Arthur & Terrier, Cédric & Schnidrig, Jonas & Maréchal, François, 2024. "Identification of typical district configurations: A two-step global sensitivity analysis framework," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    20. Tuomo Joensuu & Markku Norvasuo & Harry Edelman, 2019. "Stakeholders’ Interests in Developing an Energy Ecosystem for the Superblock—Case Hiedanranta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:9:p:3912-:d:1140171. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.