Jason Hom

20977273
1. What question did the author use LCA to answer?
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To show that biofuels can provide a net energy gain, environmental

benefits, be economically competitive and not reduce food supplies

2. What is the functional unit used in the study (e.g., gallon of ethanol, acre of
land, mile driven by a standard car)?
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A liter of biofuel, (

3. What are the system boundaries of the LCA (e.g., where does the study begin
and end and which in-between processes are included)?
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The study begins with the energy required to create the agricultural
products all the way to the combustion of the fuel.

4. What is the time scale (e.g., second, minute, year, decade) and what is the
spatial scale (e.g., acre, county, country)?
-Data for this study was taken from 2002-2005 data sets and it was primarily
within the US.
5. What are the metrics used and what do these metrics evaluate (e.g., Net
Energy Value of a biofuel for the purpose of determining if it takes more or
less energy to make ethanol than you get out of the fuel)?
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They used NEB or Net Engery Balance. This was to evaluate how the
output energy compared to the input energy.

6. Did the study involve allocation? If so, which allocation method(s) was used
(e.g., energy, mass, economic, system expansion or other)? Do you think
different or additional allocation methods should have been used?
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Yes, they had different types of fuel, and they used energy as the
allocation method.

7. Summarize the article in your own words. Summarize the goal of the study,
the methods used, the results and the overall conclusions made by the
author.
- This article compared the energy inputs, outputs and environmental
impact created by biofuels. The goal to was to see if biofuels can be a
viable source of fuel. They found that corn and soybean biofuels were
successful in achieving this.

8. Evaluate the study. Do you think it was rigorously conducted? Are there any
assumptions or data sources that the researchers used that you do not agree
with and if so, why? Do you think the system boundaries accurately reflect
the full life-cycle of the product or service? Were there any novel aspects of
the study that made it stand out from other articles you have read? Were any
of the studys conclusions unique, useful or interesting?
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I think they might have considered the sustainable impact of the land
being able to produce that many crops for an extended amount of time. I
think we should also consider what happens if we take that food away
from other things. I think it was interesting that we could actually replace
fossil fuels with something more sustainable.