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Environmental and Social Life Cycle Assessment of Data Centre Heat Recovery Technologies Combined with Fuel Cells for Energy Generation
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain.
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2024 (English)In: Energies, E-ISSN 1996-1073, Vol. 17, no 18, article id 4745Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The energy sector is essential in the transition to a more sustainable future, and renewable energies will play a key role in achieving this. It is also a sector in which the circular economy presents an opportunity for the utilisation of other resources and residual energy flows. This study examines the environmental and social performance of innovative energy technologies (which contribute to the circularity of resources) implemented in a demonstrator site in Luleå (Sweden). The demo-site collected excess heat from a data centre to cogenerate energy, combining the waste heat with fuel cells that use biogas derived from waste, meeting part of its electrical demand and supplying thermal energy to an existing district heating network. Following a cradle-to-gate approach, an environmental and a social life cycle assessment were developed to compare two scenarios: a baseline scenario reflecting current energy supply methods and the WEDISTRICT scenario, which considers the application of different renewable and circular technologies. The findings indicate that transitioning to renewable energy sources significantly reduces environmental impacts in seven of the eight assessed impact categories. Specifically, the study showed a 48% reduction in climate change impact per kWh generated. Additionally, the WEDISTRICT scenario, accounting for avoided burdens, prevented 0.21 kg CO2 eq per kWh auto-consumed. From the social perspective, the WEDISTRICT scenario demonstrated improvement in employment conditions within the worker and local community categories, product satisfaction within the society category, and fair competition within the value chain category. Projects like WEDISTRICT demonstrate the circularity options of the energy sector, the utilisation of resources and residual energy flows, and that these lead to environmental and social improvements throughout the entire life cycle, not just during the operation phase. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) , 2024. Vol. 17, no 18, article id 4745
Keywords [en]
Circular economy; Economic and social effects; Energy efficiency; Renewable energy; Sustainable development; Waste heat; Waste heat utilization; Datacenter; Energy; Energy flow; Energy generations; Energy sector; LCA; Recovery technology; Residual energy; S-LCA; Social life; Clean energy
National Category
Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ri:diva-76124DOI: 10.3390/en17184745Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85205109455OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ri-76124DiVA, id: diva2:1915288
Note

 This research is part of the WEDISTRICT project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N◦857801

Available from: 2024-11-22 Created: 2024-11-22 Last updated: 2025-09-23Bibliographically approved

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Gustafsson, JonasSummers, Jon

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