Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15 (2011) 1305–1313 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser An introduction to the life cycle assessment (LCA) of bioelectrochemical systems (BES) for sustainable energy and product generation: Relevance and key aspects Deepak Pant a,∗ , Anoop Singh b,c , Gilbert Van Bogaert a , Yolanda Alvarez Gallego a , Ludo Diels a , Karolien Vanbroekhoven a a Separation and Conversion Technology, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium b Biofuels Research Group, Environmental Research Institute, University College Cork, Ireland c Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark article info Article history: Received 7 June 2010 Accepted 14 October 2010 Keywords: Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) Bioenergy Life cycle assessment (LCA) GHG balance Wastewater Economic analysis abstract Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) are devices capable of converting organic waste fraction present in wastewaters into useful energy vectors such as electricity or hydrogen. In recent years a large amount of research has been done on these unique systems in order to improve their performance both in terms of waste treatment as well as electric current production. Already there are plans to upscale this technology to convince the end-users of its potential. However, there are not many studies available on the life cycle of these systems with the current state of the art. In this article a methodology has been proposed to perform the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the BESs and some recommendations have been given which may be useful in carrying out LCA of these systems. Not only the direct benefits in terms of energy saved in aerating the wastewater treatment plants, but also the resulting saving in cost and electric power produced should be factored as well. The results of LCA should show that with current knowledge and existing materials, how well the MFCs compares with the existing treatment methods such as anaerobic digestion. Further, given the amount of research going on in this field, it is expected that with cheaper materials and better microorganisms, the technology will breakthrough even soon. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1306 1.1. Bioelectrochemical systems ................................................................................................................ 1306 1.2. Life cycle assessment ....................................................................................................................... 1306 1.3. Technological background ................................................................................................................. 1306 1.4. Aim of the paper ............................................................................................................................ 1306 2. Goal definition, scope and functional unit of the study ........................................................................................... 1307 3. System boundaries ................................................................................................................................. 1307 4. Reference system .................................................................................................................................. 1307 5. Process inventory .................................................................................................................................. 1307 6. Co-product, by-product and residue .............................................................................................................. 1308 7. Impact assessment ................................................................................................................................. 1309 8. Economic analysis ................................................................................................................................. 1310 9. Allocation .......................................................................................................................................... 1310 10. Sensitivity analysis ............................................................................................................................... 1311 11. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 1311 Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................. 1311 References ......................................................................................................................................... 1311 Abbreviations: AC, activated carbon; AD, anaerobic digestion; AOP, advanced oxidation processes; BAT, best available technologies; BES, bioelectrochemical systems; BOD, biological oxygen demand; CDM, clean development mechanism; COD, chemical oxygen demand; GHG, green house gases; LCA, life cycle assessment; MDC, microbial desalination cell; MEC, microbial electrolysis cell; MFC, microbial fuel cells. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +32 14336969; fax: +32 14326586. E-mail addresses: deepak.pant@vito.be, pantonline@gmail.com (D. Pant). 1364-0321/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2010.10.005