RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS Life Cycle Assessment of Second Generation Bioethanols Produced From Scandinavian Boreal Forest Resources A Regional Analysis for Middle Norway Ryan M. Bright and Anders Hammer Strømman Keywords: biochemical biofuels cellulosic ethanol industrial ecology thermochemical wood Supplementary material is available on the JIE Web site Address correspondence to: Ryan M. Bright Norwegian University of Science and Technology Department of Energy and Process Engineering Industrial Ecology Programme Høgskoleringen 5, 7491 Trondheim, Norway ryan.m.bright@ntnu.no c  2009 by Yale University DOI: 10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00149.x Volume 13, Number 4 Summary The boreal forests of Scandinavia offer a considerable re- source base, and use of the resource for the production of less carbon-intensive alternative transport fuel is one strategy be- ing considered in Norway. Here, we quantify the resource po- tential and investigate the environmental implications of wood- based transportation relative to a fossil reference system for a specific region in Norway. We apply a well-to-wheel life cycle assessment to evaluate four E85 production system designs based on two distinct wood-to-ethanol conversion technolo- gies. We form best and worst case scenarios to assess the sensitivity of impact results through the adjustment of key parameters, such as biomass-to-ethanol conversion efficiency and upstream biomass transport distance. Depending on the system design, global warming emission reductions of 46% to 68% per-MJ-gasoline avoided can be realized in the region, along with reductions in most of the other environmental im- pact categories considered. We find that the region’s surplus forest-bioenergy resources are vast; use for the production of bioethanol today would have resulted in the displacement of 55% to 68% of the region’s gasoline-based global warm- ing emission—or 6% to 8% of Norway’s total global warming emissions associated with road transportation. 514 Journal of Industrial Ecology www.blackwellpublishing.com/jie