Argonne releases new version of GREET fuel cycle model

30 June 2012

The GREET team at Argonne National Laboratory has released a new version of the GREET fuel cycle model. The Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model simulates the energy use and emissions output of various vehicle and fuel combinations, and is widely used in lifecycle analysis.

Changes in the new version include:

• Power plant generation efficiencies, technology shares, criteria pollutant emissions, transmission losses, and associated probability distribution functions are updated.

• Coal properties are updated on a state coal production weighted basis, including more detailed coal classes.

• The model has developed domestic and foreign land-use change (LUC) for cellulosic-ethanol pathways (from corn stover, miscanthus, and switchgrass) and updated LUC for corn-ethanol.

• Miscanthus is added as a biomass feedstock and used for the following fuel productions: ethanol, electricity, FTD, FTJet, DME, methanol and hydrogen.

• Enzyme and yeast productions are included and used for ethanol production from corn and cellulosic biomass feedstock sources.

• Algae Process Description is updated based on the harmonization study between national resource assessment, techno-economic analysis, and life-cycle analysis models.

Sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the free software program gives researchers the ability to analyze technologies over an entire life cycle—from well to wheels and from raw material mining to vehicle disposal.