Evaluation of district heating and cooling network through life cycle assessment: a review of the state of the art

The proposed review scrutinizes the application of the Life Cycle Assessment methodology to evaluate the environmental profile of District Heating and Cooling systems. Through literature review and case study analysis, methods, findings, and challenges are examined. Results highlight variations in emission factors influenced by network generation type and multifunctionality approaches. The analysis revealed a range of emission factors spanning from 11 gCO2/kWhth to 470 gCO2/kWhth for district heating, and 6 gCO2/kWhth to 64 gCO2/kWhth for district cooling. The discussion emphasizes integrating district heating and cooling network management considerations and addressing methodological challenges. The study concludes by proposing future research directions to develop a universal LCA-based tool for district heating and cooling network analysis.