Life Cycle Assessments (LCA, including Well-to-Wheel studies) that are to support decisions that strive to change large technical systems need to consider time and scale related factors, which are given little attention in standard LCA procedures. Here, we address three issues and provide examples from the case of alternative fuels. First, shifting time frame gives room for technical development that should affect not only the choice of performance data, but perhaps also the functional unit and the selection of technologies under study. Secondly, background systems, such as heat and power production, change over time and increased production volumes of the alternative fuel change the transport system that is used to produce transport fuel. We show that such changes have consequences not only for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from each fuel-chain, but also for the ranking order of, e.g. Rapeseed Methyl Esther (RME) and ethanol in terms of GHG emissions. Finally, different types of feedstock are available in different quantities and different by-product markets vary in size. Key markets for RME by-products in EU correspond to an RME production that covers about 3% of transport fuel demand. Consequently, GHG emissions that are allocated to the fuel should change with the scale of adoption

Supporting the development and diffusion of sustainable innovations has become a dominanttopic on the political agenda of many countries. However, this has proven to be a difficult task. Toincrease insight in such processes, this paper takes biofuel technologies in the mobility sector asthe topic of a comparative case study. Various national governments have supported innovationtrajectories around biofuels. We analyse, assess and compare two such trajectories as theyhave developed so far: one in the Netherlands and one in Sweden. A Technological InnovationSystem (TIS) approach is applied. A TIS is constituted by actors, networks and institutions,that are to be gradually constructed around a technology. We analyse whether governmentsand entrepreneurs have succeeded in developing seven key processes, or system functions,necessary for the development and diffusion of biofuel technologies. By analysing the build-upof system functions over time we identify virtuous and vicious forms of cumulative causation.The Dutch and Swedish TISs for biofuels are followed from 1990 to 2005. Our comparisonshows that, due to the fulfilment of system functions and the emergence of cumulative causation,the Swedish TIS has reached a market expansion and broad social implementation of biofuels,whereas the Dutch TIS has established considerably less.

The relationship between technologies is a salient feature of the literature on technical change and terms like ’dominant design’ and ’technology lock-in’ are part of the standard vocabulary and put competition among technologies in focus. The aim of this paper is to provide an account of the wide range of interaction modes beyond competition that is prevalent in transition processes and to develop a conceptual framework to facilitate more detailed and nuanced descriptions of technology interaction. Besides competition, we identify five other basic modes of interaction: symbiosis, neutralism, parasitism, commensalism and amensalism. Further, we describe interaction as overlapping value chains. Defining a technology as a socio-technical system extending in material, organisational and conceptual dimensions allows for an even more detailed description of interaction. The conceptual framework is tested on and illustrated by a case study of interaction among alternative transport fuels in Sweden 1974-2004. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

By using socio-technical scenarios, we investigate how present policy choices may affect the development of alternative transport fuels in Sweden. One important choice for policy lies in the balance between general tax exemptions stimulating the market for alternative fuels, and funding of research and development more directly promoting new technology. The implications of this choice are illustrated with four diverging development paths until 2020. In the market-oriented scenarios, we illustrate consequences of breaking the dominance of entrenched technologies and demonstrating a growing market potential for alternatives, but also the risks with a large focus on first generation renewable fuels. In the technology-oriented scenarios, we point out the value of keeping variety among niches in this stage of the transition. In conclusion, if policy is implemented without taking the dynamic forces within the system into account, there is a risk that any measure leads the system into a dead end. But if policy strives to balance the development in different parts of the technological system while making use of various prevailing forces of change, a multitude of different efforts can contribute to the development of a more sustainable transport system.