Environmental Sustainability Analysis of Case Studies of Agriculture Residue Exploitation

Abstract

The agriculture sector produces significant amounts of organic residues and the choice of the management strategy of these flows affects the environmental sustainability of the sector. The scientific literature is rich with innovative processes for the production of bio-based products (BBP) from agriculture residues, aimed at the implementation of circular economy principles. Based on literature data, the present paper performed a life cycle assessment and assessed the environmental sustainability of five processes for the exploitation of rice and wheat straw, tomato pomace, and orange peel. The analysis identified as significant issues the high energy demand and the use of high impact organic solvent. The comparison of BBP with conventional products showed higher environmental loads for the innovative processes that used organic residues (except for rice straw case). The obtained results do not want to discourage the circular strategy in the agriculture sector, but rather to draw the attention of all stakeholders to the environmental sustainability aspects, focusing on the necessity to decrease the electricity demand and identify ecological agents to use in BBP manufacturing, in agreement with the most recent European policies.

Life Cycle Assessment of Rare Earth Elements-Free Permanent Magnet Alternatives: Sintered Ferrite and Mn–Al–C

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Implications for Sustainability of the Joint Application of Bioeconomy and Circular Economy: A Worldwide Trend Study

“…The first cluster, in yellow, is represented by Alessia Amato and Francesca Beolchini. These authors belong to the Università Politecnica delle Marche and have five investigations, sharing co-authorship in all of them [84][85][86][87]. Likewise, in "Sustainability analysis of innovative technologies for the rare earth elements recovery" [88], demonstrating the environmental and economic benefits derived from the production of rare earth elements from waste, a co-author of the red cluster (Francesco Ferella) is located.…”

Improvement of Interfacial Adhesion and Thermomechanical Properties of PLA Based Composites with Wheat/Rice Bran

“…An incorrect handling of these by-products undermines its environmental sustainability. Thus, the development of pioneering processes for the use of this "waste products" is necessary to implement the principles of the circular economy [1,2]. Agricultural residues may derive from the production flow or from subsequent processing operations.…”