Feature: Environmental Trade-offs of Biobased Production

Miller, Stephen E.; Landis, Amy E.; Theis, Thomas L.

doi:10.1021/es072581z

Cited by 91 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…However, a diverse range of other products such as electricity, fuels, organic chemicals, and paper can also be derived from it or its products (Paturau 1989;Manohar Rao 1997). As the value of sugarcane as a source of renewable energy, bio-fuels and bio-materials, as well as a food crop, is becoming more widely recognized (Miller et al 2007;von Blottnitz and Curran 2007;Renouf et al 2008), interest in the environmental impacts of sugarcane and its products is growing. This is confirmed by the number of life cycle assessments (LCA) of sugarcane products in recent years (Ramjeawon 2004;Botha and von Blottnitz 2006;Macedo et al 2008;Nguyen and Gheewala 2008;Ramjeawon 2008;Contreras 2009;Luo et al 2009;Ometto et al 2009).…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of Australian sugarcane production with a focus on sugarcane growing

Renouf

Wegener

Pagan

2010

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose Past life cycle assessments (LCA) of sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) production have commonly been based on limited datasets, and variability has not been well described. In this work, Australian sugarcane production was assessed more comprehensively in order to generate a robust set of LCA results for use in subsequent assessments of sugarcane products and also to investigate: (1) variability due to regional differences, (2) factors influencing variability, and (3) significance of the impacts. Methods An average scenario for Australian sugarcane production was modeled based on data for the state of Queensland (98% of Australian production). Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results were generated using Impact 2002+, modified to be more representative of Australian conditions, and with the inclusion of water use and land use indicators. A Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis, using minimum and maximum values for production data, was undertaken to evaluate variability. Different regional production practices were also modeled to identify factors that influence variability. Normalization aimed to show the significance of total Australian sugarcane production relative to total Australian impacts. Results and discussion Considerable variability was found in the LCIA results, with the key variables being yield, N use efficiency, the susceptibility of soils to N leakage, irrigation (water and energy intensity), and pre-harvest burning. N leakage was found to be an important issue that influences a range of impact categories. When normalized against total national impacts, water use and land use appear to be the most significant impacts (based on simple indicators of consumption), followed by eutrophication potential, acidification potential, and respiratory impacts, whereas non-renewable energy input and global warming are less significant. The results suggest that toxicity impacts are insignificant; however, this may not be supported by other observations that link pesticide loss from sugarcane to toxicity concerns in receiving waters and is a subject for further research. Conclusions and recommendationsThe potential for significant variability in the impacts from sugarcane growing suggests a need for LCAs of sugarcane systems to consider ranges for key variables. The key variables and significant impacts identified in this work can guide data collection priorities for future assessment of sugarcane and possibly other Australian cropping systems. To further develop LCA as a useful predictive tool for Australian agricultural systems, further development and testing of impact assessment models for eutrophication, toxicity, and land and water resource depletion appropriate for Australia and its subregions will be required.Sugarcane is grown over large areas in tropical regions of many countries around the world, mainly for sugar

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Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of Australian sugarcane production with a focus on sugarcane growing

Renouf

Wegener

Pagan

2010

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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“…Conventions for these steps vary by topic, with significant portions of inventory collection and impact assessment often performed using pre-existing and established databases and tools [6,[22][23][24]. Uncertainty throughout the process is often handled via Monte-Carlo (MC) methods, which sample distributions for key parameters for many trials to generate a final distribution [25,26].…”

Section: Life-cycle Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Future Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Environmental Impacts of Electricity Supplies in Brazil

et al. 2013

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Brazil's status as a rapidly developing country is visible in its need for more energy, including electricity. While the current electricity generation mix is primarily hydropower based, high-quality dam sites are diminishing and diversification to other sources is likely. We combined life-cycle data for electricity production with scenarios developed using the IAEA's MESSAGE model to examine environmental impacts of future electricity generation under a baseline case and four side cases, using a Monte-Carlo approach to incorporate uncertainty in power plant performance and LCA impacts. Our results show that, under the cost-optimal base case scenario, Brazil's GHGs from electricity (excluding hydroelectric reservoir emissions) rise 370% by 2040 relative to 2010, with the carbon intensity per MWh rising 100%. This rise would make Brazil's carbon emissions targets difficult to meet without demand-side programs. Our results show a future electricity mix dominated by environmental tradeoffs in the use of large-scale renewables, questioning the use tropical hydropower and highlighting the need for additional work to assess and include ecosystem and social impacts, where information is currently sparse. OPEN ACCESSEnergies 2013, 6 3183

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“…All in all, there is a need to more systematically quantify and weigh the greenhouse and eutrophication effects of nitrogen (Miller et al 2007). However, perhaps the biggest concern regarding biofuels is its potential competition with food and feed crops and with biodiversity.…”

Section: Concluding Remarks On Nitrogen Biofuels and Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen and biofuels; an overview of the current state of knowledge

Erisman

Grinsven

Leip

et al. 2009

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

114

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Biofuels are forms of energy (heat, power, transport fuels or chemicals) based on different kinds of biomass. There is much discussion on the availability of different biomass sources for bioenergy application and on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional fossil fuels. There is much less discussion on the other effects of biomass such as the acceleration of the nitrogen cycle through increased fertilizer use resulting in losses to the environment and additional emissions of oxidized nitrogen. This paper provides an overview of the state of knowledge on nitrogen and biofuels. Increasing biofuel production touch upon several sustainability issues for which reason sustainability criteria are being developed for biomass use. We propose that these criteria should include the disturbance of the nitrogen cycle for biomass options that require additional fertilizer inputs. Optimization of the nitrogen use efficiency and the development of second generation technologies will help fulfill the sustainability criteria.

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Feature: Environmental Trade-offs of Biobased Production

Cited by 91 publications

References 27 publications

Life cycle assessment of Australian sugarcane production with a focus on sugarcane growing

Life cycle assessment of Australian sugarcane production with a focus on sugarcane growing

Modeling Future Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Environmental Impacts of Electricity Supplies in Brazil

Nitrogen and biofuels; an overview of the current state of knowledge

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