Minimising carbon footprint of regional biomass supply chains

Lam, Hon Loong; Varbanov, Petar Sabev; Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír

doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2009.03.009

Cited by 150 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…This FU was a measure of the performance of a production system in which all inputs and outputs were related (ISO, 2006b). This FU became one of the most used environmental protection indicators of animal production (Galli et al, 2012;Lam et al, 2010).…”

Section: Functional Unit and Allocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon footprint in different beef production systems on a southern Brazilian farm: a case study

Ruviaro

Léis²,

Lampert

et al. 2015

Journal of Cleaner Production

106

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a b s t r a c tThe carbon footprint (CF) of beef production is one of the most widely discussed environmental issues within the current agricultural community due to its association with climate change. Because of these relevant and serious concerns, the beef cattle industry is under increasing pressure to reduce production or implement technological changes with significant consequences in terms of beef marketing. The goals of this study were to evaluate the CF per 1 kg of live weight gain (LWG) at the farm gate for different beef production systems in the southern part of Brazil. Aberdeen Angus beef-bred cattle were assigned to one of seven categories: natural grass; improved natural grass; natural grass plus ryegrass; improved natural grass plus sorghum; cultivated ryegrass and sorghum; natural grass supplemented with protein mineralised salt; and natural grass supplemented with protein-energetic mineralised salt. Monte Carlo analysis was employed to analyse the effect of variations of dry matter intake digestibility (DMID), total digestible nutrients (TDN) and crude protein (CP) parameters in methane (CH 4 ) enteric, CH 4 manure, nitrous oxide (N 2 O) manure and N 2 O N-fertiliser. The method used was a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) centred on the CF. The CF varied from 18.3 kg CO 2 equivalent/kg LWG for the ryegrass and sorghum pasture system to 42.6 kg CO 2 equivalent/kg LWG for the natural grass system, including the contributions of cows, calves and steers. Among all grassland-based cattle farms, production systems with DMID from 52 to 59% achieved the lowest CO 2 emissions and the highest feed conversion rate, thereby generating lower CH 4 and N 2 O emissions per production system. Because the feed intake and feed conversion rate are one of the most important production parameters in beef cattle production with an obvious risk of data uncertainty, accurate feed data, which include quantity and quality, are important in estimates of CF for LWG. The choice of adequate feeding strategies to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions may result in better environmental advantages.

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Section: Functional Unit and Allocationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon footprint in different beef production systems on a southern Brazilian farm: a case study

Ruviaro

Léis²,

Lampert

et al. 2015

Journal of Cleaner Production

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Carbon footprint accounting has been proved to be a good approach to indicate the total carbon emissions of a person, a sector, a region and a nation [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The concept of carbon footprint refers to the total carbon dioxide discharged to the atmosphere [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon Footprints and Embodied Carbon Flows Analysis for China’s Eight Regions: A New Perspective for Mitigation Solutions

Xie

Cai

Jiang³

et al. 2015

Sustainability

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Carbon footprints have been widely employed as an indicator for total carbon dioxide released by human activities. In this paper, we implemented a multi-regional input-output framework to evaluate the carbon footprints and embodied carbon flows for the eight regions of China from consumption-based perspective. It is found that the construction, electricity/stream supply, and machine manufacturing rank as the top sectors with the largest total carbon emissions. The construction sector alone accounts for 20%-50% of the national emissions. Besides the sectoral carbon footprints, regional footprints and their differences in carbon emissions were also observed. The middle region had the largest total carbon footprints, 1188 million ton, while the capital region ranked the first for its per capita carbon footprint, 7.77 ton/person. In regard to the embodied carbon flows within China, the study detected that the embodied carbon flows take up about 41% of the total carbon footprints of the nation. The northwest region and the eastern coast region are found to be the largest net embodied carbon exporter and importer, respectively. Further investigation revealed significant differences between production-based and consumption-based carbon emissions, both at sectoral and total amounts. Results of this paper can provide specific information to policies on sectoral and regional carbon emission reduction. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 10099

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“…Biomass resources are also often distributed in remote locations (Lam et al 2010). These factors add complexities to the supply chain and can increase the cost of the technology required to convert biomass into useful sources of energy (harvesting, collection, transport, comminution and storage operations) (Rentizelas et al 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing the moisture content of wood biomass for the optimisation of Ireland's transport supply strategy to bioenergy markets and competing industries

Sosa

Acuña

McDonnell

et al. 2015

Energy

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Publication information Energy, 86 : 354-368Publisher Elsevier Item record/more information http://hdl.handle.net/10197/7007 Publisher's statementThis is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Energy. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Energy (VOL 86, ISSUE 2015, (2015  Low wood moisture content increases supply cost due to longer transport distances and/or inclusion of more costly forest products. Optimal truck loads can be achieved by controlling wood moisture content.

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Minimising carbon footprint of regional biomass supply chains

Cited by 150 publications

References 20 publications

Carbon footprint in different beef production systems on a southern Brazilian farm: a case study

Carbon footprint in different beef production systems on a southern Brazilian farm: a case study

Carbon Footprints and Embodied Carbon Flows Analysis for China’s Eight Regions: A New Perspective for Mitigation Solutions

Managing the moisture content of wood biomass for the optimisation of Ireland's transport supply strategy to bioenergy markets and competing industries

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