Life cycle assessment of biodiesel production from microalgae in ponds

This paper analyses the potential environmental impacts and economic viability of producing biodiesel from microalgae grown in ponds. A comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study of a notional production system designed for Australian conditions was conducted to compare biodiesel production from algae (with three different scenarios for carbon dioxide supplementation and two different production rates) with canola and ULS (ultra-low sulfur) diesel. Comparisons of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions (g CO₂-e/t km) and costs (¢/t km) are given. Algae GHG emissions (−27.6 to 18.2) compare very favourably with canola (35.9) and ULS diesel (81.2). Costs are not so favourable, with algae ranging from 2.2 to 4.8, compared with canola (4.2) and ULS diesel (3.8). This highlights the need for a high production rate to make algal biodiesel economically attractive.     

Microwave-assisted enzymatic synthesis of beef tallow biodiesel

Optimal conditions for the microwave-assisted enzymatic synthesis of biodiesel have been developed by a full 2² factorial design leading to a set of seven runs with different combinations of molar ratio and temperature. The main goal was to reduce the reaction time preliminarily established by a process of conventional heating. Reactions yielding biodiesel, in which beef tallow and ethanol used as raw materials were catalyzed by lipase from Burkholderia cepacia immobilized on silica-PVA and microwave irradiations within the range of 8–15 W were performed to reach the reaction temperature. Under optimized conditions (1:6 molar ratio of beef tallow to ethanol molar ratio at 50°C) almost total conversion of the fatty acid presented in the original beef tallow was converted into ethyl esters in a reaction that required 8 h, i.e., a productivity of about 92 mg ethyl esters g⁻¹ h⁻¹. This represents an increase of sixfold for the process carried out under conventional heating. In general, the process promises low energy demand and higher biodiesel productivity. The microwave assistance speeds up the enzyme catalyzed reactions, decreases the destructive effects on the enzyme of the operational conditions such as, higher temperature, stability, and specificity to its substrate, and allows the entire reaction medium to be heated uniformly.     

Life cycle assessment of sugarcane ethanol production in India in comparison to Brazil

Purpose

India’s biofuel programme relies on ethanol production from sugarcane molasses. However, there is limited insight on environmental impacts across the Indian ethanol production chain. This study closes this gap by assessing the environmental impacts of ethanol production from sugarcane molasses in Uttar Pradesh, India. A comparative analysis with south-central Brazilian sugarcane ethanol is also presented to compare the performance of sugarcane molasses-based ethanol with sugarcane juice-based ethanol.

Methods

The production process is assessed by a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment. The multifunctionality problem is solved by applying two variants of system expansion and economic allocation. Environmental impacts are assessed with Impact 2002+ and results are presented at the midpoint level for greenhouse gas emissions, non-renewable energy use, freshwater eutrophication and water use. Furthermore, results include impacts on human health and ecosystem quality at the damage level. Sensitivity analysis is also performed on key contributing parameters such as pesticides, stillage treatment and irrigation water use.

Results and discussion

It is found that, compared to Brazilian ethanol, Indian ethanol causes lower or comparable greenhouse gas emissions (0.09–0.64 kgCO_2eq/kg_ethanolIN, 0.46–0.63 kgCO_2eq/kg_ethanolBR), non-renewable energy use (?0.3–6.3 MJ/kg_ethanolIN, 1–4 MJ/kg_ethanolBR), human health impacts (3.6?·?10^?6 DALY/kg_ethanolIN, 4?·?10^?6 DALY/kg_ethanolBR) and ecosystem impairment (2.5 PDF?·?m²?·?year/kg_ethanolIN, 3.3 PDF?·?m²?·?year/kg_ethanolBR). One reason is that Indian ethanol is exclusively produced from molasses, a co-product of sugar production, resulting in allocation of the environmental burden. Additionally, Indian sugar mills and distilleries produce surplus electricity for which they receive credits for displacing grid electricity of relatively high CO₂ emission intensity. When economic allocation is applied, the greenhouse gas emissions for Indian and Brazilian ethanol are comparable. Non-renewable energy use is higher for Indian ethanol, primarily due to energy requirements for irrigation. For water use and related impacts, Indian ethanol scores worse due groundwater irrigation, despite the dampening effect of allocation. The variation on greenhouse gas emissions and non-renewable energy use of Indian mills is much larger for high and low performance than the respective systems in Brazil.

Conclusions

Important measures can be taken across the production chain to improve the environmental performance of Indian ethanol production (e.g. avoiding the use of specific pesticides, avoiding the disposal of untreated stillage, transition to water efficient crops). However, to meet the targets of the Indian ethanol blending programme, displacement effects are likely to occur in countries which export ethanol. To assess such effects, a consequential study needs to be prepared.     

Life cycle assessment of soybean-based biodiesel in Argentina for export

Background, aim and scope

Regional specificities are a key factor when analyzing the environmental impact of a biofuel pathway through a life cycle assessment (LCA). Due to different energy mixes, transport distances, agricultural practices and land use changes, results can significantly vary from one country to another. The Republic of Argentina is the first exporter of soybean oil and meal and the third largest soybean producer in the world, and therefore, soybean-based biodiesel production is expected to significantly increase in the near future, mostly for exportation. Moreover, Argentinean biodiesel producers will need to evaluate the environmental performances of their product in order to comply with sustainability criteria being developed. However, because of regional specificities, the environmental performances of this biofuel pathway can be expected to be different from those obtained for other countries and feedstocks previously studied. This work aims at analyzing the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina for export. The relevant impact categories account for the primary non-renewable energy consumption (CED), the global warming potential (GWP), the eutrophication potential (EP), the acidification potential (AP), the terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE), the aquatic ecotoxicity (AE), the human toxicity (HT) and land use competition (LU). The paper tackles the feedstock and country specificities in biodiesel production by comparing the results of soybean-based biodiesel in Argentina with other reference cases. Emphasis is put on explaining the factors that contribute most to the final results and the regional specificities that lead to different results for each biodiesel pathway.

Materials and methods

The Argentinean (AR) biodiesel pathway was modelled through an LCA and was compared with reference cases available in the ecoinvent® 2.01 database, namely, soybean-based biodiesel production in Brazil (BR) and the United States (US), rapeseed-based biodiesel production in the European Union (EU) and Switzerland (CH) and palm-oil-based biodiesel production in Malaysia (MY). In all cases, the systems were modelled from feedstock production to biodiesel use as B100 in a 28 t truck in CH. Furthermore, biodiesel pathways were compared with fossil low-sulphur diesel produced and used in CH. The LCA was performed according to the ISO standards. The life cycle inventory and the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) were performed in Excel spreadsheets using the ecoinvent® 2.01 database. The cumulative energy demand (CED) and the GWP were estimated through the CED for fossil and nuclear energy and the IPCC 2001 (climate change) LCIA methods, respectively. Other impact categories were assessed according to CML 2001, as implemented in ecoinvent. As the product is a fuel for transportation (service), the system was defined for one vehicle kilometre (functional unit) and was divided into seven unit processes, namely, agricultural phase, soybean oil extraction and refining, transesterification, transport to port, transport to the destination country border, distribution and utilisation.

Results

The Argentinean pathway results in the highest GWP, CED, AE and HT compared with the reference biofuel pathways. Compared with the fossil reference, all impact categories are higher for the AR case, except for the CED. The most significant factor that contributes to the environmental impact in the Argentinean case varies depending on the evaluated category. Land provision through deforestation for soybean cultivation is the most impacting factor of the AR biodiesel pathway for the GWP, the CED and the HT categories. Whilst nitrogen oxide emissions during the fuel use are the main cause of acidification, nitrate leaching during soybean cultivation is the main factor of eutrophication. LU is almost totally affected by arable land occupation for soybean cultivation. Cypermethrin used as pesticide in feedstock production accounts for almost the total impact on TE and AE.

Discussion

The sensitivity analysis shows that an increase of 10% in the soybean yield, whilst keeping the same inputs, will reduce the total impact of the system. Avoiding deforestation is the main challenge to improve the environmental performances of soybean-based biodiesel production in AR. If the soybean expansion can be done on marginal and set-aside agricultural land, the negative impact of the system will be significantly reduced. Further implementation of crops’ successions, soybean inoculation, reduced tillage and less toxic pesticides will also improve the environmental performances. Using ethanol as alcohol in the transesterification process could significantly improve the energy balance of the Argentinean pathway.

Conclusions

The main explaining factors depend on regional specificities of the system that lead to different results from those obtained in the reference cases. Significantly different results can be obtained depending on the level of detail of the input data, the use of punctual or average data and the assumptions made to build up the LCA inventory. Further improvement of the AR biodiesel pathways should be done in order to comply with international sustainability criteria on biofuel production.

Recommendations and perspectives

Due to the influence of land use changes in the final results, more efforts should be made to account for land use changes others than deforestation. More data are needed to determine the part of deforestation attributable to soybean cultivation. More efforts should be done to improve modelling of interaction between variables and previous crops in the agricultural phase, future transesterification technologies and market prices evolution. In order to assess more accurately the environmental impact of soybean-based biodiesel production in Argentina, further considerations should be made to account for indirect land use changes, domestic biodiesel consumption and exportation to other regions, production scale and regional georeferenced differentiation of production systems.     

Life cycle assessment of renewable diesel production from lignocellulosic biomass

Purpose

Governments around the world encourage the use of biofuels through fuel standard policies that require the addition of renewable diesel in diesel fuel from fossil fuels. Environmental impact studies of the conversion of biomass to renewable diesel have been conducted, and life cycle assessments (LCA) of the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel (HDRD) are limited, especially for countries with cold climates like Canada.

Methods

In this study, an LCA was conducted on converting lignocellulosic biomass to HDRD by estimating the well-to-wheel greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and fossil fuel energy input of the production of biomass and its conversion to HDRD. The approach to conduct this LCA includes defining the goal and scope, compiling a life cycle inventory, conducting a life cycle impact assessment, and executing a life cycle interpretation. All GHG emissions and fossil fuel energy inputs were based on a fast pyrolysis plant capacity of 2000 dry tonnes biomass/day. A functional unit of 1 MJ of HDRD produced was adopted as a common unit for data inputs of the life cycle inventory. To interpret the results, a sensitivity analysis was performed to measure the impact of variables involved, and an uncertainty analysis was performed to assess the confidence of the results.

Results and discussion

The GHG emissions of three feedstocks studied—whole tree (i.e., chips from cutting the whole tree), forest residues (i.e., chips from branches and tops generated from logging operations), and agricultural residues (i.e., straw from wheat and barley)—range from 35.4 to 42.3 g CO_2,eq/MJ of HDRD (i.e., lowest for agricultural residue- and highest for forest residue-based HDRD); this is 53.4–61.1 % lower than fossil-based diesel. The net energy ratios range from 1.55 to 1.90 MJ/MJ (i.e., lowest for forest residue- and highest for agricultural residue-based HDRD) for HDRD production. The difference in results among feedstocks is due to differing energy requirements to harvest and pretreat biomass. The energy-intensive hydroprocessing stage is responsible for most of the GHG emissions produced for the entire conversion pathway.

Conclusions

Comparing feedstocks showed the significance of the efficiency in the equipment used and the physical properties of biomass in the production of HDRD. The overall results show the importance of efficiency at the hydroprocessing stage. These findings indicate significant GHG mitigation benefits for the oil refining industry using available lignocellulosic biomass to produce HDRD for transportation fuel.

     

Life cycle assessment of heat production from underground coal gasification

Purpose

In Poland, coal is the main fuel used for heat production. Innovative clean coal technologies, which include underground coal gasification (UCG), are widely developed. This paper presents the analysis results of life cycle assessment (LCA) and material flow analysis (MFA) of using synthesis gas from UCG for heat production. The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of MFA and LCA for four variants of heat production, which differed in the choice of gasifying agent and heat production installations.

Methods

Environmental analysis was made based on LCA with ReCiPe Midpoint and ReCiPe Endpoint H/A method, which allowed to analyse of different categories of the environmental impact. LCA was performed based on the ISO 14040 standard using SimaPro 8.0 software with Ecoinvent 3.1 database (Ecoinvent 2014). Umberto NXT Universal software was used to develop MFA for heat production. LCA analyses included hard coal from a Polish mine and synthesis gas obtained in the experimental installations in the Central Mining Institute in Poland.

Results and discussion

MFA performed for technology of utilizing gases from UCG have made it possible to visualize materials and energy flow between different unit processes in the whole technological chain. Moreover, the analyses enabled identification of unit processes with the largest consumption of raw materials, energy and the biggest emissions into the environment. It has been shown that the lowest environmental burden is attributed to the technology, which uses high-pressure chamber with gas turbine in which the synthesis gas from UCG is burned and oxygen was a gasifying agent. Analysis of LCA results showed that the major environmental burden includes greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and the fossil fuels depletion. GHG emission results primarily from the direct emission of CO₂ from gas combustion for heat production and electricity consumption used in gasifying agents preparation phase.

Conclusions

In order to increase the environmental efficiency of heat production technology using UCG, the most important activity to be considered is limitation of dust-gas emissions, including primarily CO₂ removal process and efficiency increase of the installation, which is reflected in the reduction of coal consumption. It is important to highlight that this is the first attempt of MFA and LCA of heat production from UCG gas. Since no LCA has ever been conducted on the heat production from underground coal gasification, this study is the first work about LCA of the heat production from UCG technology. This is the first approach which contains a whole chain of unconventional heat production including preparation stages of gasifying agents, underground coal gasification, gas purification and heat production.

     

Life cycle assessment of bacterial cellulose production

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Bacterial cellulose (BC), obtained by fermentation, is an innovative and promising material with a broad spectrum of potential applications....     

Life cycle assessment of fuel chip production from eucalypt forest residues

Purpose

Forest residues are becoming an increasingly important bioenergy feedstock. This study evaluates the environmental impacts associated with the production of fuel chips from eucalypt logging residues in Portugal, in order to identify the supply chains and machinery that bring the best environmental performance. Besides, the stages and operations with the largest environmental impact are identified.

Methods

Life cycle assessment methodology is used starting with forest management up to delivery of chips to power plant. Three different configurations for logging residue processing were simulated as follows: roadside chipping of loose residues, terminal chipping of loose residues, and terminal chipping of bundled residues. In addition, the use of different equipment for tree felling and extraction of logging residue was considered. The default impact assessment methodology was the CML. In a sensitivity analysis, calculations were performed using characterization factors recommended by the International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD). Different allocation criteria were tested for partitioning the environmental burdens between wood and forest residues produced during the stage of forest management.

Results and discussion

Roadside chipping of loose residues seems to have less impacts regardless of the equipment used in tree felling and residue forwarding. However, for photochemical oxidant formation, this is not the case when trees are felled with a chainsaw when the CML methodology is applied. For the systems with terminal chipping, the better option will depend both on type of machinery used and distances traveled between the forest site and the power plant. The forest management stage has a relevant contribution to all the supply chains analyzed. Chipping and bundling have also important impacts, as well as forwarding when this operation is accomplished with a modified farm tractor. Moreover, transports have a significant impact when loose residues are chipped in a terminal.

Conclusions

The choice of the allocation method between wood and residues affects significantly the absolute results, but it is irrelevant when the objective is to select the best supply chain configuration. The results obtained are valid for the input data considered, which rely on average values representative of the current most typical practices in Portugal. However, this methodology can also be applied as a decision supporting tool to select the supply chain with the best environmental performance on a case by case basis, using site-specific data.     

Life cycle assessment of Portland cement production in Myanmar

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment - Cement manufacturing is associated with global and local environmental issues. Many studies have employed life cycle assessment (LCA) to...     

Life cycle analysis of algae biodiesel

Background, aim, and scope  

Algae biomass has great promise as a sustainable alternative to conventional transportation fuels. In this study, a well-to-pump life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to investigate the overall sustainability and net energy balance of an algal biodiesel process. The goal of this LCA was to provide baseline information for the algae biodiesel process.     

Life cycle assessment of chitosan production in India and Europe

Purpose

The aim of this article is to present the first life cycle assessment of chitosan production based on data from two real producers located in India and Europe. The goal of the life cycle assessment (LCA) was to understand the main hot spots in the two supply chains, which are substantially different in terms of raw materials and production locations.

Methods

The LCA is based on consequential modelling principles, whereby allocation is avoided by means of substitution, and market mixes include only flexible, i.e. non-constrained suppliers. The product system is cradle to gate and includes the production of raw materials, namely waste shells from snow crab and shrimp in Canada and India, respectively, the processing of these in China and India and the manufacture of chitosan in Europe and India. Primary data for chitin and chitosan production were obtained from the actual producers, whereas raw material acquisition as well as waste management activities were based on literature sources. The effects of indirect land use change (iLUC) were also included. Impact assessment was carried out at midpoint level by means of the recommended methods in the International Life Cycle Data (ILCD) handbook.

Results and discussion

In the Indian supply chain, the production of chemicals (HCl and NaOH) appears as an important hot spot. The use of shrimp shells as raw material affects the market for animal feed, resulting in a credit in many impact indicators, especially in water use. The use of protein waste as fertilizer is also an important source of greenhouse-gas and ammonia emissions. In the European supply chain, energy use is the key driver for environmental impacts, namely heat production based on coal in China and electricity production in China and Europe. The use of crab shells as raw material avoids the composting process they would be otherwise subject to, leading to a saving in composting emissions, especially ammonia. In the Indian supply chain, the effect of iLUC is relevant, whereas in the European one, it is negligible.

Conclusions

Even though we assessed two products from the same family, the results show that they have very different environmental profiles, reflecting their substantially different supply chains in terms of raw material (shrimp shells vs. crab shells), production locations (locally produced vs. a global supply chain involving three continents) and the different applications (general-purpose chitosan vs. chitosan for the medical sector).

     

Life cycle assessment of biomass production in microalgae compact photobioreactors

This paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of industrial scale microalgae biomass production in compact photobioreactor (PBR) systems (2 × 5 × 8 m) for supplying biofuel/electricity generation processes and synthesis of new materials. Other objectives are as follows: (i) to compare the impact of various raw materials, substances, and services; and (ii) to evaluate environment‐relevant aspects of the proposed system as compared to microalgae raceway ponds. The life cycle inventory assessment shows that (i) only atmospheric CO₂ is used for PBR microalgae cultivation, whereas in raceway ponds, injection of CO₂ from fossil origin is largely required to allow for microalgae growth; and (ii) the PBR daily production rate of dry biomass is currently at 1.5 kg m^?3 day^?1 for each PBR, which is 12.82 times larger than the reported average 0.117 kg m^?3 day^?1 raceway ponds production. It is found that in general the association of the effects of the production of steel, PVC, and the packaging contribute to more than 85% of the total impact in each analyzed category. Therefore, to achieve PBR biomass production impact reduction and sustainability, PVC and steel utilization need to be minimized, as well as packaging materials. Based on the PBR LCA results, that is, due to no CO₂ injection from fossil origin and low area occupation, it is expected that high density production of truly renewable microalgae biomass could be obtained from PBR systems.     

Life cycle assessment of commodity chemical production from forest residue via fast pyrolysis

Purpose

This life cycle assessment evaluates and quantifies the environmental impacts of renewable chemical production from forest residue via fast pyrolysis with hydrotreating/fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) pathway.

Methods

The assessment input data are taken from Aspen Plus and greenhouse gases, regulated emissions, and energy use in transportation (GREET) model. The SimaPro 7.3 software is employed to evaluate the environmental impacts.

Results and discussion

The results indicate that the net fossil energy input is 34.8 MJ to produce 1 kg of chemicals, and the net global warming potential (GWP) is ?0.53 kg CO₂ eq. per kg chemicals produced under the proposed chemical production pathway. Sensitivity analysis indicates that bio-oil yields and chemical yields play the most important roles in the greenhouse gas footprints.

Conclusions

Fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced if commodity chemicals are produced via forest residue fast pyrolysis with hydrotreating/FCC pathway in place of conventional petroleum-based production pathways.     

Life cycle assessment of medium density particleboard (MDP) produced in Brazil

Purpose

The wood panel industry is one of the most important forest-based industries in Brazil. The medium density particleboard (MDP) is currently produced and consumed worldwide and represents about 50 % of the wood panel industry in Brazil. Unlike other regions, Brazilian MDP is produced from dedicated eucalyptus plantations and heavy fuel oil is an important energy source in MDP manufacture, which may result in a different environmental profile. This paper presents a life cycle assessment of MDP panel produced in Brazil and suggests improvement opportunities by assessing alternative production scenarios.

Methods

The cradle-to-gate assessment of 1 m³ of MDP produced in Brazil considered two main subsystems: forest and industrial production. Detailed inventories for Brazilian eucalyptus production and MDP industrial production were collected as a result of technical visits to Brazilian MDP producers (foreground systems) as well as literature review (mainly background systems). The potential environmental impacts of MDP were assessed in terms of seven impact categories using CML (abiotic depletion, acidification, global warming, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidation) and USEtox (ecotoxicity and human toxicity) impact assessment methods in order to identify the main hotspots.

Results and discussion

The industrial production was responsible for most of the impacts in all impact categories, except ecotoxicity (EC). The main hotspots identified were the use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) as a thermal energy source in MDP manufacture and the production of urea–formaldehyde (UF) resin used as synthetic adhesive. Glyphosate herbicide application in soil in forestry operations was the main responsible for the impacts in EC. Scenarios for HFO substitution were assessed and results showed that substituting HFO for in-mill wood residues or diesel leads to reduced environmental impacts.

Conclusions

The identification of the main hotspots in the MDP life cycle can assist the wood panel industry to improve their environmental profile. Further research should focus on UF resin production in order to reduce its environmental impacts as well as the possibility of using alternatives resins. Other sources of wood for MDP production could also be investigated (e.g., pine wood and wood residues) to assess potential improvements.     

System expansion and allocation in life cycle assessment of milk and beef production

Background, Goal and Scope  System expansion is a method used to avoid co-product allocation. Up to this point in time it has seldom been used in LCA studies of food products, although food production systems often are characterised by closely interlinked sub-systems. One of the most important allocation problems that occurs in LCAs of agricultural products is the question of how to handle the co-product beef from milk production since almost half of the beef production in the EU is derived from co-products from the dairy sector. The purpose of this paper is to compare different methods of handling co-products when dividing the environmental burden of the milk production system between milk and the co-products meat and surplus calves. Main Features  This article presents results from an LCA of organic milk production in which different methods of handling the co-products are examined. The comparison of different methods of co-product handling is based on a Swedish LCA case study of milk production where economic allocation between milk and meat was initially used. Allocation of the co-products meat and surplus calves was avoided by expanding the milk system. LCA data were collected from another case study where the alternative way of producing meat was analysed, i.e. using a beef cow that produces one calf per annum to be raised for one and a half year. The LCA of beef production was included in the milk system. A discussion is conducted focussing on the importance of modelling and analysing milk and beef production in an integrated way when foreseeing and planning the environmental consequences of manipulating milk and beef production systems. Results  This study shows that economic allocation between milk and beef favours the product beef. When system expansion is performed, the environmental benefits of milk production due to its co-products of surplus calves and meat become obvious. This is especially connected to the impact categories that describe the potential environmental burden of biogenic emissions such as methane and ammonia and nitrogen losses due to land use and its fertilising. The reason for this is that beef production in combination with milk can be carried out with fewer animals than in sole beef production systems. Conclusion, Recommendation and Perspective  Milk and beef production systems are closely connected. Changes in milk production systems will cause alterations in beef production systems. It is concluded that in prospective LCA studies, system expansion should be performed to obtain adequate information of the environmental consequences of manipulating production systems that are interlinked to each other.     

Hydrolysis of beef tallow by lipase from Pseudomonas sp

The lipase produced by Pseudomonas fluorescens biotype I was selected for hydrolyzing beef tallow at 50-70 degrees C to more than 90% of reaction ratio. Using an amount of lipase sufficient to reach equilibrium, the final reaction ratio was decreased with increasing temperature and the apparent enthalpy of beef tallow hydrolysis obtained by the final reaction ratio was -1.93 x 10(4)cal/mol, and the final reaction ratio also decreased with increasing substrate concentration. The rising time, which is the reaction time up to one-half of the final reaction ratio, decreased remarkably with increasing temperature, and was closely related to the value of the maximum velocity by the Michaelis constant of this lipase. The final reaction ratio increased with increasing lipase amount up to equilibrium. Increasing the lipase above the amount required to reach equilibrium caused a decrease in the rising time. The feasibility of using parameters obtained by a hyperbolic simulation of the progress curve is discussed.     

Life cycle assessment of cheese and whey production in the USA

Purpose

A life cycle assessment was conducted to determine a baseline for environmental impacts of cheddar and mozzarella cheese consumption. Product loss/waste, as well as consumer transport and storage, is included. The study scope was from cradle-to-grave with particular emphasis on unit operations under the control of typical cheese-processing plants.

Methods

SimaPro© 7.3 (PRé Consultants, The Netherlands, 2013) was used as the primary modeling software. The ecoinvent life cycle inventory database was used for background unit processes (Frischknecht and Rebitzer, J Cleaner Prod 13(13–14):1337–1343, 2005), modified to incorporate US electricity (EarthShift 2012). Operational data was collected from 17 cheese-manufacturing plants representing 24 % of mozzarella production and 38 % of cheddar production in the USA. Incoming raw milk, cream, or dry milk solids were allocated to coproducts by mass of milk solids. Plant-level engineering assessments of allocation fractions were adopted for major inputs such as electricity, natural gas, and chemicals. Revenue-based allocation was applied for the remaining in-plant processes.

Results and discussion

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are of significant interest. For cheddar, as sold at retail (63.2 % milk solids), the carbon footprint using the IPCC 2007 factors is 8.60 kg CO₂e/kg cheese consumed with a 95 % confidence interval (CI) of 5.86–12.2 kg CO₂e/kg. For mozzarella, as sold at retail (51.4 % milk solids), the carbon footprint is 7.28 kg CO₂e/kg mozzarella consumed, with a 95 % CI of 5.13–9.89 kg CO₂e/kg. Normalization of the results based on the IMPACT 2002+ life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) framework suggests that nutrient emissions from both the farm and manufacturing facility wastewater treatment represent the most significant relative impacts across multiple environmental midpoint indicators. Raw milk is the major contributor to most impact categories; thus, efforts to reduce milk/cheese loss across the supply chain are important.

Conclusions

On-farm mitigation efforts around enteric methane, manure management, phosphorus and nitrogen runoff, and pesticides used on crops and livestock can also significantly reduce impacts. Water-related impacts such as depletion and eutrophication can be considered resource management issues—specifically of water quantity and nutrients. Thus, all opportunities for water conservation should be evaluated, and cheese manufacturers, while not having direct control over crop irrigation, the largest water consumption activity, can investigate the water use efficiency of the milk they procure. The regionalized normalization, based on annual US per capita cheese consumption, showed that eutrophication represents the largest relative impact driven by phosphorus runoff from agricultural fields and emissions associated with whey-processing wastewater. Therefore, incorporating best practices around phosphorous and nitrogen management could yield improvements.     

基于生命周期评价的上海市水稻生产的碳足迹

碳足迹是指由企业、组织或个人引起的碳排放的集合。参照PAS2050规范并结合生命周期评价方法对上海市水稻生产进行了碳足迹评估。结果表明:(1)目前上海市水稻生产的碳排放为11.8114 t CO2e/hm2,折合每吨水稻生产周期的碳足迹为1.2321 t CO2e;(2)稻田温室气体排放是水稻生产最主要的碳排放源,每吨水稻生产的总排放量为0.9507 t CO2e,占水稻生产全部碳排放的77.1%,其中甲烷(CH4)又是最主要的温室气体,对稻田温室气体碳排放的贡献率高达96.6%;(3)化学肥料的施用是第二大碳排放源,每吨水稻生产的总排放量为0.2044 t CO2e,占水稻生产总碳排放的16.5%,其中N最高,排放量为0.1159 t CO2e。因此,上海低碳水稻生产的关键在降低稻田甲烷的排放,另外可通过提高氮肥利用效率,减少氮肥施用等方法减少种植过程中碳排放。