scholarly journals Human Health and Ecosystem Quality Benefits with Life Cycle Assessment Due to Fungicides Elimination in Agriculture

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 846
Author(s):  
Georgios Archimidis Tsalidis
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
Ecosystem Quality ◽  
Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽  
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
European Citizen ◽  
Freshwater Eutrophication

Industrial agriculture results in environmental burdens due to the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides. Fungicides is a class of pesticides whose application contributes (among others) to human toxicity and ecotoxicity. The European Union aims to increase organic agriculture. For this reason, this work aims to analyze climate change, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, (terrestrial) acidification, and freshwater eutrophication impacts of fungicides and calculate expected benefits to human health (per European citizen) and ecosystem quality (terrestrial) with life cycle assessment (LCA) during crop production. The Scopus database was searched for LCA studies that considered the application of fungicides to specific crops. The analysis shows how many systemic and contact fungicides were considered by LCA studies and what was the applied dosage. Furthermore, it shows that fungicides highly contribute to freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, human toxicity, and freshwater eutrophication for fruits and vegetables, but to a low extent compared to all considered environmental impacts in the case of cereals and rapeseed. Expected benefits to human health and ecosystem quality after fungicides elimination are greater for fruits and vegetables, ranging between 0 to 47 min per European citizen in a year and 0 to 90 species per year, respectively.

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Autoclaved Concrete Blocks and Fired Blocks in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 913 ◽  
pp. 1018-1026
Author(s):  
Yan Qiong Sun ◽  
Yu Liu ◽  
Su Ping Cui
Keyword(s):  
Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Quality ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Functional Unit ◽  
Cement Production ◽  
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity ◽  
Concrete Blocks

In this paper, a variety of blocks were grouped into the autoclaved blocks and fired blocks as far as the productive technology is concerned. In order to compare the life cycle impacts of the two kinds of the blocks, a life cycle assessment of two products on the functional unit 1m3 was carried out through the exploitation of mineral stage, transportation stage and the production of the blocks stage on the considering of the resource and energy consumption and the pollutant discharges. The results demonstrated that the fired blocks appeared to have less impact than autoclaved concrete blocks on human health, marine ecotoxicity toxicity and terrestrial ecotoxicity toxicity nearly 30%. The raw coal led to the serious impacts on the fossil depletion through the cement production stage of the autoclaved concrete blocks accounting for 45.86% and the gangue exploitation stage of the fired blocks accounting for 42.5%. Assessment of the data quality that the data was of pretty high or within the permission. The sensitivity analysis and contribution analysis assessment showed that the conclusion were robust.

Environmental footprints of soybean production in China

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Chen ◽  
Tianzuo Zhang ◽  
Xu Tian ◽  
Yiji Zhai ◽  
Yong Geng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Monte Carlo Model ◽  
Policy Recommendations ◽  
Soybean Production ◽  
Ecosystem Quality ◽  
Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Environmental Footprints ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The agriculture sector is both a significant consumer of energy and water and a major source of environmental pollution and greenhouse gases. Soybean production (Glycine max) has experienced a fast growth and it is the fourth most widely cultivated crop, leading to serious environmental concerns. This study evaluates the energy, carbon, and water footprints of China’s soybean production so that key environmental impacts can be identified. To provide reliable results for decision-making, uncertainty analysis is conducted based on the Monte Carlo model. Results show that the impact on climate change, fossils depletion, ecosystem quality, human health, and resource was 3.33×103 kg CO2 eq (GSD2 = 1.87), 343.37 kg oil eq (GSD2 = 1.60), 6.18×10− 5 Species·yr (GSD2 = 1.81), 3.26×10− 3 DALY (GSD2 = 1.81), and 89.22 $ (GSD2 = 2.28), respectively. Freshwater ecotoxicity was the dominant contributor (77.69%) to the ecosystem quality category, while climate change (85.22%) was the dominant contributor to the human health category. Key factors analysis results show that diammonium phosphate and diesel, and on-site emissions from soybean production, were the major contributors to the overall environmental burden of soybean production. Several policy recommendations are proposed, focusing on trade structure optimization, technological improvements, and efficient resource use. Such policy recommendations provide valuable insights to those decision-makers so that they can prepare appropriate mitigation policies.

scholarly journals The impact of the consumer’s decision on the life cycle assessment of organic pasta

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Elisabeth Gnielka ◽  
Christof Menzel
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Grocery Store ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽  
Last Mile ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Freshwater Eutrophication

AbstractEvery consumer’s decision has an impact on the environment, and even basic food products such as pasta have an impact due to their high consumption rates. Factors that can be influenced by the consumer include the preparation (cooking), last mile and packaging phases. The last mile has not been considered in most studies but contributes considerably to the environmental impact of pasta. The three phases and their environmental impact on the life cycle of pasta are analyzed in this cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment. The focus of the study lies on the impact categories climate change, agricultural land occupation, fossil depletion, water depletion, freshwater eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity. Inventory data were taken from other studies, were collected in cooperation with a zero-packaging organic grocery store in Germany or were gained in test series. Our results show that the preparation of pasta has the greatest environmental impact (over 40% in the impact categories climate change and fossil depletion and over 50% in the impact category freshwater eutrophication), followed by the last mile (over 20% in the impact categories climate change and fossil depletion) and lastly the packaging (nearly 9% in the impact categories freshwater eutrophication and freshwater ecotoxicity). Based on our study´s results, we provide some recommendations for minimizing the environmental impacts of pasta.

Life cycle assessment of cane sugar production: The environmental contribution to human health, climate change, ecosystem quality and resources in México

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 668-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramiro Meza-Palacios ◽  
Alberto A. Aguilar-Lasserre ◽  
Luis F. Morales-Mendoza ◽  
Jorge R. Pérez-Gallardo ◽  
José O. Rico-Contreras ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Cane Sugar ◽  
Sugar Production ◽  
Ecosystem Quality ◽  
Environmental Contribution

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Thai Hom Mali Rice to Support the Policy Decision on Organic Farming Area Expansion

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 6003
Author(s):  
Rattanawan Mungkung ◽  
Saruda Sitthikitpanya ◽  
Sarocha Dangsiri ◽  
Shabbir H. Gheewala
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Rice Farming ◽  
Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽  
Organic Rice ◽  
The North ◽  
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity ◽  
Freshwater Eutrophication

Thailand has a strategic national policy to increase organic rice farming. This study firstly applied Life Cycle Assessment for evaluating the quantitative environmental impacts at the regional and national levels to facilitate the national policy decision on the expansion of organic rice cultivation areas. The impact categories of interest included global warming, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity, and the life cycle impact assessment method applied was ReCiPe. The results showed that the life cycle environmental impacts from organic rice cultivation in the nine provinces in the North were lower than those from the 12 provinces in the Northeast, due mainly to the higher yields and lower use of fertilizers in the former. The methane emissions in the North (11,147 kg CO2e/ha) were similar to those in the Northeast (11,378 kg CO2e/ha). However, nitrous oxide emissions in the Northeast were higher than in the North due to the higher amounts of fertilizer used. If Thailand expands the rice farming by 50% in the North and by 50% in the Northeast, the greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced from 11,400 to 11,100 kg CO2e/ha, but the impacts of terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity could be increased by 0.0257 kg PO4e (95%), 0.508 kg 1,4-DBe (53%), and 33.1 kg 1,4-DBe (17%), respectively. To reduce the global warming as well as other environmental impacts, Thailand should expand rice farming areas to the North. This information could be useful for supporting the policy decisions on which areas the organic rice farming should be expanded in to minimize the potential life cycle environmental impacts.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Material Recovery from Pyrolysis Process of End-of-Life Tires in Thailand

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 488-498
Author(s):  
Tarinee Buadit ◽  
◽  
Cheerawit Rattanapan ◽  
Achara Ussawarujikulchai ◽  
Krisda Suchiva ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Resource Scarcity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Pyrolysis Process ◽  
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity ◽  
Fossil Resource

It is estimated that around 600,000 tons of end-of-life tires are generated annually in Thailand. These waste tires will cause danger to the environment and human health if handled improperly. On the other hand, if managed with the proper technology, it will be transformed into valuable products. This research aims to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of a waste tire pyrolysis plant in Thailand by using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The functional unit is defined as 1 ton of products from the pyrolysis process of waste tires. The system boundary consists of a pre-treatment and pyrolysis process (gate-to-gate). The LCA calculations were carried out using licensed SimaPro 9.0 software. At the impact assessment step, the ReCiPe2016 method both Midpoint (problem-oriented) and Endpoint (damage-oriented) were applied, and 7 impact categories were selected (global warming, fine particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and fossil resource scarcity). If the avoided products from the pyrolysis process, including pyrolysis oil, steel wire, and carbon black were taken into account, the characterization results show that 3 impacts: global warming, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and fossil resource scarcity have a negative value. While the other impacts still have a positive value resulted mainly from electricity consumption. When considering weighting end-point results, it found that human health impact was a major contribution with a totally negative value of -0.947 Pt. As a summary, the outcomes confirm that the utilization of pyrolysis avoided products and the optimization of electricity consumption in the process has the potential to drives pyrolysis to become an environmentally effective technology for end-of-tires management.

scholarly journals Quantifying Total Environmental Impact of the Power Sector Using Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment: a case study for Thailand

2019 ◽  
Vol 122 ◽  
pp. 05003
Author(s):  
Isara Muangthai ◽  
Sue J. Lin
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Human Health ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Power Sector ◽  
Ecosystem Quality ◽  
Indirect Impacts

The electricity generation is vital to industries and economic development in Thailand. In this study, the input-output life cycle assessment (IO-LCA) is applied to estimate the direct and indirect impacts from the power generation sector for the years 2005 and 2010. Based on the input-output analysis, more than 90% of the total environmental impact of Thailandʼs power sector involves ten relevant sectors. Results reveal that the most significant environmental damage was on natural resources followed by human health, climate change, and ecosystem quality. The most dominant environmental impacts were non-renewable energy, global warming and respiratory inorganic effects. Furthermore, the power sector, which accounts for 80% and 61% of total each impact in 2010 respectively, had a large direct impact on climate change and human health. On the contrary, the coal and lignite, and metal ore sectors contributed significantly to indirect impacts on ecosystem quality and resources. Regarding the results, some additional suggestions can be made to improve current policies in Thailand, including the implementation of green manufacturing in the iron and steel production, and installing control devices in all power plant units. Consequently, IO-LCA can be applied to other industries for assessing their total environmental impacts, and planning CO2 mitigation strategies.

scholarly journals Comparing the environmental impacts of ethyl biodiesel production from soybean oil and beef tallow through lca for brazilian conditions

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 1285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Alves Esteves ◽  
Roberto Guimarães Pereira
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Soybean Oil ◽  
Production Process ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Beef Tallow ◽  
Biodiesel Production ◽  
Environmental Damage ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
Freshwater Ecotoxicity ◽  
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity

The present paper sought compare the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of biodiesel production obtained from the two raw materials most used in Brazil (soybean oil and beef tallow) through the process ethyl transesterification in an alkaline medium. The reference flow adopted for the work was the generation of power supplied 1GJ from the produced biodiesel. The data used in the inventory life cycle were calculated based on similar scientific papers. The method of assessment of environmental impacts chosen was the CML 2001 modified. Altogether, it were analyzed nine categories of environmental impacts for both processes (abiotic depletion (kg Sb eq), land use (m2a), global warming (kg CO2 eq), ozone layer depletion (kg CFC-11 eq), human toxicity (kg 1,4-DB eq), freshwater ecotoxicity (kg 1,4-DB eq), terrestrial ecotoxicity (kg 1,4-DB eq), acidification (kg SO2 eq) and eutrophication (kg PO43- eq)). The results of evaluation of environmental impacts show that the biodiesel production process from soybean oil presents major environmental damage in seven categories of analyzed impacts (destruction of abiotic resources, destruction of the ozone layer, human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, acidification and eutrophication). The production process of biodiesel from tallow presents major environmental damage in two categories of impacts analyzed (land use and global warming). However, the results show that the absolute values of environmental damage caused by impacts of the production process using beef tallow are much more aggressive.

scholarly journals Kajian Daur Hidup (Life Cycle Assessment) dalam Produksi Pupuk Urea: Studi Kasus PT Pupuk Kujang

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 522
Author(s):  
Joni Safaat Adiansyah ◽  
Nailawati Prastiya Ningrum ◽  
Dyan Pratiwi ◽  
Hadiyanto Hadiyanto
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Photochemical Oxidation ◽  
Human Toxicity ◽  
Ozone Layer Depletion ◽  
Aquatic Ecotoxicity ◽  
Terrestrial Ecotoxicity ◽  
Abiotic Depletion

Pupuk urea adalah merupakan salah satu jenis pupuk yang paling banyak digunakan oleh petani di Indonesia. Total penggunaan pupuk urea selama tahun 2018 yang tercatat pada Kementerian Perindustrian Indonesia adalah sejumlah 6,27 Juta ton atau mengalami peningkatan 5% dari tahun sebelumnya. Salah satu pabrik yang menghasilkan pupuk urea adalah PT Pupuk Kujang di Cikampek Jawa Barat. Tujuan dari studi ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasi dampak lingkungan potensial yang dihasilkan dari produksi 50 Kg pupuk urea. Metode yang digunakan dalam kajian dampak daur hidup (Life Cycle Impact Assessment) adalah CML-IA dengan 11(sebelas) parameter yaitu abiotic depletion dan abiotic depletion (fossil fuel), global warming (GWP100), ozone layer depletion, human toxicity, fresh water dan marine aquatic ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, photochemical oxidation, acidification, dan eutrophication,  Adapun batasan sistem menggunakancradle to grave yang memperhitungakn bahan dasar, proses produksi, transportasi dan pengelolaan limbah (karung bekas pupuk). Dari hasil analisa didapatkan bahwa proses produksi memberikan kontribusi dampak paling besar dibandingkan dengan pengelolaan limbah sisa karung (landfill). Proses produksi memberikan kontribusi terhadap dampak potensial lingkungan pada kisaran 99,14 – 100 persen dari total dampak yang di hasilkan. Sebagai tambahan bahwa dampak yang ditimbulkan pada proses di pabrik ammonia akan memberikan kontribusi lebih besar pada kisaran 22-37 persen lebih besar dibandingkan dengan proses di pabrik urea.Dari hasil analisa dengan memanfaatkan grafik jaringan (networking graph) pada program SimaPro juga menunjukkan bahwa environmental hotspotsdari daur hidup pupuk urea disebabkan oleh penggunaan gas alam, katalis molybdenum, penggunaan listrik dari Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), penggunaan polypropylene dalam material karung, dan transportasi. Dengan mempertimbangan environmental hotspot maka tindakan perbaikan berkelanjutan perlu dilakukan baik berupa  audit energi maupun pengelolaan penggunaan katalis.

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