Production of mealworms for human consumption in Finland: a preliminary life cycle assessment

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Joensuu ◽  
F. Silvenius
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Animal Feed ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Emission Energy ◽  
Low Emission ◽  
By Products

Interest in insect production for human consumption is growing in many European countries, including Finland. One of the main justifications for insect-based food products is their lower environmental burden compared to traditional livestock products; another is the need for new protein sources for animal feed and human consumption. In this study, we investigated the global warming potential (GWP) of the potential future industrial scale mealworm production in Finland, using existing data on input needs of mealworm production in the Netherlands and previous life cycle assessment studies of Finnish feedstocks and energy sources. We compared three scenarios, of which one was based on feeding with a commercial feeding mixture, the second on feeding with food industry by-products and the third on the use of low-emission energy sources in combination with feeding with food industry by-products. In all three scenarios, feed crop production and direct heating energy were responsible for at least 95% of the total GWP. Especially the use of low-emission energy sources appears to have potential in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of insect production.

Techno-economic evaluation and life-cycle assessment of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) production within a biorefinery concept using sunflower-based biodiesel industry by-products

2021 ◽  
Vol 326 ◽  
pp. 124711
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Kachrimanidou ◽  
Sofia Maria Ioannidou ◽  
Dimitrios Ladakis ◽  
Harris Papapostolou ◽  
Nikolaos Kopsahelis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Economic Evaluation ◽  
By Products ◽  
Biodiesel Industry

scholarly journals Life-Cycle Assessment of a Rural Terraced House: A Struggle with Sustainability of Building Renovations

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2472
Author(s):  
Karel Struhala ◽  
Milan Ostrý
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Construction Sector ◽  
Building Stock ◽  
Existing Building ◽  
New Construction ◽  
Consumption Energy

Contemporary research stresses the need to reduce mankind’s environmental impacts and achieve sustainability. One of the keys to this is the construction sector. New buildings have to comply with strict limits regarding resource consumption (energy, water use, etc.). However, they make up only a fraction of the existing building stock. Renovations of existing buildings are therefore essential for the reduction of the environmental impacts in the construction sector. This paper illustrates the situation using a case study of a rural terraced house in a village near Brno, Czech Republic. It compares the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of the original house and its proposed renovation as well as demolition followed by new construction. The LCA covers both the initial embodied environmental impacts (EEIs) and the 60-year operation of the house with several variants of energy sources. The results show that the proposed renovation would reduce overall environmental impacts (OEIs) of the house by up to 90% and the demolition and new construction by up to 93% depending on the selected energy sources. As such, the results confirm the importance of renovations and the installation of environmentally-friendly energy sources for achieving sustainability in the construction sector. They also show the desirability of the replacement of inefficient old buildings by new construction in specific cases.

scholarly journals Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment of Arable Crop Production Technologies Compared to Different Harvesting Work Systems in Short Rotation Energy Plantations

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-68
Author(s):  
András Polgár ◽  
Zoltán Kovács ◽  
Veronika Elekné Fodor ◽  
András Bidló
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Short Rotation ◽  
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Arable Crop ◽  
Production Technologies ◽  
Energy Plantations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Rotation Energy

Abstract Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) was developed as a tool for sustainable, decision-supporting environmental management. Applying agricultural sector-LCA in order to achieve both internal (comparative) and external (efficiency enhancing) benefits is a priority. Since the life-cycle assessment of products and processes attracts great interest, applying the method in agriculture is relevant. Our study undertakes a comparative environmental life-cycle assessment (LCA) of local arable crop production technologies used for the main cultivated plants: maize, sunflower, lucerne, cereals, and canola (environmental data in the territorial approach calculated on a 1 ha unit and in the quantitative approach calculated on 1 t of produce). We prepared an environmental inventory of the arable crop production technologies, constructed the life-cycle models, and executed the impact assessment. We also compiled an environmental ranking of technologies. In the impact interpretation, we compared the results with the values of short rotation energy plantations in each impact category. We analysed carbon footprints closely. The obtained results help better assess environmental impacts, climate risks, and climate change as they pertain to arable crop production technologies, which advances the selection of appropriate technologies adjusted to environmental sensitivities.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Maize-Germ Oil Production and The Use of Bioenergy to Mitigate Environmental Impacts: A Gate-To-Gate Case Study

Resources ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattias Gaglio ◽  
Elena Tamburini ◽  
Francesco Lucchesi ◽  
Vassilis Aschonitis ◽  
Anna Atti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Impact Categories ◽  
Industrial Processing ◽  
The Impact

The need to reduce the environmental impacts of the food industry is increasing together with the dramatic increment of global food demand. Circulation strategies such as the exploitation of self-produced renewable energy sources can improve ecological performances of industrial processes. However, evidence is needed to demonstrate and characterize such environmental benefits. This study assessed the environmental performances of industrial processing of maize edible oil, whose energy provision is guaranteed by residues biomasses. A gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach was applied for a large-size factory of Northern Italy to describe: (i) the environmental impacts related to industrial processing and (ii) the contribution of residue-based bioenergy to their mitigation, through the comparison with a reference system based on conventional energy. The results showed that oil refinement is the most impacting phase for almost all the considered impact categories. The use of residue-based bioenergy was found to drastically reduce the emissions for all the impact categories. Moreover, Cumulative Energy Demand analysis revealed that the use of biomass residues increased energy efficiency through a reduction of the total energy demand of the industrial process. The study demonstrates that the exploitation of residue-based bioenergy can be a sustainable solution to improve environmental performances of the food industry, while supporting circular economy.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of Alternative Ship Fuels for Coastal Ferry Operating in Republic of Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 660
Author(s):  
Sang Soo Hwang ◽  
Sung Jin Gil ◽  
Gang Nam Lee ◽  
Ji Won Lee ◽  
Hyun Park ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Republic Of Korea ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Hard Coal ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Steam Methane ◽  
Ship Fuels

In this study, the environmental impacts of various alternative ship fuels for a coastal ferry were assessed by the life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis. The comparative study was performed with marine gas oil (MGO), natural gas, and hydrogen with various energy sources for a 12,000 gross tonne (GT) coastal ferry operating in the Republic of Korea (ROK). Considering the energy imports of ROK, i.e., MGO from Saudi Arabia and natural gas from Qatar, these countries were chosen to provide the MGO and the natural gas for the LCA. The hydrogen is considered to be produced by steam methane reforming (SMR) from natural gas with hard coal, nuclear energy, renewable energy, and electricity in the ROK model. The lifecycles of the fuels were analyzed in classifications of Well-to- Tank, Tank-to-Wake, and Well-to-Wake phases. The environmental impacts were provided in terms of global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), photochemical potential (POCP), eutrophication potential (EP), and particulate matter (PM). The results showed that MGO and natural gas cannot be used for ships to meet the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) 2050 GHG regulation. Moreover, it was pointed out that the energy sources in SMR are important contributing factors to emission levels. The paper concludes with suggestions for a hydrogen application plan for ships from small, nearshore ships in order to truly achieve a ship with zero emissions based on the results of this study.

Use of life cycle assessment to evaluate environmental impacts associated with the management of sludge and biogas

2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (9) ◽  
pp. 2292-2300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Cubas do Amaral ◽  
Miguel Mansur Aisse ◽  
Gustavo Rafael Collere Possetti ◽  
Marcelo Real Prado
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket ◽  
Anaerobic Sludge ◽  
Baseline Scenario ◽  
Low Efficiency ◽  
By Products

Abstract Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors used in sewage treatment generate two by-products that can be reused: sludge and biogas. At the present time in Brazil, most of this resulting sludge is disposed of in sanitary landfills, while biogas is commonly burned off in low-efficiency flares. The aim of the present study was to use life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts from four different treatment and final destination scenarios for the main by-products of wastewater treatment plants. The baseline scenario, in which the sludge was sanitized using prolonged alkaline stabilization and, subsequently, directed toward agricultural applications and the biogas destroyed in open burners, had the most impact in the categories of global warming, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and human non-carcinogenic toxicity. The scenario in which heat resulting from biogas combustion is used to dry the sludge showed significant improvements over the baseline scenario in all the evaluated impact categories. The recovery of heat from biogas combustion decreased significantly the environmental impact associated with global warming. The combustion of dried sludge is another alternative to improve the sludge management. Despite the reduction of sludge volume to ash, there are environmental impacts inherent to ozone formation and terrestrial acidification.

scholarly journals System Analysis of Biogas Production—Part II Application in Food Industry Systems

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Lindkvist ◽  
Magnus Karlsson ◽  
Jenny Ivner
Keyword(s):  
Food Industry ◽  
System Analysis ◽  
Animal Feed ◽  
Biogas Production ◽  
Treatment Method ◽  
Energy And Environment ◽  
Efficient Alternative ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Business As Usual ◽  
By Products

Biogas production from organic by-products is a way to recover energy and nutrients. However, biogas production is not the only possible conversion alternative for these by-products, and hence there is interest in studying how organic by-products are treated today and which alternatives for conversion are the most resource efficient from a systems perspective. This paper investigates if biogas production is a resource efficient alternative, compared to business as usual, to treat food industry by-products, and if so, under what circumstances. Five different cases of food industries were studied, all with different prerequisites. For all cases, three different scenarios were analysed. The first scenario is the business as usual (Scenario BAU), where the by-products currently are either incinerated, used as animal feed or compost. The second and third scenarios are potential biogas scenarios where biogas is either used as vehicle fuel (Scenario Vehicle) or to produce heat and power (Scenario CHP). All scenarios, and consequently, all cases have been analysed from three different perspectives: Economy, energy, and environment. The environmental perspective was divided into Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP), and Eutrophication Potential (EP). The results show, in almost all the systems, that it would be more resource efficient to change the treatment method from Scenario BAU to one of the biogas scenarios. This paper concludes that both the perspective in focus and the case at hand are vital for deciding whether biogas production is the best option to treat industrial organic by-products. The results suggest that the food industry should not be the only actor involved in deciding how to treat its by-products.

Application of life cycle assessment to food industry wastes

2020 ◽  
pp. 331-353
Author(s):  
Mónica Herrero ◽  
Amanda Laca ◽  
Adriana Laca ◽  
Mario Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Food Industry
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