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Current potential of more sustainable biomass production using eco-efficient farming practices in Austria
Abstract
Ecological evaluation approaches assess different levels of comprehensiveness depending on anthropogenic ecological pressures on natural material and biogeochemical cycles. In this research potentials of biomass integration in agricultural processes were evaluated and all parts of their full life cycles were replaced with ecological processes of low impact. A method that covers global resource availabilities, life cycle chains and their emissions to final compartments on earth’ spheres in a detailed way is Sustainable Process Index. This footprint calculator accumulates the total resource use of a full life cycle of a process chain in one number of m² area. Current typical conventional agricultural cropping processes shall be made comparable to a strongly sustainable ecological footprint which could be achieved if heavy footprint measures would be replaced by those with smaller impacts in natural cycles. The production of maize grain is evaluated to find out the ecological hotspots. A comparison of business as usual conventional farming practice and ecological/organic farming practice is carried out. The evaluation results confirmed that fossil fuel consumption and application of mineral fertilizers along with pesticides are the main ecological hotspots. The ecological footprint and carbon footprint showed a bandwidth of 24,731 to 10,690 m²/tonne and 88.5 and 22.6 kg carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne maize grain production respectively. The shift from conventional farming practice to organic farming and use of biogas as fuel showed an ecological footprint reduction potential ranging from 22% to 57% while the carbon footprint reduction potential ranges from 38% to 74%. It proves that SPI footprint methodology is quite effective in locating ecological hotspots and finding alternate environment friendly solution in the life cycle of a process. The assessment results are very promising and indicate that a shift from conventional farmisng practices towards organic farming and the use of renewable energy sources have a huge potential to achieve a more sustainable agriculture and strengthen a regionally based economy.
... SPI was developed by Krotscheck and Narodoslawsky (1996) following the basic principles of ecological footprint. The normative behind the development of SPI methodology is well explained by two general principles of sustainability (Maier et al., 2017), resource acquisition and emissions related to anthropogenic activities, to fulfill human needs and should not overshoot Earth's natural income. These principles are given as (SPIonWeb, 2013e2016): ...
... Similarly, the mathematical translation of natural principles to show sustainability is explained by Narodoslawsky and Krotscheck (1995), as shown in Eq. (4) (Maier et al., 2017): ...
... It has also been applied for evaluation of other fields e.g. agriculture (Maier et al., 2017) and biochemical processes (Shahzad et al., 2014). An online tool SPIonWeb was utilized for making the assessment. ...
The recognition of the humans, vehicles or any other objects in the outdoor environment, such as roads, streets, pedestrian ways, car parking and public parks, is only possible with illumination after dark. The outdoor lighting consumes significant amounts of electricity. The best short-term payout period for reduction in energy consumption is implementation of energy efficiency solutions. A shift from traditional illumination technology to the advanced lighting solutions has the ability for significant energy savings. The main focus of this study is to find out the most suitable, environmentally friendly and “green” solution(s) to fulfill the outdoor lighting requirements. It includes ecological impact assessment of commonly available lighting technologies for outdoor illumination, such as high pressure sodium, compact fluorescent and light emitting diode, by using Sustainable Process Index methodology. The effects of different alternative energy resources and the impacts of geographical locations due to variations in energy provision system (i.e. energy mix) are also considered in this study. The obtained results show that Sustainable Process Index ranges from 258 km2 to 7760 km2 and carbon footprint from 930 t CO2 eq. to 48,496 t CO2 eq. to fulfill lighting requirement for 100,000 h of lighting. These results are compared with Sustainable Process Index and Carbon Footprint caused by high pressure sodium and light emitting diode luminaires providing electricity from Saudi Arabian electricity network.
... The possibilities with the most significant potential for reducing environmental pressure are the switch from machinery powered by fossil fuels (tractors and harvesters) to machinery powered by biogas (used to harvest crops in some cases) and the transition from conventional cultivation (with pesticides) to ecological cultivation (without pesticides) [61]. A shift from conventional agricultural practices to OA and using renewable energy sources has considerable potential for achieving more sustainable agriculture and strengthening a regionally based economy [61]. ...
... The possibilities with the most significant potential for reducing environmental pressure are the switch from machinery powered by fossil fuels (tractors and harvesters) to machinery powered by biogas (used to harvest crops in some cases) and the transition from conventional cultivation (with pesticides) to ecological cultivation (without pesticides) [61]. A shift from conventional agricultural practices to OA and using renewable energy sources has considerable potential for achieving more sustainable agriculture and strengthening a regionally based economy [61]. ...
The opportunities for the global growth of the bioeconomy (BE) are generated by the need to expand the food supply for an increasing world population without compromising the environment even further. Organic agriculture (OA) claims to be more environmentally friendly than conventional agriculture and capable of addressing sustainable development objectives by using green technologies, resulting in economic, social, and ecological benefits. The aim of this paper is to investigate the relation between OA and BE through a systematic literature review. We addressed the benefits of OA under perspective of the main aspects of BE. As demonstrated by previous papers assessed on this review, OA can be a means to facilitate strategies for the use of renewable resources to mitigate the emergencies arising from global warming, as claimed by the BE concept. This article introduces a necessary discussion due the lack of previous studies reporting the capacity of OA to connect with the BE. As a final contribution, we present a conceptual framework characterizing potential benefits of OA under the perspective of BE, for organic farmers and researchers to advance in sustainability and green innovation.
... The EF index is used to compare human demands against the biosphere's ability to renew [27]. One of the EF index methods in the EF family is called the Sustainable Process Index (SPI) which can be used for assessing ecological hotspots and finding alternate environment-friendly solutions in the life cycle of a process [28]. ...
The article analyses sustainable economic development of EU countries according to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), by using indices of integrated sustainable development and environmental footprint. Sustainable economic initiatives can be driven by economic, environmental and social aspects, applying principles of innovation and knowledge. However, development requires skills, human and financial resources; in turn, it increases productivity, efficiency, competitiveness, profit, and promotes a better working environment. In general, sustainable business initiatives contribute to SDGs and reduce the environmental footprint. The scientific problem is how to develop a sustainable economy while ensuring the achievement of SDGs and at the same time reducing the environmental footprint. The object of the scientific research is the evaluation of sustainable economic development through the analysis of integrated sustainable development indicators. The aim of the research is, upon the evaluation of SDGs and environmental footprint indices as well as the analysis of the integrated sustainable development indicator, to identify the opportunities for sustainable economic development in the EU countries. The research has been carried out by analysing the scientific literature, and applying SDGs and environmental footprint methodology to calculate individual and integrated sustainable development indices. The results have shown that despite the disparity of SDG indices, the overall value of the integrated sustainable development indicator is distributed quite evenly among the EU countries. The impacts from each of the SDG indices range from 11% to 31% but the environmental footprint index has the greatest impact on the sustainable development of a country—up to 31%.
... Since then, the ecological footprint model has been extensively used as an essential research tool and analysis framework in sustainable development (Korkut, 2021;Ojonugwa et al., 2021;Umit, 2021;Zahid et al., 2021), socioeconomic development (Neagu, 2020;Enu and Sya, 2021), tourism development (Mehdi et al., 2012;Lin et al., 2017), and energy consumption (Sharma et al., 2021;Ullah et al., 2021). The application of the ecological footprint method in agriculture is divided into two parts: one is the impact of different agricultural production management methods on the agricultural environment, such as land use and farm management (Viglizzo et al., 2011, Hayo et al., 2007, and the second is to evaluate the sustainable utilization of agricultural resources such as water resources and arable land resources, combining the agricultural water footprint (Hoekstra et al., 2011;Wang et al., 2014), agricultural carbon footprint (Maier et al., 2017;Li et al., 2018), and crop footprint (Ferng, 2011;Budreski et al., 2016). In the ecological footprint study of China's agriculture, researchers, respectively, measured the ecological footprint and carrying capacity per capita of cultivated land, water area, grassland, and forest land in Henan (Cao, 2020), Guangxi (Zhang, 2020), and Shandong provinces (Yang et al., 2016), and all the studies found that the provinces have different degrees of ecological deficits. ...
In recent years, with the frequent occurrence of global climate problems, China has paid great attention to sustainable development and ecological environment governance. Sichuan Province is a significant grain production and a reserve base in western China, and its sustainable development in agriculture is an important foundation for the healthy development of the regional agricultural economy and food security. In this study, we divided the agricultural production land in Sichuan into cultivated land, water area, grassland, and forest land. We used the ecological footprint method to investigate the ecological footprint and the carrying capacity of agriculture in Sichuan comprehensively. We conclude that 1) generally, the overall agricultural ecosystem in Sichuan has been in a state of ecological surplus for the past 20 y, and the environmental pressure is gradually decreasing. However, the development within the ecosystem is uneven. 2) In terms of subdivision, the cultivated land, forest land, and water area in Sichuan have always been in a state of ecological surplus, but the grassland is in an ecological deficit state. In terms of the trend, the ecological status of cultivated land has declined significantly, while the forest land has gradually improved, and the water area is relatively stable. Yet, the deficit of grassland is still severe. 3) Forest land is considered the most sustainable type and has a high resource utilization rate all the time, followed by water area, cultivated land, and grassland, when measured by ecological indicators. At the same time, in terms of the coordination between economy and ecology, all lands have been improved.
... This is clearly reflected by a literature review of the previous SDEWES special issues which include a large number of papers investigating this topic, summarized in the following Table 4. In this field, biogas and gasified biomass are probably the most promising bio-fuels for their potential to decarbonize energy systems [116][117][118][119]. Gaida et al. [105] presented a detailed review of different strategies to control substrate feed in anaerobic digesters. ...
EU energy policy is more and more promoting a resilient, efficient and sustainable energy system. Several agreements have been signed in the last few months that set ambitious goals in terms of energy efficiency and emission reductions and to reduce the energy consumption in buildings. These actions are expected to fulfill the goals negotiated at the Paris Agreement in 2015. The successful development of this ambitious energy policy needs to be supported by scientific knowledge: a huge effort must be made in order to develop more efficient energy conversion technologies based both on renewables and fossil fuels. Similarly, researchers are also expected to work on the integration of conventional and novel systems, also taking into account the needs for the management of the novel energy systems in terms of energy storage and devices management. Therefore, a multi-disciplinary approach is required in order to achieve these goals. To ensure that the scientists belonging to the different disciplines are aware of the scientific progress in the other research areas, specific Conferences are periodically organized. One of the most popular conferences in this area is the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Series Conference. The 12th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference was recently held in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The present Special Issue of Energies, specifically dedicated to the 12th SDEWES Conference, is focused on five main fields: energy policy and energy efficiency in smart energy systems, polygeneration and district heating, advanced combustion techniques and fuels, biomass and building efficiency.
... Biomass as a renewable energy source that could easily replace fossil fuels has been studied extensively in Austria by Maier et al. (2017), in Japan by Ooba et al. (2016), and in Malaysia by Shen How et al. (2016). Bioethanol production from de-oiled microalgal biomass was investigated by Muei Chng et al. (2016). ...
Following the 2015 Paris Agreement, the main challenge for world economies nowadays is to commit themselves to long-term reforms aimed at increasing and promoting sustainable, inclusive and balanced development. An adequate response to this challenge will certainly require using the best available scientific knowledge and constant re-evaluation of the development process in light of the scientific findings. To ensure that the sciences are responsive to the emerging needs and to address sustainable development issues. This Virtual Special Issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production is dedicated to both Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems 2016 Conferences – 2nd South East European Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference and 11th Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference. The Virtual Special Issue is focused on four main fields: Energy issues, Water issues, Environmental engineering and management, and Sustainable engineering solutions and large-scale sustainability approaches. The division of selected papers follows the previous Journal of Cleaner Production Special Sections and Volumes dedicated to the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conference series.
... To improve the sustainability of Napier grass cultivation, the dependence on economic inputs could be reduced by promoting long term productivity with eco-efficient alternatives such as using biofuel driven machineries, and lower pollution levels on the farm (Maier et al., 2016). This would provide the higher utilization of local resources and lower the dependence on external resources (De Jong et al., 2010). ...
The industrial production of chemicals and energy carriers has grown enormously with the support of new technologies. A proper assessment is needed to provide broader aspects for long-term sustainability. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environmental sustainability of a biorefinery based on lignocellulosic biomass feedstock using emergy analysis and to propose the method to minimize material consumption and waste. The concept of emergy is to express the record of all resources used by the biosphere in earlier steps to produce a product or service, in term of solar energy equivalence. This idea provides the quantitative indicators involving the resource use and the percent renewability of the systems. For the proposed biorefinery model, Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) grown in Thailand was used as lignocellulosic feedstock. An emergy assessment was performed in two parts, comprised of the evaluation of the feedstock cultivation and of a biorefinery producing liquid fuels, methanol, steam, electricity and other by products, i.e., high purity CO2, sulfur. The emergy results revealed that the bio-based products depend mostly on non-renewable resources used in both biomass cultivation and biorefinery stages. For Napier grass cultivation, most of the emergy support came from local resources in term of evapotranspiration of Napier grass (33%) and the diesel consumption during the cultivation process (21%). The emergy sustainability indicator of the cultivation was 0.81. The emergy sustainability indicator of the whole process from cultivation to biorefinery stages dropped to 0.25, since the biorefinery section required solely economic inputs of which most were non-renewable. In conclusion, the implementation of the integrated biorefinery concept could minimize material consumption and waste generation and it also has higher performance in terms of the emergy compared to other existing processes.
The most significant industry, or the foundation of the Indian economy, is agriculture. After green revolution, there has been a significant increase in agriculture with the objective to feed the world’s expanding population. Due to this, farmers are depending on excessive utilization of agricultural chemicals and fertilizers, which had a detrimental effect on the environment causing degradation of fertile soil which can be triggered by an imbalance in the health of the soil and also destroying beneficial microorganisms. Excessive usage of synthetic fertilizer’s also affects the health of farmers. To overcome the issues of health and soil fertility, strategies like natural and organic farming are practiced and applied. Both natural and organic farming are chemical free with no use of chemical fertilizers or pesticide farming system. It encourages farmers to grow healthy and chemical-free food.
Global warming and climate change call for urgent minimization of the impact of human activities on the environment. There is a great need for the improvement of resource efficiencies by integrating various life-supporting systems. The challenge is on the energy, water and environment systems to integrate and become more sustainable. This research field has received increased attention over the past years with studies across the energy, water and environment systems that optimized different engineering problems. The present Special Issue stems from four Conferences on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems held in 2020, in four countries of three continents. This review introduction article intends to introduce the topical field and the articles included in this Special Issue of Optimization and Engineering.
Organic waste management (OWM) currently follows the linear economy principle in most of the Gulf countries. Most CE studies to date revolve around the reduction, recycling, and reuse of the material in a production and consumption chain. In this study, the whole process chain's economic and environmental monetary values were investigated to convert organic food waste (OFW) into compost, following the CE indicators. The monetary savings from macronutrients (carbon and NPK) enrichment by applying compost to the soil and its replacement value of the mineral fertilizer have never been reported in the CE model. The OFW production of Makkah city is estimated to increase up to 1.60 Mt in 2030 because of domestic population growth and an increasing number of pilgrims traveling to perform religious rituals. This massive quantity of OFW can produce 0.23–0.40 Mt of compost in 2015–2030 and reduce 0.043–0.076 Mt of CH4 emission. The implementation of this technology will generate net revenue of 240–419 MSAR from compost selling along with a potential substitute of 124–216 kt of chemical fertilizers during 2015–2030, following the CE. The environmental savings (waste dumping and carbon crediting related to CH4 reduction) can be 618–1078 MSAR, while fertilizer replacement savings will be 74–129 MSAR in 2015–2030. In general, implementing the composting technology following the CE model has the potential to add a cumulative net revenue of 1626 MSAR to the national economy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2030. Implementing the CE model in OFW generates compost, reduces waste management problems by closing the materials recycling loop, generating extra income, and adds net revenue to the national economy. It will also help the decision-makers devise a suitable sustainable waste management policy.
Climate change and global warming are one of the most serious problems of the last century. The main reasons for this problem are the unconscious use of fossil fuels, destruction of forests, wrong agricultural activities as well as the increase in greenhouse gas emissions with the industrial revolution. Due to the importance of the subject, many researchers from different disciplines have started to carry out many studies on climate change and global warming in recent years. Among these studies, researches on forest ecosystems have a special importance. As is known, forests reduce the global impact of climate change by holding atmospheric CO2 gases. On the other hand, the relationship of forests with climate change has many dimensions that can be interpreted directly or indirectly. In this study, the potential effects of climate change on forest ecosystems, on the other hand, it is aimed to compile the information in the literature on the functions of forests in the process of reducing or reducing the effects of global warming. In this literature review, completed studies on the subject in different countries have been discussed and the relationship between climate change and forest ecosystem has been examined in multidimensional way. As a result, it is aimed to collect the existing information in a holistic way in order to better understand the importance of the subject.
The paper points at the origin and development of ecological farming in Slovakia from 1991 to 2015. As the positive aspect of this period can be considered the increasing area of ecologically farmed agricultural land, as well as increasing number of farmers and a slight increase in the number of processors of ecological production. The increased interest of farmers in ecological farming on land occurred mainly after Slovakia's accession to the EU. The next part of the paper is dedicated to the regional disparities in ecological production at NUTS III (Slovak regions). To analyze spatial disparities at the regional level, we used the most widely applied statistical methods - standard deviation and coefficient of variation. The largest localization of ecological production is in northern Slovakia - in Žilina and Prešov region, in central Slovakia in Banská Bystrica region. In these regions, there are higher acreage of ecological farmland. Despite the slight increase of processors of ecological produce, they still lack in Slovakia. Processors of ecological products operate mainly in the regions of western and eastern Slovakia and north of the country. With the lack of ecological production, there is relatively underdeveloped distribution of products of ecological production and its lower consumption in the domestic market. Offers of bio-products is relatively low and weak competitive environment does not create the pressure to still reduce still high prices of ecological production.
Due to climate change concerns, various environmental stresses and social inequality among the people, the welfare of mankind is increasingly being viewed through the prism of sustainable development. Sustainable development is a highly multi-disciplinary field of research that has been extensively studied during last two decades. Therefore, from the beginning of the 21st century, a series of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) Conferences were founded to address sustainable development issues. This Journal of Cleaner Production Special Volume (SV) is dedicated to the 10th SDEWES Conference. The SV is focused on three main fields that are of strategic importance to sustainable development: energy issues, water issues, and environmental engineering and management. The division of selected papers according to the named research fields was established following the previous Journal of Cleaner Production Special Sections and Volumes dedicated to the SDEWES Conferences. Therefore, this Special Volume builds upon the previously generated SDEWES knowledge base.
In long term trials (2007-2012) at two experimental sites in South Styria (Wagna and Wagendorf). the direct energy use (fuel, heating oil, electricity) and indirect energy use (machinery, herbicide, fertilizer and seed) as well as energy efficiency in grain maize production were analysed. The influence of different mineral nitrogen fertilization treatments (0, 90, 115, 145, 175, 210 kg N/ha as CAN) and a liquid pig manure treatment were compared. The calculated energy efficiency indicators (energy intensity, energy output/energy input ratio, net-energy output) are decisively influenced by the soil fertility and fertilization level. The highest energy efficiency was reached with the liquid pig manure. The energy for drying and for fertilizer production was between 20.3 and 48.3 %, which means 20.7 and 37.2% of the total energy input.
Utilization of waste streams is gaining more and more importance to reduce costs at the input side of a process. This affects not only costs, as environmental impacts can be minimized due to utilization of recovered waste streams too. ANIMPOL is an EU funded research project which is focused on the production of biopolymers from animal residues. This report compares conventional plastic production against fermentation of animal residues to polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) which constitutes a group of biobased and biodegradable polyesters. Beside PHA high quality biodiesel and meat and bone meal are produced which improves the economic feasibility of the whole process design. Through hydrolysis of specific residues the substitution of inorganic nitrogen can be achieved (Kettl et al., 2011a).
For comparison of different production scenarios Ecological Footprint evaluation, according to the Sustainable Process Index methodology (Sandholzer et. al., 2005; Narodoslawsky and Krotscheck, 1995) was applied. Sub-process sharp information is available to figure out ecological hotspots within every process step. Ecological optimization potentials as well as production cost reduction are pointed out to address cleaner production already in the process designing phase.
Realizing a sustainable development of our planet requires a reduction of waste production, harmful emissions, and higher energy efficiency as well as utilization of renewable energy sources. One pathway to this end is the design of sustainable biorefinery concepts. Utilizing waste streams as raw material is gaining great importance in this respect. This reduces environmental burden and may at the same time contribute to economic performance of biorefineries. This paper investigates the utilization of slaughtering waste to produce biodegradable polyesters, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), via bioconversion. PHA are the target product while production of high quality biodiesel along with meat and bone meal (MBM) as by-products improves the economic performance of the process. The paper focuses on ecological comparison of different production scenarios and the effect of geographical location of production plants taking different energy production technologies and resources into account; ecological footprint evaluation using Sustainable Process Index methodology was applied. Keeping in mind that the carbon source for PHA production is produced from waste by energy intensive rendering process, the effect of available energy mixes in different countries becomes significant. Ecological footprint results from the current study show a bandwidth from 372,950 to 956,060 m2/t PHA production, depending on the energy mix used in the process which is compared to 2,508,409 m2/t for low density polyethylene.
Conventional plastic products are made of crude oil components through polymerization. Aim of the project ANIMPOL is to convert lipids into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) which constitute a group of biobased and biodegradable polyesters. Replacing fossil based plastics with biobased alternatives can help reducing dependence on crude oil and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. As substrate material waste streams from slaughtering cattle, pig or poultry are taken into account. Lipids from rendering site are used for biodiesel production. Slaughtering waste streams may also be hydrolyzed to achieve higher lipid yield. Biodiesel can be separated into a high and low quality fraction. High quality meets requirements for market sale as fuel and low quality can be used for PHA production. This provides the carbon source for PHA production. Nitrogen source for bacteria reproduction is available from hydrolyzed waste streams or can be added separately. Selected microbial strains are used to produce PHA from this substrate. An optimized process design will minimize waste streams and energy losses through recycling. Ecological evaluation of the process design will be done through footprint calculation according to Sustainable Process Index methodology (Sandholzer et. al, 2005; Narodoslawsky and Krotscheck, 1995).
Conventional polymers are made of crude oil components through chemical polymerization. The aim of the project ANIMPOL is to produce biopolymers by converting lipids into polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) in a novel process scheme to reduce dependence on crude oil and decrease greenhouse gas emissions. PHA constitutes a group of biobased and biodegradable polyesters that may substitute fossil-based polymers in a wide range of applications. Waste streams from slaughtering cattle are used as substrate material. Lipids from rendering are used in this process scheme for biodiesel production. Slaughtering waste streams may also be hydrolyzed to achieve higher lipid yield. Biodiesel then is separated into a high- and low-quality fraction. High-quality biodiesel meets requirements for sale as fuel and low quality is used for PHA production as carbon source. Selected offal material is used for acid hydrolysis and serves as a source of organic nitrogen as well as carbon source for PHA-free biomass with high production rate in fermentation process. Nitrogen is a limiting factor to control PHA production during the fermentation process. It is available for bacterial growth from hydrolyzed waste streams as well as added separately as NH4OH solution. Selected microbial strains are used to produce PHA from this substrate. The focus of the paper is about an overview of the whole process with the main focus on hydrolysis, to look for the possibility of using offal hydrolysis as an organic nitrogen substitute. The process design is optimized by minimizing waste streams and energy losses through cleaner production. Ecological evaluation of the process design will be done through footprint calculation according to Sustainable Process Index methodology.
Revolutions in agricultural technology and policy throughout the twentieth century have dramatically changed farming practices. While these changes created necessary, short-term increases in food production, they also created environmental and social consequences that have called this agricultural system into question. Beginning in the 1960s, the environmental movement drew attention to the impacts of industrialized, chemical-intensive agricultural practices on the health of individuals and the planet. In addition, the consequences of agribusinesses on farmers and consumers throughout the world have sparked reactions against the injustices of a corporate, capitalist food system. These negative consequences of modern agriculture have shifted the discourse of agriculture and food security away from one of strictly growing more food to one of growing food in a way that is environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable.
Sustainable development requires environmental concerns to be integrated into engineering design on the same level as economic considerations. The Sustainable Process Index (SPI) addresses this need and provides a comprehensive evaluation of ecological sustainability based on the concept of strong sustainability using only material and energy balances known to an engineer, even in the early stages of design. The SPI calculates an ecological footprint by taking the whole life cycle of a product or service provided by a technology into account. It calculates the area that is necessary to embed the provision of the service or product sustainably into the ecosphere if neither global material cycles (e.g., the global carbon cycle) nor the quality of local environmental compartments (atmosphere, water systems, or soil) shall be disturbed. It takes all material flows exchanged with the environment along the life cycle into account, whether they are raw material extraction, emissions, or waste generation.
The focus of this Special Volume (SV) of the Journal of Cleaner Production is "Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environmental Systems". It is of interest to practitioners in various branches of industry including the energy and water & wastewater sectors and environmental services, governmental policy makers, researchers, educators and the general public. The purpose of this SV is to increase public awareness of key issues of sustainable development and to stimulate exchange of research results, practical experience and new ideas among actors involved in investigating, planning and implementing sustainable development, regarding energy, transport, water, environment and production systems. The SV is focused upon four main fields that are of strategic importance to the sustainable development: energy resources and energy management, water management and wastewater treatment, environmental engineering and management, and promotion of sustainability concepts. The systems under consideration are differentiated in scale, ranging from countries or groups of countries, through regions or branches of industry, municipalities or industrial plants, down to single processes or equipment pieces. Examples of on-going research including case studies are presented along with examples of innovative practical solutions. In the energy field, examples are presented of the development and applications of energy systems analysis, planning and design methods and tools, which can be used to analyse the coherency of the whole systems and to augment the creation of sustainable energy policies and action plans on a large scale, as well as small-scale systems for efficient energy management. Regarding water issues, water management in water stressed regions is discussed indicating the usefulness of advanced mathematical models that take system dynamics and the stochastic nature of rainwater availability as planning tools, and LCA-based methods for assessing the diverse water supply alternatives within a dry region. In the field of environmental engineering and management, large-scale systems for solid waste collection, management and recovery are analysed, and the formation of air pollutants in industrial sources and diesel engines is studied by simulation. Finally, sustainable use of biomass resources and the role of sustainability thinking in the investment planning and management are addressed. In each of the four fields, strategically important challenges for future research are identified including the use of advanced mathematical models and multi-criteria analysis for the optimisation, from the sustainability point of view, of the systems for energy and water supply and management, solid waste management and the utilisation of biomass resources.
With climate change and other negative environmental impacts, there is an increased interest in measuring and reducing environmental burdens. However, the question is how to measure and reduce environmental burdens. Recently, the researchers, organizations, policy-makers, and others are putting forth efforts to develop concepts and metrics measuring environmental sustainability. Among those concepts and metrics, environmental footprints are gaining increasing popularity and play an ever-increasing role in sustainability evaluation and research. Footprints have become ubiquitous for researchers, policy-makers, and the general public. Over the past years, carbon footprint has been used as an environmental protection indicator almost exclusively. Evaluations have moved to include a variety of other footprints; however, there is no generally accepted footprint or footprint family that represents the overall impact on the environment. This chapter gives an overview of environmental footprints as indicators
The Sustainable Process Index methodology has been particularly developed for this purpose and has been widely applied to the measurement of the ecological performance in production systems. Ecological performance is expressed in aggregate form as Ecological Footprint per service unit, thus allowing the engineer to take decisions. De-aggregation into different environmental pressure categories that this methodology allows as well helps the engineer to understand, what causes the engineer to pinpoint the process steps that are critical to the overallperformance of the ecological pressure in a certain process step. For the modelling of these problems the software tool SPIonExcel has been in use in the last decade.
In Europe, corn borer attack is the main biotic stressor for the maize (Zea mays L.) crop. European corn borer (Ostrinia nubilalis Hbn.) is the most important maize pest in central and north Europe, while pink stem borer (Sesamia nonagrioides Lef.) is predominant in warmer areas of southern Europe. The objective of this study was the evaluation of the European Maize Union Landrace Core Collection (EUMLCC) for yield under infestation with European corn borer (O. nubilalis) and pink stem borer (S. nonagrioides). Eighty-five landraces from Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, and Portugal were evaluated, under corn borer infestation, for yield, grain moisture, and days to flowering at two locations in Spain. Landraces were evaluated separately in four trials that corresponded to four maturity groups. In each maturity group, there were significant differences among landraces for yield of infested plants. Extra-early landraces, ESP0090214, FRA0410010, and ESP0070339; early landraces, FRA0410022, and ESP11985022; midseason landraces, PRT00100392 and ESP11981047; and late landraces, PRT00100569 and PRT00100530, were promising sources of high-yielding maize under corn borer infestation and showed relative earliness within their maturity groups.
Water integration studies have focused on reducing the amount of water used by a process on the assumption that environmental impact is reduced through efficient water reuse. However, the environmental impact of retrofitting the water network through the installation of pumps and pipes and energy for their utilization which may even lead to a network with a higher environmental cost as measured using a more comprehensive metric, is rarely, if at all, considered. Using the Sustainable Process Index (SPI) as a means of measuring environmental impact, this study addresses the question on water integration and environmental impact and shows that there is a balance that must be struck between water savings and water network modifications.
IntroductionComputation of the SPICase Study: Biodiesel from Used Vegetable OilSummaryReferences
In recent years a considerable increase in interest in the development of processes based upon renewable resources has occurred. One reason for this development is the call for more sustainable and environmentally benign production processes and products.Increased utilisation of renewable resources, however, poses new challenges to chemical and process industries. These challenges arise from increased competition for renewable but still finite resources, the de-centralised production of the renewable resources and the complexity of the raw materials. These new challenges require new approaches to process development, as production systems become more complex and interlinked, logistical considerations become increasingly important and new technological solutions must be adapted to local and regional settings. As the structure of complex production systems must be newly developed and optimised, process synthesis will play an increasingly important role in process development.
The Sustainable Process Index (SPI) is a measure developed to evaluate the viability of processes under sustainable economic conditions. Its advantages are its universal applicability, its scientific basis, the possibility of adoption in process analyses and syntheses, the high sensitivity for sustainable qualities, and the capability of aggregation to one measure. It has proved to be useful in industrial strategic planning. The concept of the SPI is based on the assumption that in a truly sustainable society the basis of economy is the sustainable flow of solar exergy. The conversion of the solar exergy to services needs area. Thus, area becomes the limiting factor of a sustainable economy. The SPI evaluates the areas needed to provide the raw materials and energy demands and to accommodate by-product flows from a process in a sustainable way. It relates these areas to the area available to a citizen in a given geographical (from regional to global) context. The data necessary to calculate the SPI are usually known at an early stage in process development. The result of the computation is the ratio between the area needed to supply a citizen with a given service and the area needed to supply a citizen with all possible services. Thus, it is a measure of the expense of this service in an economy oriented towards sustainability.
Process industry needs a strategic measure that takes environmental considerations into account as a base for decisions on future projects. Emission standards alone are not sufficient for this purpose. They are based on our knowledge of the environmental risk of substances which is fragmentary and inconclusive. On top of that emission standards are susceptible to changes in societal risk assessment. Both factors are chaning rapidly undermining the usefulness of these standards for strategic planning. The SPI is based on an operationalized form of the principle of sustainability. It uses only process data known at an early stage of planning and data of natural concentrations of substances (not on their presumable impact which is usually not known). The core of the SPI evaluation is the calculation of the area needed to embed a process completely into the biosphere. Low SPI values indicate processes that are competitive under sustainable conditions and that are environmentally compatible in the long-term view.
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