scholarly journals Pellet Production from Miscanthus: Energy and Environmental Assessment

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Alessandra Fusi ◽  
Jacopo Bacenetti ◽  
Andrea R. Proto ◽  
Doriana E. A. Tedesco ◽  
Domenico Pessina ◽  
...  

The production of wood pellets has grown considerably in the last decades. Besides woody biomass, other feedstocks can be used for pellet production. Among these, miscanthus presents some advantages because, even if specifically cultivated, it requires low inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides and shows high biomass yield (up to 28 tons of dry matter ha−1 in Europe). Even if in the last years some studies evaluated the environmental impact of woody pellet production, there is no information about the environmental performances of miscanthus pellet production. In this study, the environmental impact of miscanthus pellet was evaluated using the Life Cycle Assessment approach with a cradle-to plant gate perspective. Primary data were collected in a small-medium size pelletizing plant located in Northern Italy where miscanthus is cultivated to be directly processed. The results highlight how the miscanthus pellet shows lower environmental impact compared to woody pellet, mainly due to the lower energy consumption during pelletizing. The possibility to pelletize the miscanthus biomass without any drying offsets the environmental impact related to the miscanthus cultivation for all the evaluated impact categories (except for Marine eutrophication). In detail, for global warming potential, 1 ton of miscanthus pellet shows an impact of 121.6 kg CO2 eq. (about 8% lower respect to woody pellet) while for the other evaluated impact categories the impact reduction ranges from 4 to 59%. Harvesting, which unlike the other field operations is carried out every year, is by far the main contributor to the impacts of the cultivation phase while electricity is the main contributor to the pelletizing phase.

Author(s):  
C. Shokila ◽  
V. M. Indumathi ◽  
N. Venkatesa Palanichamy ◽  
K. Hemaprabha

Aim: Tomatoes are commercially cultivated in open- field (OF) and greenhouse (GH) in Dharmapuri district of Tamilnadu. The main aim of this study is to assess the environmental impact of selected categories in open-field and greenhouse tomato cultivation using the lifecycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Methodology: The primary data was gathered from 30 open field and 30 greenhouse farmers in Dharmapuri district. The system boundary selected for the study is ‘cradle to farm gate’ approach and the functional unit based on mass is one ton of tomato production. The Openlca software was used for the impact assessment in which the CML- IA baseline method was used to calculate the impact categories. Findings: The results indicated that the environmental impact of greenhouse is lower than the open-field due to high yield and less energy inputs. Field emissions of ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide due to the incorporation of large amount of manure and the usage of fertilizers were the main contributor of the impact categories.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6893
Author(s):  
Anna Vatsanidou ◽  
Spyros Fountas ◽  
Vasileios Liakos ◽  
George Nanos ◽  
Nikolaos Katsoulas ◽  
...  

Precision Agriculture (PA) is a crop site-specific management system that aims for sustainability, adopting agricultural practices more friendly to the environment, like the variable rate application (VRA) technique. Many studies have dealt with the effectiveness of VRA to reduce nitrogen (N) fertilizer, while achieving increased profit and productivity. However, only limited attention was given to VRA’s environmental impact. In this study an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) based Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed to identify the environmental effects of N VRA on a small pear orchard, compared to the conventional uniform application. A Cradle to Gate system with a functional unit (FU) of 1 kg of pears was analyzed including high quality primary data of two productive years, including also the non-productive years, as well as all the emissions during pear growing and the supply chains of all inputs, projecting them to the lifespan of the orchard. A methodology was adopted, modelling individual years and averaging over the orchard’s lifetime. Results showed that Climate change, Water scarcity, Fossil fuels and Particulate formation were the most contributing impact categories to the overall environmental impact of the pear orchard lifespan, where climate change and particulates were largely determined by CO2, N2O, and NH3 emissions to the air from fertilizer production and application, and as CO2 from tractor use. Concerning fertilization practice, when VRA was combined with a high yield year, this resulted in significantly reduced environmental impact. LCA evaluating an alternative fertilizer management system in a Greek pear orchard revealed the environmental impact reduction potential of that system.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 579
Author(s):  
Nicole Mélanie Falla ◽  
Simone Contu ◽  
Sonia Demasi ◽  
Matteo Caser ◽  
Valentina Scariot

Nowadays the heightened awareness of the critical trend in resource depletion impels to improve the eco − sustainability of any productive process. The research presented in this paper aims to quantify the environmental impact of the emerging productive process of edible flowers, focusing on two model species, i.e., Begonia x semperflorens − cultorum hort and Viola cornuta L., and two types of product, i.e., flowering potted plants sold in plastic vases and packaged flowers ready to be consumed. The study was carried out in an Italian nursery located in Tuscany, interviewing the owners in order to complete the Life Cycle Inventory, assessing the value of the impact categories, and using the “cradle to gate” approach. The information about the production of flowering potted plants and packaged flowers were inserted in a database and elaborated by the appropriate software. The results of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analysis referred to 1 g of fresh edible flowers and were expressed in four impact categories. Global Warming Potential (GWP) values ranged from 24.94 to 31.25 g CO2 eq/g flowers, Acidification Potential (AP) ranged from 8.169E − 02 to 1.249E − 01 g SO2 eq/g flowers, Eutrophication Potential (EP) ranged from 3.961E − 02 to 5.284E − 02 g PO43 − eq/g flowers, and Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP) ranged from 8.998E − 03 to 1.134E − 02 g C2H4 eq/g flowers. Begonias showed lower emissions than violas in the GWP and POCP indexes, whereas violas showed lower values in the AP and EP impact categories. The most impactful phase was the propagation, accounting on average for 42% of the total emissions. Overall, the findings highlighted a higher environmental load for the production of both begonias and violas packaged flowers, especially if in small containers, rather than as potted plants, with an emission percentage increase from 8% to 17% among the impact categories.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 531
Author(s):  
Yuliana Krismonni ◽  
Putra Pratama Saputra

ABSTRAKPembangunan merupakan suatu proses yang mengarah pada perubahan dalam kehidupan masyarakatnya, baik dari kehidupan sosial, ekonomi, politik dan lain sebagainya menuju arah yang lebih baik lagi. Pada dasarnya dalam suatu pembangunan ditujukan bagi masyarakatnya. Disisi lain hal ini juga bisa berimplikasi atau berdampak bagi kehidupan masyarakatnya. Pembangunan yang tidak berorientasi pada masyarakatnya tentunya akan memberikan dampak yang negatif pula kepada masyarakatnya, dan sebaliknya pembangunan yang berorientasikan kepada masyarakatnya tentu akan memberikan dampak yang positif pula tidak hanya bagi masyarakatnya, juga bagi pihak yang terlibat dalam proses pembangunan tersebut.Adapun tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk melihat bagaimana dampak yang ditimbulkan dari adanya pembangunan objek wisata ini bagi kehidupan sosial-ekonomi masyarakatnya, dan melihat apakah dengan adanya objek wisata ini dapat mensejahterahkan hidup masyarakatnya. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan deskriptif kualitatif, dengan data primer yang diperoleh dari wawancara dengan informan, dan data sekunder berupa beberapa jurnal, literatur review, dan bebetapa penelitian terdahulu, penelitian ini dilakukan di Desa Mekar Jaya Kecamatan Manggar Kabupaten Belitung Timur. Hasil dari penelitian ini yakni adanya pembangunan unit usaha waterboom ini pada kenyataannya belum terlalu memberikan dampak yang cukup signifikan bagi kehidupan sosial ekonomi masyarakatnya. Hal tersebut dapat terlihat karena dari segi pembangunan yang dilakukan belum terlaksana sepenuhnya, karena terkendala dalam beberapa hal. Sehingga hal ini menghambat dalam proses pembangunan yang ada.  ABSTRACTDevelopment is a process that leads to changes in the life of the people, from social, economic, political and other life towards a better direction. Basically, in a development aimed at the community. On the other hand, this can also have implications or impacts on the life of the community. Development that is not oriented towards the community will certainly have a negative impact on the community, and on the other hand, development that is oriented towards the community will certainly have a positive impact not only on the community, but also for those involved in the development process.The purpose of this research is to see how the impact of the development of this tourist attraction for the socio-economic life of the people, and to see whether the existence of this tourist attraction can make the lives of the people prosperous. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach, with primary data obtained from interviews with informants, and secondary data in the form of several journals, literature reviews, and some previous research. The result of this research is that the development of the waterboom business unit has not had a significant impact on the socio-economic life of the community. This can be seen because from a development perspective it has not been fully implemented, due to constraints in several ways. So that this hinders the existing development process.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 2433
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Bernas ◽  
Tereza Bernasová ◽  
Hans-Peter Kaul ◽  
Helmut Wagentristl ◽  
Gerhard Moitzi ◽  
...  

Winter cereal:legume intercropping is considered a sustainable arable farming system not only in temperate regions but also in Mediterranean environments. Previous studies have shown that with suitable crop stand composition, high grain yield can be achieved. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the influence of sowing ratio and nitrogen (N) fertilization on grain nitrogen yield of oat (Avena sativa L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) in intercrops was performed to find the optimal design to achieve low environmental impact. This study compared the environmental impact of oat:pea intercrops using agricultural LCA. Monocrops of oat and pea and substitutive intercrops, which were fertilized with different levels of N, were compared. The system boundaries included all the processes from cradle to farm gate. Mass-based (grain N yield) and area-based (land demand for generating the same grain N yield) functional units were used. The results covered the impact categories related to the agricultural LCAs. The ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint and Endpoint characterization model was used for the data expression. According to the results, an unfertilized combination of oat and pea (50%:50%) had the lowest environmental impact in comparison with the other 14 assessed variants and selected impact categories. In the assessed framework, pea monocrops or intensively fertilized oat monocrops can also be considered as alternatives with relatively low impact on the environment. However, an appropriate grain N yield must be reached to balance the environmental impact resulting from the fertilizer inputs. The production and use of fertilizers had the greatest impact on the environment within the impact categories climate change, eutrophication, and ecotoxicity. The results indicated that high fertilizer inputs did not necessarily cause the highest environmental impact. In this respect, the achieved grain N yield level, the choice of allocation approach, the functional unit, and the data expression approach played dominant roles.


The research seeks to investigate students rating of various forms of academic dishonesty and also examined the impact of psychological gender on cheating behavior among undergraduates in a Malaysian university. Primary data were sourced through the distribution of 363 questionnaires. Statistical analysis of the data revealed that the following cheating techniques have widely used them a. Using published materials without reference, copying the assignments, using unfair means for presenting data, getting unauthorized help for assignment completion and presenting others work. On the other hand, regression analysis on the psychological gender revealed that the instrumental traits tend to influence male to engage in academic dishonesty.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. xx-xx
Author(s):  
Omar Faruque

In the past 10 years, Bangladesh has experienced positive economic and social changes.  Historically, labor mobility has been a common livelihood strategy of the people as well as the Bangladeshi people. Labor mobility has become an integral part of the current global economy. The primary objective of this study is to provide a review of the impact of labor mobility on living standards in the northern region of Bangladesh. To develop the paper, primary as well as secondary data are collected. The quantitative, as well as qualitative analyses, are conducted in this study. Primary data is collected through a set of well-structured questionnaires. In the study, it is observed that there is 8% of labor are migrated within the last three years. From 2011 to 2015, the maximum laborers are migrated i.e., 37% and 33% migrated labor were day labor.  There are 35.56% of people with zero income level per day before their migration. On the other hand, after the migration, there are no people with nil income. Before the migration, 81.11% of people incur their expenditure for buying the inferior goods and the rest of the people incur for the necessary goods, but no one can consume the luxurious goods. On the other hand, after the migration, only 4.44% of laborers are availing of luxurious goods. So still they are not enjoying their life. Before the migration, they are 9% of people who are extremely dissatisfied with these types of facilities, and 33.33% of people were very dissatisfied. On the other hand, there are 23.33% of laborers are very pleased with their medical facilities, shelter, and child education facilities. The result shows that 41% of people are pushed for migration. It is assumed that there is a great impact of labor mobilization on the living standard. The labor is migrated in order to have a better living standard. There are two alternatives for their survival, first, we have to provide job opportunities near their residence, and the alternative is to provide a better living standard for the migrated people.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Elisabeth Gnielka ◽  
Christof Menzel

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Razak

<em>The purpose of this study was to analize the impact of product quality indicators on the satisfaction of  customers. Primary  data  was obtained from  customers of  aqua in Transmart Carrefour Kalimalang, Jakarta Timur through admission filling of questionnaire by using scale of Likert. In this study is used purposive sampling method. Data analysis technique used in this study is simple and multiple linear regression. The results of this study indicated that performance, reliability, conformance, and durability positively and significant influenced the satisfaction of  customers. The conclution of this study is that conformance was dominant than the other product quality indicators in influencing the satisfaction of  customers</em>.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8600
Author(s):  
Yi He ◽  
Qianqian Xu ◽  
Da Zhao

This paper focuses on the value of an omnichannel retailing option, Buy-Online-and-Pick-up-in-Store (BOPS), in reducing environmental impact. Analytical models were established to explore the impacts of the BOPS strategy on the pricing and expected profit of the dual-channel retailer as well as the environment. The equilibrium solutions under dual-channel and omnichannel scenarios were obtained. Then, we considered the impact of loyal store consumers in the extended model. We find that the retailer will increase the product price after adopting the BOPS strategy. Our analytical results also show that when the operating cost of the BOPS strategy is relatively low, the total demand under the omnichannel scenario is greater than that under the dual-channel scenario and vice versa. In addition, this strategy can always reduce the environmental impact in terms of the pure online demand. Finally, when the operating cost is lower and the fraction of consumers without channel preference is higher, the retailer can benefit from the BOPS strategy. In this case, the BOPS strategy can achieve profit improvement and environmental impact reduction.


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