Water Footprint Assessment of Food Loss and Waste Management Strategies in Spanish Regions

The availability of freshwater is one of the biggest limitations and challenges of food production, as freshwater is an increasingly scarce and overexploited resource in many parts of the world. Therefore, the concept of water footprint (WF) has gained increasing interest, in the same way that the generation of food loss and waste (FLW) in food production and consumption has become a social and political concern. Along this line, the number of studies on the WF of the food production sector is currently increasing all over the world, analyzing water scarcity and water degradation as a single WF indicator or as a so-called WF profile. In Spain, there is no study assessing the influence of FLW generation along the whole food supply chain nor is there a study assessing the different FLW management options regarding the food supply chain’s WF. This study aimed to assess the spatially differentiated WF profile for 17 Spanish regions over time, analyzing the potential linkages of FLW management and water scarcity and water degradation. The assessment considered compliance and non-compliance with the Paris Agreement targets and was based on the life cycle assessment approach. Results are highlighted in a compliance framework; the scenarios found that anaerobic digestion and aerobic composting (to a lesser extent) had the lowest burdens, while scenarios with thermal treatment had the highest impact. Additionally, the regions in the north of Spain and the islands were less influenced by the type of FLW management and by compliance with the Paris Agreement targets.

Water Footprint Evaluation of the Production of Float Flat Glass

The ISO14046 water footprint evaluation method was used in this study to calculate the water shortage footprint and water degradation footprint in plate glass production, in order to improve the water efficiency and management level in the production process of plate glass in China. A certain enterprise in Hebei province was selected for investigation in 2018. The results show that the water shortage footprint generated by the production of flat glass was 0.435 m3H2Oeq/weight box. The proportion at raw material production stage was the largest, being 86%, so the water consumption control in raw material mining and the circulating water system should be strengthened and improved to reduce the fresh water consumption. Water degradation footprint in flat glass industry mainly consisted of eutrophication and acidification footprints. The eutrophication footprint was calculated as 0.027 kgNO3-eq/weight box, and water acidification footprint was 0.271 kgSO2eq/weight box. The largest proportion occurred at flat glass production stage. It should be paid attention at this stage, to update the relatively clean production equipments and add the waste gas processing steps to reduce pollution discharge.

Efficient photoelectrocatalytic performance of beta-cyclodextrin/graphene composite and effect of Cl− in water: degradation for bromophenol blue as a case study

O2˙− played a crucial role in the photoelectrocatalytic degradation of BPB by the prepared GR/β-CD. Cl− marginally promoted the degradation of BPB and chlorinated intermediates were generated.