Economic and Environmental Assessment of Two Different Rain Water Harvesting Systems for Agriculture

Pari, Luigi; Suardi, Alessandro; Stefanoni, Walter; Latterini, Francesco; Palmieri, Nadia

doi:10.3390/su13073871

Cited by 10 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Until recently, castor harvesting relied on hand-picking of the fruits so the main production came from countries with low labor costs such as India, China and Brazil. However, the recent advances in mechanical harvesting, along with the development of new dwarf hybrids adapted in mechanical manipulation, fostered interest in growing castor in marginal conditions in the Mediterranean area [14][15][16][17][18]. It is also worth mentioning that Europe is one of the main importers of castor oil and the demand has largely increased during the last few years [14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Eco-Efficiency of Castor Supply Chain: A Greek Case Study

Pari¹,

Alexopoulou

Stefanoni³

et al. 2022

Agriculture

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Castor is a candidate crop that grows in marginal lands in the Mediterranean area. It can be grown by utilizing minimal resources to provide unique industrial chemicals or to serve as an energy crop. However, it can be also cultivated with intensive inputs providing higher yields. Whether a high input or a low input scheme is more sustainable depends on the economic and environmental impacts of each case. The objective of the present study, therefore, was to evaluate these impacts under the Mediterranean climate and farming conditions by examining two alternative scenarios: a castor crop grown on a low-inputs field vs. a crop grown in a high-inputs one. The environmental impacts were estimated by following a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology based on GHG emissions. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was performed by switching the functional unit from 1 Mg of castor oil to 1 hectare. The economic feasibility of the castor crop production was assessed by calculating the gross margin, which is referred to the difference between revenues and the variable costs due to the agricultural phases. In addition, the ratio between gross margin and GWP (Global Warming Potential) emissions was applied to calculate the economic performance (gross margin) per unit of environmental burden. Findings showed that the castor oil produced by high inputs resulted in a more sustainable scenario due to its higher yield than low-inputs ones. On the other hand, sensitivity analysis showed that the field management with low inputs showed GHG emissions that were 27% lower than those emitted from the field management with high inputs. Moreover, from an economic point of view, by switching the field management from low inputs to high ones, the Gross Margin increased by about 73%. Finally, the high-inputs scenario showed the best ratio between economic performance and GHG emitted into the atmosphere.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Eco-Efficiency of Castor Supply Chain: A Greek Case Study

Pari¹,

Alexopoulou

Stefanoni³

et al. 2022

Agriculture

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Considering both the preparation of the starting point and the realization of the SWRS, approximately 5 h of work were needed per hectare. Although it might appear to be a substantial amount of time to invest for the realization of SWRSs, it should be noted that its lifetime is expected to be very long, potentially longer than 50 years [9,29]. This depends on the matter of the impermeable film, and is an aspect that could be worthy of further investigation in order to assess the possibility of employing different materials.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This depends on the matter of the impermeable film, and is an aspect that could be worthy of further investigation in order to assess the possibility of employing different materials. Furthermore, the above-ground usage of biopolymer based plastic films does not demand high mechanical resistance to load and Although it might appear to be a substantial amount of time to invest for the realization of SWRSs, it should be noted that its lifetime is expected to be very long, potentially longer than 50 years [9,29]. This depends on the matter of the impermeable film, and is an aspect that could be worthy of further investigation in order to assess the possibility of employing different materials.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common systems soak to intercept and collect the rainwater from roofs to tanks where the water remains available for irrigating local fields. Other efforts have been put into the construction of underground check dams and, according to the literature, these methods have helped to reduce stormwater runoff, improving water management and increasing crop yield [9,10]. However, these strategies did not help to prevent the loss of water via deep percolation nor the loss of nutrients due to leaching, yet the most recent attempts to mix soil with biochar or adsorbent polymers in the soil returned encouraging results [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Assessing the Performance of a Subsurface Water Retention System (SWRS) Prototype: First Evaluation of Work Productivity and Costs

Pari¹,

Stefanoni²,

Palmieri³

et al. 2022

Inventions

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The potential to use Subsurface Water Retention Systems (SWRSs) to combat desertification and improve agriculture in arid and semiarid areas has already been investigated and proved promising. Nevertheless, a lack of specific machinery has prevented this technology from demonstrating its effectiveness on vast areas. In the present study, a specific prototype is presented along with the results obtained from a preliminary study conducted to assess effectiveness, performance and associated cost. During the test, the machinery permitted the construction of a SWRS 100 cm belowground using a 140 kW tractor. The effective field capacity (EFC) averaged at 0.19 ha h–1 whilst total cost was estimated to be as high as 4800.00 € ha–1. However, 93% of the cost was associated with the purchase cost of the removable impermeable film. A removal operation was also investigated using a 42 kw excavator for evaluating the EFC and cost which averaged at 0.2 ha h–1 and 655.79 € ha–1, respectively.

show abstract

“…RWH has been used for centuries by humans to meet their water supply needs, and it can still be a valuable practise in the future of urban water use because it lowers household water consumption costs and provides a variety of opportunities for agriculture. In fact, due to an improvement in water productivity, irrigation of rainfed crops through RWH could represent a good option to boost crop yields [6]. Owing to an increase in the cost of tap water over the past 20 years, RWH systems have been used much more frequently than ever.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimum Configuration of Rainwater Harvesting System using CREO PARAMETRIC and ANSYS

Uddin

Samsudin

Amin

2023

IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The practice of rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been studied extensively in recent years, as it has the potential to alleviate the increasing stress on urban water distribution systems. An appropriate design and evaluation of an RWH system is necessary to improve system performance and the stability of the water supply. In this study, the design of the main components in the RWH system such as the gutter, water storage tank and water pump were varied based on the main material of the component and rainfall intensity. Each component was presented according to the results of design, stress and fluid analyses performed by Creo parametric 7.0 and ANSYS. The main outcome of this work is a computational design tool that can be used to improve the RWH system component’s performance considering a variety of factors. A design of a gutter made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) with a yield strength of 50 MPa and a size of 5 inches was used. The rainwater will pass through a water pipe to a 500 L, High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) water storage tank with a yield strength of 43 MPa. A 1 HP single-phase pump with a maximum flow rate of 196.2 L/min was used to generate a steady flow for household usage. The factor of safety of each component was obtained above 1.5 and was determined by the maximum Von Mises stress. Each component in the system has a different life span, however, the overall life span of the RWH system is estimated to be 20 years

show abstract

Economic and Environmental Assessment of Two Different Rain Water Harvesting Systems for Agriculture

Cited by 10 publications

References 41 publications

The Eco-Efficiency of Castor Supply Chain: A Greek Case Study

The Eco-Efficiency of Castor Supply Chain: A Greek Case Study

Assessing the Performance of a Subsurface Water Retention System (SWRS) Prototype: First Evaluation of Work Productivity and Costs

Optimum Configuration of Rainwater Harvesting System using CREO PARAMETRIC and ANSYS

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About