Environmental life cycle assessment of grain maize production: An analysis of factors causing variability

Boone, Lieselot; linden, Veerle Van; Meester, Steven De; Vandecasteele, Bart; Muylle, Hilde; Roldán‐Ruiz, Isabel; Nemecek, Thomas; Dewulf, Jo

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.089

Cited by 62 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The highest values correspond to the first year in Orihuela (245.0 kg N ha -1 ), where soils are sandy (Table 2), and to the second and third years in Moncofar (87.6 kg N ha -1 ). Boone et al [36] also report larger resource consumption in sandy soils. Sheep manure was chosen in Orihuela since it ensures a slow release throughout the cropping cycle, besides quickrelease nitrogen is easily washed out of the root zone in sandy soils.…”

Section: Factors Influencing Impact Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Thus, the FU was defined as 1 tonne of switchgrass on a dry basis, from a cradle-to-farm gate perspective. The mass-based FU is adequate in this case because the scope is the primary production of biomass [36], while it is easy to comprehend [33]. Besides, it captures the effect of different biomass yields on the impacts, according to the goal of the study, which do not only arise from the variability in agricultural practices.…”

Section: Moncofar Orihuelamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Agricultural practices can be very diverse, even in the same region, since variables such as soil type, are more likely to conform to ecological boundaries such as watersheds [25]. Boone et al [36] emphasise the need for specific data on soil type, as fertiliser use is determined by the location, while fertiliser emissions are influenced by local edaphoclimatic conditions. Furthermore, in perennial crops, not accounting for unproductive phases may lead to misleading results, as happens in most of the LCAs, which focus on a full production year [28,38].…”

Section: Factors Influencing Impact Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, an in-depth evaluation of such factors, as well as their interactions, is necessary to refine agricultural practices to both maximize yields and mitigate impacts from switchgrass [20]. In this process, it must be borne in mind that agricultural systems show a significant variability due to the range of farming practices, which can be affected not only by spatial (region where the crop is carried out) and temporal (crop age and climate) aspects, but also by the farmer's personal choices [34,35] and even technological innovation [36]. Regarding temporal variability, most agricultural LCAs focus on one year of full production, neglecting the low productive phases due to the system's immaturity and to plant senescence [28,37,38], and also changes in annual crop productivity associated to climatic variability from year to year [35,38].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Multiyear Life Cycle Assessment of switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) production in the Mediterranean region of Spain: A comparative case study

Escobar

Ramírez-Sanz

Chueca

et al. 2017

Biomass and Bioenergy

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An LCA of switchgrass production in the Mediterranean region of Spain is carried out, from a cradle-to-farm gate perspective. Experimental plots were previously established in two locations, Moncofar and Orihuela, providing inventory data for 2010-2013. This allowed for the environmental performance to be evaluated throughout a 4-year cycle, considering different sources of variability. The functional unit is 1 t of switchgrass (dry basis) for electricity generation. Besides typical impact categories, blue and green water consumption impacts are also addressed by using watershed characterization factors. In 2010, the production in Orihuela is more input-intensive than in Moncofar, while the biomass yield is lower, causing greater impacts (959.4 vs. 95.9 kg of CO2eq•t-1 for climate change or 19.1 vs. 4.7 kg of Fe-eq•t-1 for metal depletion). In the subsequent years, the yields are higher in Orihuela, hence Moncofar performs worse for some specific impact categories (43.9 vs. 28.5 CO2-eq•t-1 or 8.0 vs. 2.4 kg of Feeq•t-1 in 2011). Due to larger irrigation doses in Orihuela, the blue water impact is always higher than that in Moncofar (on average, 1243 vs. 277 m 3 ecosystem-eq. water•t-1). The green water impact is greater in the latter, except for the first year (on average, 6.9 vs. 53.0 m 3 ecosystem-eq. water•t-1). Overall, both locations deliver sufficient greenhouse gas savings throughout the life cycle, in compliance with the EU requirements for bio-electricity production. However, results show that ad hoc decisions on crop management are critical to the environmental impact, evidencing the importance of considering a multi-year LCA approach.

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Section: Factors Influencing Impact Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Moncofar Orihuelamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Factors Influencing Impact Variabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Multiyear Life Cycle Assessment of switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) production in the Mediterranean region of Spain: A comparative case study

Escobar

Ramírez-Sanz

Chueca

et al. 2017

Biomass and Bioenergy

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“…In 2014, Wang et al 6 examined the environmental impacts of the wheat-maize rotation system between conventional farming system and double high system in Quzhou. Boone et al 7 assessed the environmental footprint of grain maize production using the ReCiPe and CEENE methods. Recently, Fantin et al 8 assessed the environmental impacts of wheat and maize production in Italy using the ILCD approach.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life cycle assessment of maize cultivation and biomass utilization in northern Thailand

Supasri

Itsubo

Gheewala

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Maize, a major food source for the world, is a high-yield commodity crop, and one of five major crops in Thailand. Occupying about 33% of the Thai upland farmlands, maize farming has been growing tremendously especially in northern Thailand. However, after harvesting, open burning is widely used in order to get rid of maize cobs and husks in land preparation for the next period. The current maize farming practices have caused several problems to local communities as well as urban dwellers. The objectives of this research were: (i) to analyze the life cycle inventory of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production in northern Thailand using IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 databases; (ii) to evaluate environmental impacts of maize cultivation, maize cob pellet production and heavy fuel oil production using A Global Scale Environmental Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LIME-3) with the results of weighting (Country-specific) based on monetary valuation of end-points. This study evaluated the life cycle environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts in the north of Thailand by using two different databases, IDEA v2.0 and ecoinvent v3.0 with an endpoint-based life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method (LIME-3). The system boundary of this study includes land preparation, planting, weeding, farming, harvesting, maize cob pellet production and heat production from maize cob pellet and heavy fuel oil. The units of analysis in this study are 1 kg of maize grain, 3.76E-03 MJ of biomass energy production from maize cob and 3.76E-03 MJ of heat production from heavy fuel oil, respectively. The data were obtained from field survey supplemented with the Thai National Life Cycle Inventory Database and other scientific publications. The results included the environmental impacts of maize cultivation and continuing through biomass energy production from maize cob by comparing with heat production from heavy fuel oil in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts by using two different databases with LCIA method on the endpoint approaches (LIME-3). The total damage cost based on IDEA v2.0 life cycle inventory (LCI) database in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 4.64E-01 USD and 4.89E-01 USD, respectively. As regards ecoinvent v3.0 database, the total damage cost in Mae Chaem and Chiang Dao districts was about 5.37E-01USD and 5.99E-01 USD, respectively. It can be seen that the total damage cost using different inventory databases in Chiang Dao are slightly higher than Mae Chaem due to different input materials. The result of total cost using inventory data from ecoinvent v3.0 is slightly higher than IDEA v2.0 due to different inventory processes in each database. However, the results in this study demonstrated that the databases show similar trends in the assessment results. On the other hand, certain numerical differences between the databases at some point...

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Greenhouse gas emissions associated with four types of fertilization for corn crops in a Mediterranean basin

Abrahão

Carvalho

Causapé

2021

Env Prog and Sustain Energy

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The environmental impacts associated with the intensification of agricultural practices have become an emerging issue, and new techniques are being developed to satisfy public demands. The application of fertilizers is a crucial step for agriculture practices. Building upon previous studies at a Mediterranean basin, the objective of the research presented herein was to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with four different types of fertilization in the production of corn: traditional (NPK 8-15-15 and urea), controlled-release (NPK 8-15-15, and a combination of urea and encapsulated urea), and two types of fertilization with pig slurry (NPK 8-15-15, pig slurry and different amounts of urea). The Life Cycle Assessment methodology was employed, with the Ecoinvent database and the IPCC 2013 GWP 100y impact assessment method. The results revealed that traditional fertilization emitted 3251 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear, against 2191 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear for controlled-release fertilization. Pig slurry fertilization emitted 2160 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear, and its alternative with less urea, only 1030 kg CO 2 -eq/haÁyear. The utilization of pig slurry solves the issue of its disposal and entails lower costs (commercial fertilizer prices follow the prices of oil and gas). The results demonstrated the potential of controlled-release fertilization and pig slurry to contribute to climate change mitigation.

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Environmental life cycle assessment of grain maize production: An analysis of factors causing variability

Cited by 62 publications

References 36 publications

Multiyear Life Cycle Assessment of switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) production in the Mediterranean region of Spain: A comparative case study

Multiyear Life Cycle Assessment of switchgrass ( Panicum virgatum L.) production in the Mediterranean region of Spain: A comparative case study

Life cycle assessment of maize cultivation and biomass utilization in northern Thailand

Greenhouse gas emissions associated with four types of fertilization for corn crops in a Mediterranean basin

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