LCA of Local Bio-chp Fuelled Greeenhouses Versus Mediterranean Open Fiel Tomatoes for Consumption in Northern Scandinavia

Abstract

Tomatoes are a commonly used product in the Scandinavian countries, where locally grown tomatoes generally have to be cultivated in greenhouses, heated for most part of the year. Tomatoes imported from the Mediterranean area will not need heated greenhouses, but are transported a longer distance. Earlier studies have shown imported tomatoes over long distances are environmentally preferable when compared to tomatoes produced in greenhouses. In this study, tomatoes for the Trøndelag market in Norway locally grown in greenhouses with heat from biofuelled CHP generation have been studied using life cycle assessment (LCA). An LCA model for the biofuel heated greenhouse tomatoes was created and compared to a model of field grown tomatoes in Spain. In a sensitivity analysis a fossil energy scenario for the greenhouse tomatoes was studied. The biofuelled greenhouse tomatoes was found to be better in all studied life cycle impact categories compared to the long-distance transported field grown tomatoes. The scenario with fossil energy to the greenhouse give much higher impacts compared to the long distance transported tomatoes in most categories studied. A shift towards more renewable energy systems is one important task for a more sustainable agriculture.

Feeding and housing the urban population: Environmental impacts at the peri-urban interface under different land-use scenarios

“…Horticultural LCA studies in northern Europe comparing field production to greenhouse technologies have found that when co-generation or waste heat energy sources were used as the greenhouse energy source, environmental results were better than for field-grown food imported from more remote locations (Nordenström et al, 2010). Using solar PV technology for cooling and baseload energy in the present study produced similar results for several environmental indicators.…”

Consolidating the current knowledge on urban agriculture in productive urban food systems: Learnings, gaps and outlook

“…A commercial waste management company (SUEZ, 2017) combined a waste incineration plant with a tomato greenhouse in France, using the generated heat energy to control the growing environment, achieving operational emissions reduction of around 1 kg CO2 per kg of tomato. Similar environmental benefits have been obtained by co-locating tomato greenhouse production with a micro CHP gasification plant fueled by forest residues in Norway (Nordenström et al, 2010). Exploiting the availability of urban organic waste, a pilot project in Ohio integrated small-scale AD units in a hydroponic greenhouse, using digestate as fertilizer and the greenhouse heat to operate the mesophilic AD unit (Davis, personal communication, May 2, 2018).…”

Potential risk levels of invasive Neoleucinodes elegantalis (small tomato borer) in areas optimal for open‐field Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) cultivation in the present and under predicted climate change

“…). These datasets were obtained from published literature and from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility …”