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- Bellon-Maurel, V., et al.
(författare)
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Streamlining life cycle inventory data generation in agriculture using traceability data and information and communication technologies - Part II: Application to viticulture
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 87:1, s. 119-129
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Agricultural systems are increasingly subjected to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) but generating life cycle inventory (LCI) data in agriculture remains a challenge. In Part I, it was suggested that traceability data are a good basis for generating precise LCI with reduced effort, especially when collected by efficient information and communication technologies (ICTs). The aim of this paper is to demonstrate this for wine grape production and generate a list of data to be collected for streamlined LCI generation. The study is carried out in the South of France, on a viticultural farm implementing electronic traceability of each cultivation operation, i.e. tillage, fertilisation, crop protection, weeding, canopy management and harvesting (no irrigation is needed at this vineyard). For each operation, specific emission models which satisfy the trade-off between accuracy and need for data have been identified. Traceability data must be supplemented with data related to the plot, equipment and inputs to feed the models. The sensitivity of the LCA outputs to plot soil type and year of cultivation was studied. Consistent with previous agricultural studies, the results show that operations such as pesticide spraying and fertilising have large environmental impacts in this Mediterranean vineyard. Notable variations occur in life cycle impact assessment indicators, principally due to variations in crop yield; however, the influence of secondary factors such as soil type and agricultural practices is also evident and this contribution allows us to better characterise the variability of grape production and to show that streamlined LCI can be created using traceability data. Ultimately, this paper delivers two results. It provides simple models, and relevant data and methodology to enable viticultural LCAs to be undertaken. Additionally, it demonstrates that accurate LCIs can be built based on data already collected for traceability when supplemented with other easily collectable data (weather and farm structural data). Overall, this work paves the way for streamlined LCI in agriculture.
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| 3. |
- Peters, Gregory, 1970, et al.
(författare)
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Improving odour assessment in LCA - the odour footprint
- 2014
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Ingår i: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1614-7502 .- 0948-3349. ; 19:11, s. 1891-1900
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose Odour is an important aspect of systems for humanand agricultural waste management and many technologiesare developed with the sole purpose of reducing odour.Compared with greenhouse gas assessment and the assessmentof toxicity, odour assessment has received little attentionin the life cycle assessment (LCA) community. This articleaims to redress this.Methods Firstly, a framework for the assessment of odourimpacts in LCA was developed considering the classicalLCA framework of emissions, midpoint and endpoint indicators.This suggested that an odour footprint midpoint indicatorwas worth striving for. An approach to calculating an arealindicator we call “odour footprint”, which considers the odourdetection threshold, the diffusion rate and the kinetics ofdegradation of odourants, was implemented in MATLAB.We demonstrated the use of the characterisation factors wecalculated in a case study based on odour removal technologyapplied to a pig barn.Results and discussion We produced a list of 33 linear characterisation factors based on hydrogen sulphide equivalents, analogous to the linear carbon dioxide equivalency factors in use in carbon footprinting, or the dichlorobenzene equivalency factors developed for assessment of toxic impacts in LCA. Like the latter, this odour footprint method does not take local populations and exposure pathway analysis into account—its intent is not to assess regulatory compliance or detailed design. The case study showed that despite the need for materials and energy, large factor reductions in odour footprint andeutrophication potential were achieved at the cost of a smaller factor increase in greenhouse emissions.Conclusions The odour footprint method is proposed as animprovement on the established midpoint method for odourassessment in LCA. Unlike it, the method presented hereconsiders the persistence of odourants. Over time, we hopeto increase the number of characterised odourants, enablinganalysts to perform simple site-generic LCA on systems withodourant emissions.
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