Environmental impact of Holstein Friesian and 3-breed crossbred dairy cows using a life cycle assessment approach applied to individual animals.

This study aimed to set up a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach at the level of individual animals to assess the effects of a 3-breed crossbreeding program on the environmental impact of cows. The study involved 564 cows, 279 purebred Holstein Friesian (HO) and 285 crossbred cows (CR), that originated from a 3-breed crossbreeding program based on the rotational use of Viking Red, Montebèliarde, and HO sires and kept in 2 dairy herds of northern Italy (224 and 340 cows/herd, respectively). The reference unit of the LCA model was the lifetime of cows, from the birth to culling or death. Data were collected at different levels: individual animal-based data referred to the whole life (birth, calving, dry, cull or death dates, and milk production); individual test-date collection of body measures and BCS, used to predict BW and to estimate energy requirements; common farm-based data concerning herd management (diets composition, and materials used). Data were used to compute DMI, milk and milk components production, gross income (GI), and income over feed costs (IOFC) pertaining to the lifespan of cows. An individual LCA-derived approach was set up to compute global warming potential (GWP), acidification and eutrophication potential (AP and EP, respectively), and land occupation (LO), which have been associated with different functional units (cow in her whole life or per day of life; kilograms of milk fat plus protein, and GI and IOFC [in euros] produced in the herd life). Data were analyzed using a generalized linear model including the fixed effects of genetic group (CR vs. HO), farm, and their interaction (genetic group × farm). Compared with HO, CR cows completed more lactations (+12%), had earlier first calving (-2 wk), yielded more fat plus protein in milk both in the lifespan (+8%) and per day of life (+4%). Concerning the environmental impact, when compared with HO herd mates, CR cows had nominal greater emissions per cow in the whole life, similar emissions per day of life and ∼3% lower GWP, AP, and EP per kilogram of fat plus protein yielded in lifespan. Income over feed costs per unit of emission tended to be ∼4% greater in CR compared with HO cows. Also, the use of land tended to be lower in CR compared with HO in most indicators considered. In conclusion, LCA could be adapted to represent individual animals. Moreover, managing dairy cows according to a 3-breed rotational crossbreeding scheme may be regarded as a strategy that can contribute to mitigate the emissions and to improve the environmental impact of dairy operations.

Assessment of potential environmental impacts and sustainable management of municipal solid waste using the DPSIRO framework: a case study of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia.

The generation of municipal solid waste is increasing globally and poses a negative impact on society, the economy, and the environment. Applying an integrated system for managing MSW and recovering the material for the production of new products can reduce the negative impacts on the environment. The aim of this paper is to apply the DPSIRO framework to develop a system that reduces the negative impacts of MSW in Bahir Dar city in a sustainable way. The study started by identifying the main driving forces that led to the generation of MSW. Then, pressures and states of the environment resulting from driving forces were investigated. Next, the consequent impacts through driving forces, pressure, and state are identified. Finally, the appropriate responses and outcomes obtained from the responses were studied. Numerical models were used to quantify GHG emissions, leachate, and eutrophication potential. According to the findings, the waste disposal site emits about 46 Gg of greenhouse gases per year in 2020. The eutrophication capacity of organic waste generated in the city was 0.0594 kg N-equivalent or 59.4 g N-equivalent. The waste also contains an average of 1112 mm of leachate per day on an annual basis. The state of the environment has an impact on human health and the ecosystem. Implementing a circular economic system, knowledge transfer, and waste management fees are the main responses suggested to decision and policymakers. The outcomes were quantified in terms of organic fertilizer, income, and renewable energy (briquette) when the actions were taken.

Algal/bacterial uptake kinetics of dissolved organic nitrogen in municipal wastewater treatment facilities effluents.

The simulation and analysis of the degradation process of organic nitrogen contaminants in wastewater treatment facility effluent is important to the estimation of its actual contribution to eutrophication, and it is crucial to the developing of watershed protection plan. In this study, algal and algal/bacterial based bioassay was conducted to study the bioavailability of dissolved organic nitrogen contaminants in wastewater treatment plants effluents, and 4 kinetic models were used to describe the mineralization process. The traditional 1-pool model that was commonly used in water quality models showed poor correlation (r2 = 0.613 ± 0.261), while the other three models performed much better (r2 > 0.950). The model coefficient and simplicity were studied using Akaike information criterion and Bayesian information criterion, and Gamma model was indicated to be the best model since it presented the most parsimonious fit to the data with the fewest terms. This study exhibited that the bioavailability and degradation rate of organic nitrogen in wastewater effluent varied greatly, and this variation should be considered in water quality models. Besides, Gamma model could be used to modify the current Total Maximum Daily Load models to provide a scientific basis for making watershed protection plans and controlling eutrophication.

Modeling spatially resolved characterization factors for eutrophication potential in life cycle assessment.

PURPOSE: Prior versions of the Tool for Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other environmental Impacts (TRACI) have recognized the need for spatial variability when characterizing eutrophication. However, the method's underlying environmental models had not been updated to reflect the latest science. This new research provides the ability to differentiate locations with a high level of detail within the USA and provides global values at the country level. METHODS: In previous research (Morelli et al. 2018), the authors reviewed a broad range of domain-specific models and life cycle assessment methods for characterization of eutrophication and ranked these by levels of importance to the field and readiness for further development. The current research is rooted in the decision outcome of Morelli et al. (2018) to separate freshwater and marine eutrophication to allow for the most tailored characterization of each category individually. The current research also assumes that freshwater systems are limited by phosphorus and marine systems are limited by nitrogen. Using a combination of spatial modeling methods for soil, air, and water, we calculate midpoint characterization factors for freshwater and marine eutrophication categories and evaluate the results through a US-based case application. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Maps of the nutrient inventories, characterization factors, and overall impacts of the case application illustrate the spatial variation and patterns in the results. The importance of variation in geographic location is demonstrated using nutrient-based activity likelihood categories of agricultural (rural fertilizer), non-agricultural (urban fertilizer), and general (human waste processing). Proximity to large bodies of water, as well as individual hydraulic residence times, was shown to affect the comparative values of characterization factors across the USA. CONCLUSIONS: In this paper, we have calculated and applied finely resolved freshwater and marine eutrophication characterization factors for the USA and country-level factors for the rest of the globe. Additional research is needed to provide similarly resolved characterization factors for the entire globe, which would require expansion of publicly available data and further development of applicable fate and transport models. Further scientific advances may also be considered as computing capabilities become more sophisticated and widely accessible.

Reducing the cooking water-to-dried pasta ratio and environmental impact of pasta cooking.

BACKGROUND: During daily pasta cooking, the general consumer pays little attention to water and energy issues. The present study aimed to measure the cooking quality and environmental impact of a standard format of dry pasta by varying the water-to-dried pasta ratio (WPR) from 12 to 2 L kg-1 . RESULTS: In the above WPR range, the cooked pasta water uptake (1.3 ± 0.1 g g-1 ), cooking loss (0.037 ± 0.009 g g-1 ) and degree of starch gelatinization (11.2 ± 0.8%) were approximately constant, whereas the main Texture Analysis parameters (eg, cooked pasta hardness at 30% and 90% deformation, and resilience) showed no statistically significant difference. As the WPR was reduced from 12 to 2 L kg-1 , the specific electric energy consumption linearly decreased from 1.93 to 0.39 Wh g-1 and the carbon footprint and eutrophication potential of pasta cooking lessened by approximately 80% and 50%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Cooking dry pasta in a large excess of water (ie, 10 L kg-1 ), as commonly suggested by the great majority of pasta manufacturers, might be pointless. Such a great mitigation with respect to the environmental impact of pasta cooking should be checked further for other commercial pasta formats and would highlight the need for novel and more suitable pasta cookers than those currently in use. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Multiobjective formulation is an effective method to reduce environmental impacts of livestock feeds.

Environmental and economic performances of livestock production are related largely to the production of complete feeds provided on commercial farms. Formulating feeds based on environmental and economic criteria appears a suitable approach to address the current challenges of animal production. We developed a multiobjective (MO) method of formulating feed which considers both the cost and environmental impacts (estimated via life cycle assessment) of the feed mix. In the first step, least-cost formulation provides a baseline for feed cost and potential impacts per kg of feed. In the second, the minimised MO function includes normalised values of feed cost and impacts climate change, P demand, non-renewable energy demand and land occupation. An additional factor weights the relative influence of economic and environmental objectives. The potential of the method was evaluated using two scenarios of feed formulation for pig, broiler and young bulls. Compared to baseline feeds, MO-formulated feeds had lower environmental impacts in both scenarios studied (-2 to -48 %), except for land occupation of broiler feeds, and a moderately higher cost (1-7 %). The ultimate potential for this method to mitigate environmental impacts is probably lower than this, as animal supply chains may compete for the same low-impact feed ingredients. The method developed complements other strategies, and optimising the entire animal production system should be explored in the future to substantially decrease the associated impacts.

Optimal reservoir operation using multi-objective evolutionary algorithms for potential estuarine eutrophication control.

Increased nutrient loads and changed nutrient ratios in estuarine waters have enhanced the occurrence of eutrophication and harmful algae blooms. Most of these consequences are caused by the new proliferation of toxin-producing non-siliceous algae. In this study, we propose a multi-objective reservoir operation model based on 10-day time scale for estuarine eutrophication control to reduce the potential non-siliceous algae outbreak. This model takes the hydropower generation and social economy water requirement in reservoir into consideration, minimizing the ICEP (indicator of estuarine eutrophication potential) as an ecological objective. Three modern multi-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are applied to solve the proposed reservoir operation model. The Three Gorges Reservoir and its operation effects on the Yangtze Estuary were chosen as a case study. The performances of these three algorithms were evaluated through a diagnostic assessment framework of modern MOEAs' abilities. The results showed that the multi-objective evolutionary algorithm based on decomposition with differential evolution operator (MOEA/D-DE) achieved the best performance for the operation model. It indicates that single implementation of hydrological management cannot make effective control of potential estuarine eutrophication, while combined in-estuary TP concentration control and reservoir optimal operation is a more realistic, crucial and effective strategy for controlling eutrophication potential of non-siliceous algae proliferation. Under optimized operation with controlled TP concentration and estuarine water withdrawal of 1470 m3/s, ecological satiety rate for estuarine drinking water source increased to 77.78%, 88.89% and 83.33% for wet, normal and dry years, the corresponding values in practical operation were only 72.22%, 58.33% and 55.56%, respectively. The results suggest that these operations will not negatively affect the economic and social interests. Therefore, the proposed integrated management approaches can provide guidance for water managers to reach a stable trophic control of estuarine waters.

Life cycle cost and environmental assessment for resource-oriented toilet systems.

The rich content of nutrients in human waste provides an outlook for turning it from pollutants to potential resources. The pilot-scale resource-oriented toilet with forward osmosis technology was demonstrated to have advantages to recover clean water, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, biogas, and heat from urine and feces. For the possibility of further full-scale implementation in different scenarios, six resource-oriented toilet systems and one conventional toilet system were designed in this study. The methodology of cost-benefit analysis and life cycle assessment were applied to analyze the life cycle economic feasibility and environmental sustainability of these systems. As results indicated, resource-oriented toilets with forward osmosis technology concentrating urine proved to have both economic and environmental benefit. The economic net present value results of new resource-oriented toilets were much better than conventional toilet. The energy consumption in resource-oriented toilets contributes a lot to the environmental impacts while resource recovery such as the fertilizer production and fresh water harvest in resource-oriented toilet systems offsets a lot. Taking both life cycle economic feasibility and environmental sustainability into consideration, the partial resource-oriented toilet (only recovering nutrients from urine) is the best choice, and the totally independent resource-oriented toilet could be applied to replace conventional toilets in areas without any external facilities such as sewer and water supply system etc.

Life cycle assessment of superheated steam drying technology as a novel cow manure management method.

Common methods of managing dairy manure are directly applying it to the farm field as a fertilizer. For direct application without any type of treatment, the majority of nutrients in the manure run off to the local river and lake during precipitation periods. The algae bloom is one of the environmental outcomes due to eutrophication of the lakes, which may jeopardize the quality of drinking water. In this study, superheated steam drying (SSD) technology is investigated as an alternative manure management method. Rapidly dried cow manure can be used as alternative fuel. Evaluations of energy payback time (EPBT) and life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SSD technology are presented in the SSD scenario and the results are compared with those of the direct field application (FA) of fresh manure and anaerobic digestion (AD). The heat required for the generation of superheated steam in the SSD scenario is provided from combustion of the dry manure to reduce energy costs. The results for the SSD process show 95% and 70% lower eutrophication and global warming potential in comparison to the FA scenario. Acidification potential for SSD turned out to be 35% higher than FA. The comparison of SSD with AD for their EPBT and normalized impacts indicated that the proposed SSD scenario has higher environmental sustainability than AD (70% lower impact), and is likely an economically better choice compared to conventional AD method (87% lower EPBT) for the future investment.

A new method for modeling dissolved phosphorus transport with the use of WaTEM/SEDEM.

This paper presents a newly-derived method for directly determining the amount of transported dissolved phosphorus by water erosion. The results of the method are compared to prediction based on enrichment ratio (as proposed by Sharpley) and average share of dissolved phosphorus (DP) in total transported phosphorus (5%) that is widely used in the Czech Republic. Four study areas (catchments of dozens of sq. kilometer) were chosen for their different characteristics (land use, average slope, average elevation, phosphorus concentration in the soil) which influence their rainfall-runoff behavior. The modeled results are compared with data measured in situ. The two methods provide similar results in intensively agriculturally used regions. Agreement among the methods was observed for three study areas with significant erosion intensity (above 4 t/ha/year). In the catchment with significantly lower erosion intensity (0.5 t/ha/year), the indirect method (Sharpley) underestimates the amount of DP transported in the watercourses. The sum of transports of suspended solids into watercourses and the average available phosphorus content in the soil determined by the Mehlich 3 method (PM3) are the main factors influencing the results provided by the two methods. An analysis of the impact of these factors on the difference between the results of the methods was provided. Transport of suspended solids is related to the method difference (R range from 0.37 to 0.71). However, no significant relationship was found between the difference in the results and the average PM3 content in the soil (R range from 0.15 to 0.36).

Towards a methodology to formulate sustainable diets for livestock: accounting for environmental impact in diet formulation.

The objective of this study was to develop a novel methodology that enables pig diets to be formulated explicitly for environmental impact objectives using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. To achieve this, the following methodological issues had to be addressed: (1) account for environmental impacts caused by both ingredient choice and nutrient excretion, (2) formulate diets for multiple environmental impact objectives and (3) allow flexibility to identify the optimal nutritional composition for each environmental impact objective. An LCA model based on Canadian pig farms was integrated into a diet formulation tool to compare the use of different ingredients in Eastern and Western Canada. By allowing the feed energy content to vary, it was possible to identify the optimum energy density for different environmental impact objectives, while accounting for the expected effect of energy density on feed intake. A least-cost diet was compared with diets formulated to minimise the following objectives: non-renewable resource use, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, global warming potential and a combined environmental impact score (using these four categories). The resulting environmental impacts were compared using parallel Monte Carlo simulations to account for shared uncertainty. When optimising diets to minimise a single environmental impact category, reductions in the said category were observed in all cases. However, this was at the expense of increasing the impact in other categories and higher dietary costs. The methodology can identify nutritional strategies to minimise environmental impacts, such as increasing the nutritional density of the diets, compared with the least-cost formulation.

[Analysis on Driving Factors, Reduction Potential, and Environmental Effect of Inorganic Fertilizer Input in Chongqing].

In this study, we sought to quantify the effect of planting structure change on fertilizer input and environmental cost in Chongqing and develop scientific and rational strategies for chemical fertilizer reduction. Based on the crop fertilizer quota standard and large sample farmer survey data under the medium productivity level in Chongqing, we evaluated and analyzed the application reduction potential and environmental benefits of fertilizer with the difference method and life cycle assessment. The results showed that:① since Chongqing became a municipality directly under the central government (1997), Chongqing crop planting structure had greatly changed, and the proportion of food crop (rice, corn, wheat, bean, and potato) decreased by 21%. The area of fruits and vegetables increased from 3.36×105 hm2 to 1.05×106 hm2, and their proportion increased by 20%. ② Nearly 55% of fertilizers had been consumed by vegetable (37%) and citrus production systems, and 11%, 12%, and 12% of fertilizers were consumed by rice, corn, and potato, respectively. ③ The total fertilizer reduction of the Chongqing planting industry could reach up to 1.69×105 tons during the period of "the 14th Five-Year Plan," with a fertilizer reduction potential of 18.6%. The fertilizer reduction potential (reduction amount) of rice, corn, citrus, and vegetables would reach 0.3% (2.9×102 tons), 12% (1.45×104 tons), 21% (3.65×104 tons), and 30% (1.18×105 tons), respectively. On the other hand, the rape system was insufficient in phosphorus potassium fertilizers, and the corn tended to be insufficient in potash fertilizer. ④ The current production level was low, and the nitrogen loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and eutrophication potential in the planting industry of Chongqing reached 1.81×105 tons (N), 1.43×107 tons (CO2-eq), and 1.74×105 tons (PO4-eq). With the increase in the realization degree of the crop quota standard (60%-100%), the reactive nitrogen loss, greenhouse gas emissions, and eutrophication potential decreased by 14.9%-24.9%, 10.1%-16.7%, and 13.8%-23%, respectively. The structure of the planting industry in Chongqing significantly changed, the total fertilizer consumption in Chongqing tended to decline gradually, and the fertilization intensity of commercial crops stayed at a high level. The agricultural fertilizer reduction potential and the reactive nitrogen and greenhouse gas emission reduction potential were large, especially for citrus and vegetable production systems. However, it is also necessary to pay attention to insufficient corn potash fertilizer and rape phosphorus potassium fertilizer investment and carry out collaborative promotion of fertilizer reduction.

Quantifying benefits of resource recovery from sanitation provision in a developing world setting.

Despite concerns of sanitation provision, water scarcity, climate change, and resource depletion, limited research has been conducted to assess the environmental impact of wastewater treatment and resource recovery strategies to improve access to sanitation and resource utilization in developing world settings. Accordingly, the goal of this study is to evaluate the potential benefits of mitigating the environmental impact of two small community-managed wastewater treatment systems in rural Bolivia using resource recovery (i.e., water reuse and energy recovery). Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used to estimate the embodied energy, carbon footprint, and eutrophication potential of these systems under existing and resource recovery conditions. Two distinct technologies are analyzed: (1) an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) followed by two maturation ponds in series (UASB-Pond system) and (2) a facultative pond followed by two maturation ponds in series (3-Pond system). For the existing systems, bathroom and collection infrastructure had a higher energy intensity than the treatment processes, whereas direct methane emissions from treatment were the primary contributors to the carbon footprint. Taking advantage of reclaimed water was found to greatly reduce the eutrophication potential for both systems, in which the reduction increases proportionally to the percentage of water that is reclaimed. Energy recovery from the UASB-Pond system provided a 19% reduction in embodied energy and a 57% reduction in carbon footprint. Combining water reuse and energy recovery for the UASB-Pond system reduced the eutrophication potential, embodied energy and carbon footprint simultaneously. This highlights the benefits of integrated resource recovery.

Environmental Impacts of High-Quality Brazilian Beef Production: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Premium and Super-Premium Beef.

When individual purchasing power increases in society, there is a trend toward a quantitative and qualitative increase in the consumption of products. Considering the magnitude of beef production in Brazil, environmental impacts are important factors for the domestic and international markets. This study assessed a Brazilian feedlot system characterized by high animal welfare standards that produces high-quality beef that is more marbled than that produced in grass-fed systems. We assessed the environmental impacts and compared premium and super-premium beef produced in a feedlot system using a partial Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Data were collected directly on the property analyzed, considering environmental inputs and outputs and economic factors associated with the production stages of each line (premium versus super-premium). The results show that high-quality beef has, beyond a greater financial cost, an environmental cost, with the super-premium line producing a 286% higher carbon footprint, 297% more eutrophication, and three times higher acidification potential and land use than the premium line. The results of the environmental impacts agree with the results of production costs, reflecting a 282.82% higher production cost in super-premium than in premium animals. Footprints of 5.0323 kg, 4.7746 kg, and 8.8858 kg CO2 eq./kg live weight gain at the feedlot were found in the three lines.

Assessment of eutrophication potential from fertiliser application in agricultural systems in Thailand.

Releases of excess nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilisers applied in agricultural production cause eutrophication in the aquatic ecosystem. This study assessed the marine and freshwater eutrophication potentials associated with the fertiliser application in rice, maize, cassava, sugar cane and oil palm, cultivation in Thailand using a life cycle assessment characterisation model at midpoint and endpoint levels. The total marine eutrophication potential was 209,632,298 kg N eq while the total freshwater eutrophication potential was 2,044,136 kg PO4 eq. The associated ecosystem damage was 2,643,706,874 PDF.m2.year. Marine eutrophication potential was the major contributor to the ecosystem damage, accounting for 99.1% of the total. Sugarcane cultivation was the main contributor (28.5%) to eutrophication impacts, followed by rice (28.0%), cassava (16.0%), oil palm (14.8%) and maize (12.7%). Nitrate was the major contributor to marine eutrophication (92.7%), far more than ammonia (6.7%) and nitrogen oxide (0.6%). Seventeen scenarios were developed and analysed in view of mitigating the ecosystem damage through emission reduction. Applications of a nitrification inhibitor (Dicyandiamide) with fertilisers, 4R nutrient management practices (right source, right rate, right time and right place) and the integrated scenario of these two scenarios depicted substantial decreases in ecosystem damage by 46%, 40% and 68%, respectively compared to the damage from existing fertiliser application rates. Therefore, the integrated approach would be recommended as the most effective way to reduce the eutrophication impacts from fertilisers. Existing studies have significantly focused on ammonia mitigation with less attention on nitrate reduction. This assessment revealed that nitrate reduction plays a crucial role in reducing the eutrophication impacts and new policy focuses should include the nitrate reduction. Future studies could consider threshold values for the impacts of freshwater and marine eutrophication to discover the risk level of eutrophication.

Quantitative study on the structure-bioavailability relationship of dissolved organic nitrogen in wastewater treatment plant effluent.

This study systematically investigated the relationship between the structure properties and biological characteristics of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in the effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Ultrafiltration, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, and excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy were used to characterize the structure of organic matters in the effluent samples, and the bioavailability of DON was determined by algal/bacterial-based bioassay. The quantitative analysis of EEM spectra conducted by fluorescence regional integration method showed that the organic portion of all samples was mainly consistent with fulvic acid and protein. Combined with the bioassay results, a positive correlation between the DON bioavailability and the protein content (sum of region I and region II) (r = 0.80, P < 0.02) and soluble microbial byproduct-like materials (region IV) (r = 0.76, P < 0.03) were observed. Nevertheless, the humic substances content represented by the region III and V would negatively affect the DON bioavailability. High humification degree (high HIX value) (r = - 0.77, P < 0.03) was related to low bioavailability. Furthermore, according to UV spectroscopy results, strong aromaticity (high UV254 values) (r = - 0.78, P < 0.03) suggested low DON bioavailability. One protein-like component (C3) and two humic-like components (C1 and C2) were identified via fluorescence excitation-emission matrices-parallel factor analysis (EEM-PARAFAC), and component C3 values were positively correlated to the BAN/DON ratio (r = 0.74, P < 0.03). The ultrafiltration showed that the low molecular weight DON (< 3 kDa) accounted for 30-73% of the total DON, and no notable relationship was observed for DON molecular weight and its bioavailability.

Mitigation of eutrophication caused by wastewater discharge: A simulation-based approach.

Mitigation of eutrophication, intensified by excessive nutrient load discharge in wastewaters regulated by restrictive legal requirements, remains one of today's most important global problems. Despite implementation of the Water Framework Directive, the Urban Wastewater Directive and the HELCOM recommendations, the actual condition of surface water is still not satisfactory. In response to the above, the study presents an alternative approach for surface water protection against eutrophication based on the selection of appropriate nutrient removal technologies. An activated sludge model simulation was used to enable the identification of environmentally justified nutrient removal systems with lowest eutrophication potential of treated wastewater conditioned by bioavailable nutrient forms content. Based on the outcome of the study, the 3-stage Bardenpho system was identified as the most efficient for bioavailable phosphorus removal, while the Johannesburg system proved to have the highest efficiency for bioavailable nitrogen removal. The proposed eutrophication mitigation approach underlines the need for a reconsideration of current legal regulations which ignore nutrient bioavailability and key eutrophication limiting factors.

A New Approach to LCA Evaluation of Lamb Meat Production in Two Different Breeding Systems in Northern Italy.

Lamb meat production provides vital landscape-management and ecosystem services; however, ruminant farming produces a considerable share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. To measure and compare the advantages and disadvantages of the intensification of livestock farming, an integrative analysis was conducted in this study by combining environmental impact analysis and animal welfare assessment. This approach is the first of its kind and is the innovative aspect of this paper. The methodology of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) entails the holistic analysis of various impact categories and the associated emission quantities of products, services, and resources over their life cycle, including resource extraction and processing, production processes, transport, usage, and the end of life. The outlines of LCA are standardized in DIN EN ISO 14040/14044. To assess the environmental impacts of the production of lamb meat in northern Italy, two case studies were undertaken using the LCA software GaBi. The analysis is based on primary data from two sheep-breeding systems (semi-extensive and semi-intensive in alpine and continental bioregions, respectively) combined with inventory data from the GaBi database and data from the literature. The assessment was conducted for the functional unit of 1 kg of lamb meat and focuses on the impact categories global warming potential, acidification potential, and eutrophication potential. For an overall evaluation of the supply chain, we have also considered a parameter indicating animal welfare, in keeping with consumer concerns, employing an analysis of chronic stress as shown by cortisol accumulation. The goal is to derive models and recommendations for an efficient, more sustainable use of resources without compromising animal welfare, meat quality, and competitiveness. The aim of this study is to provide a standard for individualized sustainability analyses for European lamb production systems in the future. From the LCA perspective, the more intensive case-study farm showed a lower impact in global impact factors and a higher impact in local impact categories in comparison with the more extensively run farm that was studied. From the animal welfare perspective, lower amounts of the stress hormone cortisol were found on the extensively managed case-study farm.

Life cycle impacts of ethanol production from spruce wood chips under high-gravity conditions.

BACKGROUND: Development of more sustainable biofuel production processes is ongoing, and technology to run these processes at a high dry matter content, also called high-gravity conditions, is one option. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of such a technology currently in development for the production of bio-ethanol from spruce wood chips. RESULTS: The cradle-to-gate LCA used lab results from a set of 30 experiments (or process configurations) in which the main process variable was the detoxification strategy applied to the pretreated feedstock material. The results of the assessment show that a process configuration, in which washing of the pretreated slurry is the detoxification strategy, leads to the lowest environmental impact of the process. Enzyme production and use are the main contributors to the environmental impact in all process configurations, and strategies to significantly reduce this contribution are enzyme recycling and on-site enzyme production. Furthermore, a strong linear correlation between the ethanol yield of a configuration and its environmental impact is demonstrated, and the selected environmental impacts show a very strong cross-correlation ([Formula: see text] in all cases) which may be used to reduce the number of impact categories considered from four to one (in this case, global warming potential). Lastly, a comparison with results of an LCA of ethanol production under high-gravity conditions using wheat straw shows that the environmental performance does not significantly differ when using spruce wood chips. For this comparison, it is shown that eutrophication potential also needs to be considered due to the fertilizer use in wheat cultivation. CONCLUSIONS: The LCA points out the environmental hotspots in the ethanol production process, and thus provides input to the further development of the high-gravity technology. Reducing the number of impact categories based only on cross-correlations should be done with caution. Knowledge of the analyzed system provides further input to the choice of impact categories.

How can we improve the environmental sustainability of poultry production?

The review presents results of recent life cycle assessment studies aiming to quantify and improve the environmental performance of UK poultry production systems, including broiler meat, egg and turkey meat production. Although poultry production has been found to be relatively environmentally friendly compared with the production of other livestock commodities, it still contributes to environmental impacts, such as global warming, eutrophication and acidification. Amongst different sub-processes, feed production and transport contributes about 70 % to the global warming potential of poultry systems, whereas manure management contributes about 40-60 % to their eutrophication potential and acidification potential, respectively. All these impacts can be reduced by improving the feed efficiency, either by changing the birds through genetic selection or by making the feed more digestible (e.g. by using additives such as enzymes). However, although genetic selection has the potential to reduce the resources needed for broiler production (including feed consumption), the changing need of certain feed ingredients, most notably protein sources as a result of changes in bird requirements may limit the benefits of this strategy. The use of alternative feed ingredients, such as locally grown protein crops and agricultural by-products, as a replacement of South American grown soya, can potentially also lead to improvements in several environmental impact categories, as long as such feeding strategies have no negative effect on bird performance. Other management options, such as improving poultry housing and new strategies for manure management have also the potential to further improve the environmental sustainability of the poultry industries in Europe.