Biochar, compost and biochar-compost blend as options to recover nutrients and sequester carbon.

This work assessed the potential environmental impact of recycling organic materials in agriculture via pyrolysis (biochar) and composting (compost), as well its combination (biochar-compost blend) versus business-as-usual represented by mineral fertiliser. Life cycle assessment methodology was applied using data sourced from experiments (FP7 project Fertiplus) in three countries (Spain, Italy and Belgium), and considering three environmental impact categories, (i) global warming; (ii) acidification and (iii) eutrophication. The novelty of this analysis is the inclusion of the biochar-compost blend with a focus on multiple European countries, and the inclusion of the acidification and eutrophication impact categories. Biochar, compost and biochar-compost blend all resulted in lower environmental impacts than mineral fertiliser from a systems perspective. Regional differences were found between biochar, compost and biochar-compost blend. The biochar-compost blend offered benefits related to available nutrients and sequestered C. It also produced yields of similar magnitude to mineral fertiliser, which makes its acceptance by farmers more likely whilst reducing environmental impacts. However, careful consideration of feedstock is required.

An environmental analysis of options for utilising wasted food and food residue.

The potential environmental impact of wasted food minimisation versus its utilisation in a circular bioeconomy is investigated based on a case study of Ireland. The amount of wasted food and food residue (WFFR) produced in 2010 was used for business-as-usual, (a) and four management options were assessed, (b) minimisation, (c) composting, (d) anaerobic digestion and (e) incineration. The environmental impacts Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP) and Eutrophication Potential (EP) were considered. A carbon return on investment (CRoI) was calculated for the three processing technologies (c-e). The results showed that a minimisation strategy for wasted food would result in the greatest reduction of all three impacts, -4.5 Mt CO2-e (GWP), -11.4 kt PO43-e (EP) and -43.9 kt SO2-e (AP) compared to business as usual. For WFFR utilisation in the circular bioeconomy, anaerobic digestion resulted in the lowest environmental impact and best CRoI of -0.84 kg CO2-e per Euro. From an economic perspective, for minimisation to be beneficial, 0.15 kg of wasted food would need to be reduced per Euro spent.

Hybrid life cycle assessment of agro-industrial wastewater valorisation.

Wastewater from food processing facilities can have high nutrient valorisation potential. Valorising sugar-rich agro-industrial wastewater may have significant impacts on sustainability of wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The objective of this study is to evaluate the environmental, economic and social impacts of a novel wastewater valorisation technology. This technology is designed to produce single cell protein (SCP) from wastewater of a fruit juice processing facility. To evaluate the comprehensive sustainability impacts on WWTP and overall background economy, a hybrid life cycle assessment model was developed by combining the multi-regional input-output database (Exiobase) with process-based life cycle inventories of conventional and AgroCycle WWTP. The results indicated the upstream impacts of wastewater could have significant influence on sustainability of WWTP with nutrient valorisation. Therefore the 'zero burden assumption' should not be adopted for upstream wastewater. For the sustainability performance, valorising nutrients from WWTP with AgroCycle technology can improve the environmental performance of WWTP. However, the positive social-economic impacts were directly associated with WWTP system, not the whole background economy. The production of SCP could reduce the Gross Value Added (GVA) and employment in the 'oil seeds sector'. In order to improve the social-economic impacts and promote a circular bioeconomy model in the fruit juice sector, further development is required to improve valorisation productivity and create a better value chain for valorised products.

Review of the sustainability of food systems and transition using the Internet of Food.

Many current food systems are unsustainable because they cause significant resource depletion and unacceptable environmental impacts. This problem is so severe, it can be argued that the food eaten today is equivalent to a fossil resource. The transition to sustainable food systems will require many changes but of particular importance will be the harnessing of internet technology, in the form of an 'Internet of Food', which offers the chance to use global resources more efficiently, to stimulate rural livelihoods, to develop systems for resilience and to facilitate responsible governance by means of computation, communication, education and trade without limits of knowledge and access. A brief analysis of the evidence of resource depletion and environmental impact associated with food production and an outline of the limitations of tools like life cycle assessment, which are used to quantify the impact of food products, indicates that the ability to combine data across the whole system from farm to human will be required in order to design sustainable food systems. Developing an Internet of Food, as a precompetitive platform on which business models can be built, much like the internet as we currently know it, will require agreed vocabularies and ontologies to be able to reason and compute across the vast amounts of data that are becoming available. The ability to compute over large amounts of data will change the way the food system is analysed and understood and will permit a transition to sustainable food systems.