Investigation of energy consumption system and environmental pollutants in the spinach (Spinacia oleracea) production process through life cycle assessment method

In order to evaluate the flow of energy and also environmental emissions in the production of spinach (Spinacia oleracea), this study was conducted in the crop year 2020-2021. The information required for this study was collected using random sampling method from 90 farms in Isfahan, Iran through ob...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energy sources. Part A, Recovery, utilization, and environmental effects Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 8878 - 8889
Main Authors: Lotfalian Dehkordi, Amin, Farsi, Ashkan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis 21-12-2022
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Summary:In order to evaluate the flow of energy and also environmental emissions in the production of spinach (Spinacia oleracea), this study was conducted in the crop year 2020-2021. The information required for this study was collected using random sampling method from 90 farms in Isfahan, Iran through observation and questionnaire. The finding indicated that the total energy, output and energy ratio in terms of one hectare of production were 4279 MJ/ha, 3154 MJ/ha and 1.02, respectively. The electricity used to run the irrigation pumps had the highest energy consumption among the available inputs (1544 MJ.ha −1 ). The Center of environmental science (CML 2 ) method was used to identify the most important environmental effects during the cultivation period and 10 environmental impacts were calculated in three factors of classification, normalization and weighting. Based on this, emissions related to manure consumption were determined the main emissions. Direct emissions from combustion of diesel and manure (spinach) was determined as the main hotspot in human toxicity (HT) and eutrification (EU). Based on the normalization results, marine aquatic (MAE), freshwater aquatic (FAET) and acidification (AC) had the highest values among the impact categories with 20.4E-09, 3.61E-09 and 1.99E-09, respectively. Finally in the present study, the environmental impacts index was estimated as 14.24 nPt.ha −1 . The share of DE and IDE to the total emissions were 18.55% and 81.45%, respectively. Results indicated that the use of modern irrigation systems (sprinklers) and efficient irrigation pumps are methods of reducing electricity.
ISSN:1556-7036
1556-7230
DOI:10.1080/15567036.2022.2126562