IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v410y2019ic6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modelling matter and energy flows of local, refined grass-clover protein feed as alternative to imported soy meal

Author

Listed:
  • Kamp, Andreas
  • Ambye-Jensen, Morten
  • Østergård, Hanne

Abstract

Trends of increasing human population, diets rich in meat, highly processed and vigorously transported products put high pressure on our ability to produce ever more food globally at the same time as supporting healthy agricultural ecosystems globally. Future food production needs to focus on optimisation of the food system in order to develop within the constraints of planetary boundaries. Modelling of energy and material flows of production systems by means of Emergy Assessment is a way to help in this task. We model and assess a hypothetical, large-scale biorefinery production from field to the provision of pig feed, biogas and fertiliser based on grass-clover mixtures (Bioref scenario). A hot spot analysis concludes that grass-clover mixture cultivation has high diesel and labour requirements, and that approximately half of the resource use (in solar emjoules, sej) in the Bioref scenario occurs during agricultural production. We find that the Bioref scenario is very labour intensive: 75% of total resource use (in sej/year) is related to labour. Next, we compare the Bioref scenario to the current provision in Denmark of soy meal imported from Brazil combined with natural gas from Denmark (Current scenario). We conclude that the Bioref production system could reduce the use of resources, reduce the dependence on non-renewable resources, significantly decrease GHG emissions from fossil fuel use, and does not need external heat input, but has higher diesel and electricity use, increased land demand and much more dependence on labour embodied in goods. Finally, we discuss different perspectives in relation to labour requirements for the two production systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Kamp, Andreas & Ambye-Jensen, Morten & Østergård, Hanne, 2019. "Modelling matter and energy flows of local, refined grass-clover protein feed as alternative to imported soy meal," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 410(C), pages 1-1.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:410:y:2019:i:c:6
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108738
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380019302467
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108738?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kamp, Andreas & Østergård, Hanne, 2013. "How to manage co-product inputs in emergy accounting exemplified by willow production for bioenergy," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 70-78.
    2. Brown, Mark T. & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2016. "Emergy assessment of global renewable sources," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 339(C), pages 148-156.
    3. Wright, Christina & Østergård, Hanne, 2015. "Scales of renewability exemplified by a case study of three Danish pig production systems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 315(C), pages 28-36.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andreas Kamp & Hanne Østergård & Simon Bolwig, 2016. "Environmental Assessment of Integrated Food and Cooking Fuel Production for a Village in Ghana," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Shah, Syed Mahboob & Liu, Gengyuan & Yang, Qing & Casazza, Marco & Agostinho, Feni & Giannetti, Biagio F., 2021. "Sustainability assessment of agriculture production systems in Pakistan: A provincial-scale energy-based evaluation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 455(C).
    3. Wang, Xueqi & Liu, Gengyuan & Coscieme, Luca & Giannetti, Biagio F. & Hao, Yan & Zhang, Yan & Brown, Mark T., 2019. "Study on the emergy-based thermodynamic geography of the Jing-Jin-Ji region: Combined multivariate statistical data with DMSP-OLS nighttime lights data," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 397(C), pages 1-15.
    4. Maione, A. & Massarotti, N. & Santagata, R. & Ulgiati, S. & Vanoli, L., 2023. "Integrated environmental accounting of a geothermal grid," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    5. Ying Qu & Yue Liu & Wenhua Wang & Yaodong Cang, 2021. "Sustainability assessment of urban residential consumption in China megacity," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7509-7523, May.
    6. Wang, Saige & Cao, Tao & Chen, Bin, 2017. "Urban energy–water nexus based on modified input–output analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 208-217.
    7. Hengyu Pan & Yong Geng & Ji Han & Cheng Huang & Wenyi Han & Zhuang Miao, 2020. "Emergy Based Decoupling Analysis of Ecosystem Services on Urbanization: A Case of Shanghai, China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-25, November.
    8. Zhuang, Minghao & Liu, Yize & Yang, Yi & Zhang, Qingsong & Ying, Hao & Yin, Yulong & Cui, Zhenling, 2022. "The sustainability of staple crops in China can be substantially improved through localized strategies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Nimmanterdwong, Prathana & Chalermsinsuwan, Benjapon & Piumsomboon, Pornpote, 2017. "Emergy analysis of three alternative carbon dioxide capture processes," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 101-108.
    10. Guo, Xiao-Xia & Li, Ke-Li & Liu, Yi-Ze & Zhuang, Ming-Hao & Wang, Chong, 2022. "Toward the economic-environmental sustainability of smallholder farming systems through judicious management strategies and optimized planting structures," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    11. Xiang, Qing & Pan, Hengyu & Ma, Xiaohan & Yang, Mingdong & Lyu, Yanfeng & Zhang, Xiaohong & Shui, Wei & Liao, Wenjie & Xiao, Yinlong & Wu, Jun & Zhang, Yanzong & Xu, Min, 2024. "Impacts of energy-saving and emission-reduction on sustainability of cement production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    12. Cristiano, S. & Ulgiati, S. & Gonella, F., 2021. "Systemic sustainability and resilience assessment of health systems, addressing global societal priorities: Learnings from a top nonprofit hospital in a bioclimatic building in Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    13. Evariste Rutebuka & Lixiao Zhang & Ernest Frimpong Asamoah & Mingyue Pang & Emmanuel Rukundo, 2018. "Resource Dynamism of the Rwandan Economy: An Emergy Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, May.
    14. Mattei, F. & Buonocore, E. & Franzese, P.P. & Scardi, M., 2021. "Global assessment of marine phytoplankton primary production: Integrating machine learning and environmental accounting models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 451(C).
    15. Yinan Xu & Yingxing Zhao & Peng Sui & Wangsheng Gao & Zhijun Li & Yuanquan Chen, 2021. "Emergy-Based Evaluation on the Systemic Sustainability of Rural Ecosystem under China Poverty Alleviation and Rural Revitalization: A Case of the Village in North China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-16, July.
    16. Mwambo, Francis Molua & Fürst, Christine & Nyarko, Benjamin K. & Borgemeister, Christian & Martius, Christopher, 2020. "Maize production and environmental costs: Resource evaluation and strategic land use planning for food security in northern Ghana by means of coupled emergy and data envelopment analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    17. Wang, Chengdong & Wang, Yutao & Tong, Xin & Ulgiati, Sergio & Liang, Sai & Xu, Ming & Wei, Wendong & Li, Xiao & Jin, Mingzhou & Mao, Jiafu, 2020. "Mapping potentials and bridging regional gaps of renewable resources in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    18. Lee, Dong Joo & Brown, Mark T., 2021. "Estimating the Value of Global Ecosystem Structure and Productivity: A Geographic Information System and Emergy Based Approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 439(C).
    19. Zhipeng Tang & Ziao Mei & Tao Song & Chenxinyi Yang, 2022. "Gearing Urban Metabolism toward the Carbon Neutrality Target: A Case Study of Hebei Province, China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-16, July.
    20. Lee, Ying-Chieh & Liao, Pei-Ting, 2021. "The effect of tourism on teleconnected ecosystem services and urban sustainability: An emergy approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 439(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:410:y:2019:i:c:6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.