IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i21p14229-d959176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluation of Sustainability of Wheat-Bread Chain Based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics: A Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Fatemeh Nadi

    (Biosystem Engineering Department, Azadshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Azadshahr 49617-89985, Iran)

  • Krzysztof Górnicki

    (Institute of Mechanical Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland)

Abstract

Wheat flour, bread, and bakery products are an important source of macronutrients, micronutrients, dietary fibers, and antioxidants. Considering that Iran’s bread industry is the second highest bread-consuming industry in the world, this research is focused on the main operations of the bread production chain (wheat cultivation, milling, dough processing, and bread production). Investigating the sustainability and improvement strategies and farm-to-fork approach for the wheat-bread production chain was the aim of this work. Exergy analysis is a powerful tool in designing, optimizing, and evaluating the performance of energy systems to determine energy quality, compare different energy sources, and achieve maximum system performance. In this research, the cumulative degree of perfection, renewability index, and sustainability index of Iranian traditional loaves of bread (Sangak, Lavash, Barbari) and Baguette bread as a semi-industrial bread were estimated. Considering the functional unit of the weight of the produced bread, Baguette and Sangak breads had the highest and lowest sustainability, respectively. Considering the functional unit of energy of the produced bread, Baguette bread has the lowest exergy consumption per 100 cal of the embedded energy of bread. According to the obtained results, the bakery consumes the most exergy in the wheat-bread chain. Natural gas input is the most important indicator of unsustainability in bakeries. Meanwhile, in the entire wheat-bread chain, human labor and natural gas consumption were factors of unsustainability. By using renewable sources, the renewable index increased by 76–89%. Additionally, the use of renewable resources increased the sustainability index of bread production by 7.6 to 1.9 times.

Suggested Citation

  • Fatemeh Nadi & Krzysztof Górnicki, 2022. "Evaluation of Sustainability of Wheat-Bread Chain Based on the Second Law of Thermodynamics: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14229-:d:959176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14229/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14229/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yildizhan, Hasan, 2018. "Energy, exergy utilization and CO2 emission of strawberry production in greenhouse and open field," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 417-423.
    2. Bilgen, Selçuk & Sarıkaya, İkbal, 2015. "Exergy for environment, ecology and sustainable development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1115-1131.
    3. Ricardo Manso & Tânia Sousa & Tiago Domingos, 2017. "Do the Different Exergy Accounting Methodologies Provide Consistent or Contradictory Results? A Case Study with the Portuguese Agricultural, Forestry and Fisheries Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-31, August.
    4. An, Qier & An, Haizhong & Wang, Lang & Gao, Xiangyun & Lv, Na, 2015. "Analysis of embodied exergy flow between Chinese industries based on network theory," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 318(C), pages 26-35.
    5. Degerli, Bahar & Nazir, Serap & Sorgüven, Esra & Hitzmann, Bernd & Özilgen, Mustafa, 2015. "Assessment of the energy and exergy efficiencies of farm to fork grain cultivation and bread making processes in Turkey and Germany," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P1), pages 421-434.
    6. Saidur, R. & Masjuki, H.H. & Jamaluddin, M.Y., 2007. "An application of energy and exergy analysis in residential sector of Malaysia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1050-1063, February.
    7. Yildizhan, Hasan & Taki, Morteza, 2018. "Assessment of tomato production process by cumulative exergy consumption approach in greenhouse and open field conditions: Case study of Turkey," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 401-408.
    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. Amiri, Zahra & Asgharipour, Mohammad Reza & Campbell, Daniel E. & Armin, Mohammad, 2020. "Extended exergy analysis (EAA) of two canola farming systems in Khorramabad, Iran," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    2. Whiting, Kai & Carmona, Luis Gabriel & Sousa, Tânia, 2017. "A review of the use of exergy to evaluate the sustainability of fossil fuels and non-fuel mineral depletion," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 202-211.
    3. Nakhaii, Fatemeh & Ghanbari, Seyed Ahmad & Asgharipour, Mohammad Reza & Seyedabadi, Esmaeel & Sciubba, Enrico, 2024. "Evaluating ecological sustainability of mechanized and traditional systems of damaskrose production using extended exergy analysis," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 488(C).
    4. Yildizhan, Hasan, 2018. "Energy, exergy utilization and CO2 emission of strawberry production in greenhouse and open field," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 417-423.
    5. Yuancheng Lin & Chinhao Chong & Linwei Ma & Zheng Li & Weidou Ni, 2021. "Analysis of Changes in the Aggregate Exergy Efficiency of China’s Energy System from 2005 to 2015," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-27, April.
    6. Du, Kun & Calautit, John & Eames, Philip & Wu, Yupeng, 2021. "A state-of-the-art review of the application of phase change materials (PCM) in Mobilized-Thermal Energy Storage (M-TES) for recovering low-temperature industrial waste heat (IWH) for distributed heat," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 1040-1057.
    7. He, Xijun & Dong, Yanbo & Wu, Yuying & Wei, Guodan & Xing, Lizhi & Yan, Jia, 2017. "Structure analysis and core community detection of embodied resources networks among regional industries," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 479(C), pages 137-150.
    8. Lee Lian Ivy-Yap & Hussain Ali Bekhet, 2015. "Examining the Feedback Response of Residential Electricity Consumption towards Changes in its Determinants: Evidence from Malaysia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 5(3), pages 772-781.
    9. Guan, Shihui & Han, Mengyao & Wu, Xiaofang & Guan, ChengHe & Zhang, Bo, 2019. "Exploring energy-water-land nexus in national supply chains: China 2012," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C), pages 1225-1234.
    10. Gholami, M. & Barbaresi, A. & Torreggiani, D. & Tassinari, P., 2020. "Upscaling of spatial energy planning, phases, methods, and techniques: A systematic review through meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    11. Jinghan Chen & Wen Zhou & Hongtao Yang, 2019. "Is Embodied Energy a Better Starting Point for Solving Energy Security Issues?—Based on an Overview of Embodied Energy-Related Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-22, August.
    12. Arkadiusz Piwowar & Maciej Dzikuć, 2019. "Development of Renewable Energy Sources in the Context of Threats Resulting from Low-Altitude Emissions in Rural Areas in Poland: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-15, September.
    13. Filippín, Celina & Ricard, Florencia & Flores Larsen, Silvana & Santamouris, Mattheos, 2017. "Retrospective analysis of the energy consumption of single-family dwellings in central Argentina. Retrofitting and adaptation to the climate change," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1226-1241.
    14. Dianfa Wu & Zhiping Yang & Ningling Wang & Chengzhou Li & Yongping Yang, 2018. "An Integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making Model and AHP Weighting Uncertainty Analysis for Sustainability Assessment of Coal-Fired Power Units," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-27, May.
    15. Lee Lian Ivy-Yap & Hussain Ali Bekhet, 2016. "Modelling the causal linkages among residential electricity consumption, gross domestic product, price of electricity, price of electric appliances, population and foreign direct investment in Malaysi," International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 12(1), pages 41-59.
    16. Swan, Lukas G. & Ugursal, V. Ismet, 2009. "Modeling of end-use energy consumption in the residential sector: A review of modeling techniques," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 1819-1835, October.
    17. Qian, Qian & Wang, Junbang & Zhang, Xiujuan & Wang, Shaoqiang & Li, Yingnian & Wang, Qinxue & Watson, Alan E. & Zhao, Xinquan, 2022. "Improving herders’ income through alpine grassland husbandry on Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    18. Wang, Lan & Lee, Eric W.M. & Hussian, Syed Asad & Yuen, Anthony Chun Yin & Feng, Wei, 2021. "Quantitative impact analysis of driving factors on annual residential building energy end-use combining machine learning and stochastic methods," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    19. Jonek-Kowalska, Izabela, 2018. "How do turbulent sectoral conditions sector influence the value of coal mining enterprises? Perspectives from the Central-Eastern Europe coal mining industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 103-112.
    20. Christopher J. Koroneos & Evanthia A. Nanaki & George A. Xydis, 2012. "Sustainability Indicators for the Use of Resources—The Exergy Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(8), pages 1-12, August.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14229-:d:959176. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.