Ulf Sonesson

Not All Salmon Are Created Equal: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Global Salmon Farming Systems

We present a global-scale life cycle assessment of a major food commodity, farmed salmon. Specifically, we report the cumulative energy use, biotic resource use, and greenhouse gas, acidifying, and eutrophying emissions associated with producing farmed salmon in Norway, the UK, British Columbia (Canada), and Chile, as well as a production-weighted global average. We found marked differences in the nature and quantity of material/energy resource use and associated emissions per unit production across regions. This suggests significant scope for improved environmental performance in the industry as a whole. We identify key leverage points for improving performance, most notably the critical importance of least-environmental cost feed sourcing patterns and continued improvements in feed conversion efficiency. Overall, impacts were lowest for Norwegian production in most impact categories, and highest for UK farmed salmon. Our results are of direct relevance to industry, policy makers, eco-labeling programs, and consumers seeking to further sustainability objectives in salmon aquaculture.

Environmental and economic analysis of management systems for biodegradable waste

The management system for solid and liquid organic waste affects the environment and surrounding technical systems in several ways. In order to decrease the environmental impact and resource use, biological waste treatment and alternative solutions for sewage treatment are often advocated. These alternatives include increased agricultural use of waste residuals. To analyse whether such proposed systems indicate improvements for the environment and its sustainability, systems analysis is a useful method. The changes in environmental impact and resource use is not only a result of changes in waste treatment methods, but also largely a result of changes in surrounding systems (energy and agriculture) caused by changes in waste management practices. In order to perform a systems analysis, a substance-flow simulation model, the organic waste research model (ORWARE), has been used. The results are evaluated by using methodology from life cycle assessment (LCA). An economic analysis was also performed on three of the studied scenarios. The management system for solid organic waste and sewage in the municipality of Uppsala, Sweden, was studied. Three scenarios for different treatments of solid waste were analysed: incineration with heat recovery, composting, and anaerobic digestion. These three scenarios included conventional sewage treatment. A fourth scenario reviewed was anaerobic digestion of solid waste, using urine-separating toilets and separate handling of the urine fraction. The results are only valid for the case study and under the assumptions made. In this case study anaerobic digestion result in the lowest environmental impact of all the solid waste management systems, but is costly. Economically, incineration with heat recovery is the cheapest way to treat solid waste. Composting gives environmental advantages compared to incineration methods, without significantly increased costs. Urine separation, which may be implemented together with any solid waste treatment, has great advantages, particularly in its low impact on the environment. However, there is a large increase in acidification.

ORWARE - A simulation model for organic waste handling systems. Part 1: Model description

A simulation model, ORWARE (ORganic WAste REsearch), for the handling of organic waste in urban areas has been constructed. The model provides a comprehensive view of the environmental effects, pla ...

Environmental impact of future milk supply chains in Sweden: a scenario study

The objective of this study was to analyse the environmental impact of future supply chains for dairy products. A scenario technique was chosen because scenarios can yield information about the environmental consequences of certain lines of action or developments in a system. To quantify the effects of future systems, a mathematical model of the milk supply chain was constructed and used to simulate possible scenarios. The model was based mainly on life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The results show that any consideration of the environmental effects of the milk supply chain must consider the entire chain. The amount of packaging materials used is an important factor, as is the transportation of the dairy products to households.

Environmentally Friendly Food Processing

Part 1 Assessing the environmental impact of food processing operations: Life cycle assement (LCA): an introduction LCA of vegetable products LCA of fruit products LCA of animal products Environmental impact assessment of seafood products. Part 2 Good practice: Environmental issues in the production of beverages: the global coffee chain Improving energy efficiency The environmental management of packaging Recycling of packaging materials Biobased food packaging Recycling food processing wastes Waste treatment Assessing the safety and quality of recycled packaging materials Environmental training for the food industry Comparing integrated crop management and organic production LCA of wine production.

Evaluating a municipal waste management plan using ORWARE

Environmental consequences of implementing Uppsalas waste management plan have been analysed using ORWARE, a computerized static substance flow model based on life cycle assessment methodology. No ...

Product Chain Actors' Potential for Greening the Product Life Cycle

The challenge in working with environmental improvements is to select the action offering the most substantial progress. However, not all actions are open to all actors in a product chain. This study demonstrates how life cycle assessment (LCA) may be used with an actor perspective in the Swedish postfarm milk chain. The potential measures were identified, applied by the dairy, retailer, and household, that gave the most environmental improvement in a life cycle perspective. Improved energy efficiency, more efficient transport patterns, reduced milk and product losses, and organic labeling were investigated. Milk, yogurt and cheese were considered. After LCAs of the products were established, improvement potentials of the actors were identified and quantified. The quantification was based mostly on literature studies but also on assumptions. Then the LCAs were recalculated to include the estimated improvement potential. To find the action with the greatest potential, the environmental impacts of the modified and original LCAs were compared for each actor. No action was superior to any other from the dairy perspective, but reduced wastage lowered most impacts for all three products. For retailers, using less energy is the most efficient improvement. From the household perspective, reducing wastage gives unambiguously positive results. When households choose organic products, reductions in energy use and greenhouse gases are even larger, but eutrophication increases. Overall, households have greatest potential for improvement while yogurt is the product offering the most improvement potential.

Planning Biodegradable Waste Management in Stockholm

The environmental impact of the management of biodegradable waste in Stockholm, based mainly on incineration and landfilling, was compared to systems with significant nutrient recycling; large-scal ...

ORWARE - A simulation model for organic waste handling systems. Part 2: Case study and simulation results.

Results from simulations with the ORWARE model (ORganic WAste REsearch) are presented. The model was tested on a medium-sized Swedish city. The scenarios were planned to illustrate the consequences of different waste handling systems. The modelled processes for organic solid waste were; incineration, landfilling, anaerobic digestion and composting, for the wastewater they were sewage plant and source separation of urine. Each transport and treatment facility was modelled with respect to incoming waste. Each process model generates an energy balance, liquid and/or gaseous emissions and residual products as outputs. The simulation results show that source separation of solid waste, followed by biological treatment, is beneficial with respect to the recycling of phosphorus and environmental effects. The negative results for these systems are their energy balances. Source-separating human urine seems to be the only way to get a high degree of nitrogen recycling. The results also stress the importance of including liquid waste to get an overall picture of the transports needed to get the residues to arable land. Landfilling organic waste generates the largest negative environmental effect. A model description is presented in a companion paper.

Effects of including nitrogen emissions from soil in environmental systems analysis of waste management strategies

The environmental impacts of nitrogen emissions from soil resulting from the use of organic fertilizers, such as manure, are large compared with the corresponding impacts of mineral fertilizers. However, soil emissions are rarely included in systems analysis of waste management strategies. This study examines whether the inclusion of soil emissions can affect the environmental ranking of systems for managing solid biodegradable waste. Waste management scenarios based on incineration, anaerobic digestion and composting, respectively, were compared. The scenarios were analysed using the organic waste research (ORWARE) simulation model. A simplified model for calculating nitrogen availability and emissions was also constructed. Life-cycle analysis methodology was used for choosing system boundaries and evaluating the results. Global warming, acidification and eutrophication were the impact categories considered. The results indicate the vital importance of considering nitrogen emissions from soil when comparing biological waste management systems with other waste management methods, especially with regard to eutrophication effects. Soil emissions are also important when comparing the environmental impacts of anaerobic digestion and composting systems. However, the variation in nitrogen emissions from soil is large and depends on the spreading technique used, climate, drainage and soil texture