Page 83 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

The Application of Life Cycle Assessment on Agricultural 69

6 Conclusions

Certain restrictions in space and time did not permit a thorough approach to this
important topic, the application of LCA onto a mixed production system. The
author of this chapter choose to use the general framework as it has been described
in ISO 14040 series and to explain the most important issues a scholar in this type
of analysis but also other stakeholders can use without any difficulty. Nevertheless,
LCA is a tool and a piece of art rather than a pure scientific working protocol. Of
course, it should be based on solid scientific evidence, but the way a practitioner
can bring all the evidence collected during LCI stage together requires deep
knowledge of the system under examination, imagination, and a system dynamics
thinking. I hope I have passed this message through.
The form of energy is considered within a LCA in agricultural systems depends
on the goal of the study. The inherited complexity of agricultural systems
necessitates the thorough study of the system under examination. Nevertheless,
representativeness, consistency and accuracy of the analysis should not be put
under question, particularly in the case of biofuels. This is because environmental
and socioeconomic decisions can be made based on the results of LCA. For a
useful discussion, it is necessary to declare explicitly the energy form considered
but also, all energy sources should be documented separately. Especially, the
consideration of whether and how to incorporate biomass energy depends on the
subject and the goal of the study. The possible variation of total energy input and
its impact on energy intensity and energy efficiency should be illustrated by sce-
narios in compliance with the specific questions to be answered. Relevant
assumptions and system boundaries always have to be documented for interpre-
tation of the results. Renouf et al. (2008) stated that many of the dominant envi-
ronmental impacts from cropping systems result from dynamic systems within
agricultural soils. The use of agricultural modeling techniques to model these
processes can be proved beneficial to LCA’s cause. Water, one of the most
important natural resources, has received little attention in the LCA literature. It
should be extremely useful if water footprint could be incorporated with LCA or
vice versa.

References

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of Vienna (BOKU-IFA)
Anonymous (2008) Forests and energy-key issues. FAO Forestry Paper 154, Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome 2008
Balat M, Balat H, Oz C (2008) Progress in bioethanol processing. Prog Energy Combust Sci
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