• Energy Research
• engineering and technology close
• 15. Life on land close
• AT close
• TH close

La primera biorrefinación con lignina del álamo nórdico para producir fibras de celulosa podría desplazar la producción de algodón en tierras agrícolas Al cruzar Populus trichocarpa 3 P. trichocarpa de una población distante, se obtuvieron álamos híbridos que pueden crecer rápidamente en tierras marginales en climas del norte. Estos híbridos pueden transformarse mediante fraccionamiento catalítico reductor para producir una fibra textil deslignificada que puede ser un sustituto del algodón, así como un biocombustible alimentado con lignina en el rango de gasolina-aviación-diesel. La sostenibilidad de esta cadena de valor fue evaluada por LCA y mostró beneficios sustanciales en términos de uso de agua en comparación con la producción de algodón. Le bioraffinage en lignine du peuplier nordique pour produire des fibres de cellulose pourrait déplacer la production de coton sur les terres agricoles En croisant Populus trichocarpa 3 P. trichocarpa d'une population éloignée, des peupliers hybrides ont été obtenus qui peuvent croître rapidement sur des terres marginales dans les climats nordiques. Ces hybrides peuvent être transformés par fractionnement catalytique réducteur pour donner une fibre textile délignifiée qui peut remplacer le coton ainsi qu'un biocarburant ligninérisé dans la gamme essence-aviation-diesel. La durabilité de cette chaîne de valeur a été évaluée par LCA et a montré des avantages substantiels en termes d'utilisation de l'eau par rapport à la production de coton. Lignin-first biorefining of Nordic poplar to produce cellulose fibers could displace cotton production on agricultural lands By crossing Populus trichocarpa 3 P. trichocarpa from a distant population, hybrid poplar trees were obtained that can grow rapidly on marginal lands in northern climates.These hybrids can be transformed by reductive catalytic fractionation to yield a delignified textile fiber that can be a substitute for cotton as well as a ligninderived biofuel in the gasoline-aviation-diesel range.The sustainability of this value chain was evaluated by LCA and showed substantial benefits in terms of water use compared with cotton production. يمكن للتكرير الحيوي الأول لليجنين للحور الشمالي لإنتاج ألياف السليلوز أن يحل محل إنتاج القطن في الأراضي الزراعية من خلال عبور Populus trichocarpa 3 P. trichocarpa من مجموعة سكانية بعيدة، تم الحصول على أشجار الحور الهجينة التي يمكن أن تنمو بسرعة على الأراضي الهامشية في المناخات الشمالية. يمكن تحويل هذه الهجينة عن طريق التجزئة التحفيزية المختزلة لإنتاج ألياف نسيج منزوعة الكرامة يمكن أن تكون بديلاً عن القطن بالإضافة إلى وقود حيوي خفيف في نطاق البنزين والطيران والديزل. تم تقييم استدامة سلسلة القيمة هذه من قبل LCA وأظهرت فوائد كبيرة من حيث استخدام المياه مقارنة بإنتاج القطن.

In many parts of the world, climate change has already caused a decline in groundwater recharge, whereas groundwater demand for drinking water production and irrigation continues to increase. In such regions, groundwater tables are steadily declining with major consequences for groundwater-surface water interactions. Predominantly gaining streams that rely on discharge of groundwater from the adjacent aquifer turn into predominantly losing streams whose water seeps into the underground. This reversal of groundwater-surface water interactions is associated with an increase of low river flows, drying of stream beds, and a switch of lotic ecosystems from perennial to intermittent, with consequences for fluvial and groundwater dependent ecosystems. Moreover, water infiltrating from rivers and streams can carry a complex mix of contaminants. Accordingly, the diversity and concentrations of compounds detected in groundwater has been increasing over the past decades. During low flow, stream and river discharge may consist mainly of treated wastewater. In losing stream systems, this contaminated water seeps into the adjoining aquifers. This threatens both ecosystems as well as drinking and irrigation water quality. Climate change is therefore severely altering landscape water balances, with groundwater-surface water-interactions having reached a tipping point in many cases. Current model projections harbor huge uncertainties and scientific evidence for these tipping points remains very limited. In particular, quantitative data on groundwater-surface water-interactions are scarce both on the local and the catchment scale. The result is poor public or political awareness, and appropriate management measures await implementation.

Climate change is expected to impact the hydrological regime worldwide, and land use and land cover change may alter the effects of the former in some cases. Secondary growth in deforested and abandoned areas is one of the main consequences of land use and cover changes in Amazonia. Among land uses, the effects of the secondary growth in water availability in large scale basins are not well understood. This work analyzes the potential effects of secondary growth under climate and land use change on water availability and hydropower in the Tocantins basin, in the Legal Amazon region of Brazil, using the MHD-INPE hydrological model driven by different climate scenarios and two future socioeconomic-based potential land use scenarios. The model projects decrease on discharge under climate change scenarios, which further cause the simulated hydropower energy potential to decrease significantly. When only deforestation scenarios are included, the effects of climate change are weakened, but when secondary growth is also considered, the effects of climate change are enhanced. Results suggest that different aspects of environmental change, such as secondary growth, may affect water production and the sectors depending on it.

In this study we investigate the implications of reaching the 2 °C climate target for global woody biomass use by applying the Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM) and the recently published SSP-RCP scenario calculations. We show that the higher biomass demand for energy needed to reach the 2 °C target can be achieved without significant distortions to woody biomass material use and that it can even benefit certain forest industries and regions. This is because the higher woody biomass use for energy increases the demand for forest industry by-products, which makes forest industry final products production more profitable and compensates for the cost effect of increased competition over raw materials. The higher woody biomass use for energy is found to benefit sawnwood, plywood and chemical pulp production, which provide large amounts of by-products, and to inhibit fiberboard and mechanical pulp production, which provide small amounts of by-products. At the regional level, the higher woody biomass use for energy is found to benefit material production in regions, which use little roundwood for energy (Russia, North-America and EU28), and to inhibit material production in regions, which use large amounts of roundwood for energy (Asia, Africa and South-America). Even if the 2 °C target increases harvest volumes in the tropical regions significantly compared to the non-mitigation scenario, harvest volumes remain in these regions at a relatively low level compared to the harvest potential.

Abstract At present, energy and fertilizer requirements of many of the developing countries are largely met by locally available, non-commercial sources, such as firewood and farm wastes. Extensive use of firewood is one of the factors that can lead to deforestation. When organic farm wastes are burnt, soil nutrients, which should return to soil, are lost and this can severely affect agricultural production. The problem of efficient utilization of these locally available resources, therefore, needs to be studied in a systematic manner. As an option for efficient utilization of local resources, bio-gas plants are considered, taking India as a case study. In these plants, animal dung and agricultural byproducts are utilized to obtain both methane and fertilizer through anaerobic fermentation. This is an example of appropriate technology for rural environments, which requires low investment, which does not need highly skilled labor and which can be operated with local materials and self-help in the 576,000 villages of India. The economic benefits to a family using a bio-gas plant and the impact of its widespread acceptance on a national scale are evaluated. It is felt, however, that the scope of such individual family bio-gas plants is likely to be limited for a number of reasons. To realize the potential of bio-gas fully, village plants of about 200 m3 capacity for approx. 100 families are needed. The introduction of such seemingly sensible new technologies has failed in the past for want of appropriate management and organizational structures and, consequently, for want of social participation by persons of various income groups in the successful operation of such community plants. To remedy this, a pricing policy for purchase of farmwastes and distribution of gas and fertilizer has been suggested as an essential tool to ensure that no-one is worse off by the introduction of bio-gas plants and thus to motivate the required participation in the scheme. Given a different organizational set-up, the idea could also be tried out for providing energy and sanitation in urban areas. The impact of full-scale adoption could mean that, by 2000 ad, almost 90% of the rural energy requirements of the domestic sector could be met; at present, this accounts for about 45% of the total energy consumption in India. The consequent reduction in firewood consumption would help to prevent deforestation. In addition, organic manure containing two million tons of additional nitrogen would be available every year to enhance soil nutrients, hence boosting food production and helping to solve the problem of sanitation at the same time.

Abstract Besides producing food for humanity’s nutrition, agriculture also fulfills other functions such as providing a livelihood for farmers and preserving an attractive and biodiverse landscape. These functions of agriculture were considered in a novel eco-efficiency assessment concept applied to Austrian farms within this study. The joint application of life cycle assessment (LCA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to evaluate Austrian farms’ eco-efficiency. Data from 47 farms from different farm types (crop production, milk production, beef production, and wine production) were used to implement the concept. Cumulative exergy demand (CExD), global warming potential (GWP), normalized eutrophication potential (EP), and aquatic ecotoxicity potential (AE) were included as environmental impacts in an LCA and were consequently used as input values for the DEA. Considering multiple functions of agriculture, the farm net income (FNI), the net food production of crude protein and human-edible energy, and High Nature Value farmland (HNVf) were selected as output variables for the DEA. Results show that the purchase of resources causes a substantial share of environmental impacts, highlighting the importance of efficient utilization of on-farm resources. The results further revealed the use of high amounts of human-edible energy and protein as animal feed to cause lower eco-efficiency scores of livestock keeping farms (i.e., milk production and beef production). Overall, the eco-efficiency of farms depends on the fulfillment of different functions of agriculture, and individual strategies for improvement could be identified.

The purpose of this study was to contribute to filling the knowledge gap in public opinion and knowledge about forest and its certification in Japan, as well as to identify key elements and the possible role of public opinion within integrated bottom-up policies, bridging the sectors of forest, environment and energy. For the study 1930 questionnaires were disseminated in a small town in early 2007. Results from the statistical analysis indicated that forest was perceived as an ecosystem with a protective function against e.g. soil erosion or flooding, rather than a place that might serve for wood production and providing jobs. Forest certification and bioenergy from forest were identified as key elements for future integrated bottom-up policies that need to concentrate on facilitating the linkage between forestry and renewable energy as well as on promoting environmentally sound management and forest certification.

Abstract. The combustion of wood fuel for residential use is often not considered to be a source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from households, as the emissions from wood fuel combustion can be offset by the CO2 absorbed by the growth of the forest (as a carbon sink) (IPCC, 2006). However, this only applies to wood that is harvested in a renewable way, i.e. at a rate not exceeding the regrowth rate of the forest from which it was harvested (Drigo et al., 2002). This paper estimates the share of GHG emissions attributable to non-renewable wood fuel harvesting for use in residential food activities, by country and with global coverage. It adds to a growing research base estimating GHG emissions from across the entire agri-food value chain, from the manufacture of farm inputs, through food supply chains, and finally to waste disposal (Tubiello et al., 2021). Country-level information is generated from United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) and International Energy Agency (IEA) data on wood fuel use by households. We find that, in 2019, annual emissions from non-renewable wood fuel consumed for household food preparation were about 745×106 t (Mt CO2 eq. yr−1), with an uncertainty ranging from −63 % to +64 %. Overall, global trends were a result of counterbalancing effects: the emission increases were largely fuelled by countries in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and Latin America, whereas significant decreases were seen in countries in eastern Asia and South-East Asia. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has developed and regularly maintains a database covering GHG emissions from the various components of the agri-food sector, including pre- and post-production activities, by country and world regions. The dataset has been developed according to the International Panel on Climate Change guidelines (IPCC, 2006), which avoid overlaps between agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU) and energy components. The aforementioned dataset relies mainly on UNSD Energy Statistics data, which are used as activity data for the calculation of the GHG emissions (Tubiello et al., 2022). The information used in this work is available as open data at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7310932 (Flammini et al., 2022a).