Assessing the ecological and economic sustainability of energy crops.
Assessing the ecological and economic sustainability of energy crops.
复制标题
评估能源作物的生态和经济可持续性。
DOI:
10.1016/s0961-9534(98)00042-7
复制
发表时间:
1998
影响因子:
6
通讯作者:
Gert van derBijl
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
M. Hanegraaf;E. E. Biewinga;Gert van derBijl
The production and use of biomass for energy has both positive and negative impacts on the environment. The environmental impacts of energy crops should be clarified before political choices concerning energy crops are made. An important aid to policy-making would be a systematic methodology to assess the environmental sustainability of energy crops. So far, most studies on the environmental aspects of energy crops deal mainly with the energy production of the crops and the possible consequences for CO2mitigation. The Dutch Centre for Agriculture and Environment (CLM) has developed a systematic methodology to assess the ecological and socio-economic sustainability of biomass crops. The method is best described as a multicriteria analysis of process chains and is very much related to Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Characteristics of our methodology are the use of: CLM has applied the method to assess the sustainability of ten potentially interesting energy crops in four European regions. The results are used to outline the perspectives for large scale production of biomass crops with regard to the medium and long term land availability in Europe. For the crops considered, net energy budget ranges from 85 GJ net avoided fossil energy per ha for rape seed for fuel to 248 GJ net avoided fossil energy per ha for silage maize for electricity from gasification. The methodology of the tool and its results were discussed at the concerted action “Environmental aspects of biomass production and routes for European energy supply” (AIR3-94-2455), organised by CLM in 1996. Major conclusions of the research: