Ingegneria Civile, Chimica, Ambientale E Dei Materiali
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Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN Ingegneria Civile, Chimica, Ambientale e dei Materiali Ciclo XXXI Settore Concorsuale: 08/A2 - Ingegneria sanitaria-ambientale, Ingegneria degli idrocarburi e fluidi del sottosuolo, della sicurezza e protezione in ambito civile Settore Scientifico Disciplinare: ING-IND/29 – Ingegneria delle materie prime ENVIRONMENTAL LIFE-CYCLE BASED METHODS TO SUPPORT THE TRANSITION TOWARDS CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN THE AGRI-FOOD SECTOR Presentata da: Valentina Fantin Coordinatore Dottorato Supervisore Prof. Luca Vittuari Prof.ssa Alessandra Bonoli Co-supervisori Dott.ssa Patrizia Buttol (ENEA) Dott.ssa Serena Righi Esame finale anno 2019 Abstract The holistic approach of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) can support the transition towards sustainable production and consumption patterns, in a circular economy approach. The objective of this dissertation thesis is to critically analyse some peculiar aspects of the application of environmental life-cycle based methods to the agri-food sector and to identify opportunities and obstacles of the LCT approach through the testing of some methods and tools. The main critical methodological problems of the application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to agri-food sector were described. In particular, since on-field emissions cannot be directly measured at a reasonable effort, the analysis was focused on the necessity of using dispersion models for their estimation. Different models exist but scientific consensus lacks about the most suitable in terms of reliability and practicability. To test how this kind of models work and which data are required, PestLCI 2.0 has been applied to an experimental farm in Northern Italy, and a comprehensive set of pesticide emissions in the different compartments, which is a relevant input for the inventory phase, has been obtained. The application has required collecting detailed information about the soil characteristics, which resulted to affect the outcomes significantly, especially for groundwater emissions. Since the detailed picture of pesticides emissions is not fully captured by the current impact assessment methods, further research efforts will be needed to develop characterisation factors for groundwater emissions, in order to exploit the potential of PestLCI 2.0. The analysis of the literature concerning the methodological problems highlighted that different scientific approaches used to solve the problems might lead to different life cycle results, thus affecting products comparability, which is important when LCA is used for calculating and communicating the environmental performance of products. In this dissertation thesis, the use of LCA for communication purposes was evaluated through the testing of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method in an Italian Taleggio cheese production chain, with the aim to evaluate if it fulfils the harmonisation needs for the calculation and communication of the environmental performance of food and drink products. Although Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules for dairy products provide quite detailed guidance for some methodological issues, some other topics would require additional guidance. The application of the PEF method resulted to be resource- i intensive: this aspect could make it difficult to spread the method, especially if the goal is to involve European Small and Medium Enterprises. In general, the application of the PEF method could take advantage of the development of simplified supporting tools. Finally, due to the significant contribution of agricultural sector to water scarcity and water pollution problems, the Water Footprint (WF) Network method was tested in an Italian tomato cultivar production with the aim to evaluate strengths and weaknesses. The study required the collection of a large number of data, some of which obtained from literature due to lack of primary data. Results highlighted that site-specific data are needed to increase the results robustness and demonstrated that the effect of the yield may penalize cultivations with low blue water use, because the model to calculate green water does not depend on the cultivation intensity, thus leading, ceteris paribus, to higher WF in extensive cultivations. Though further research will be needed to develop a common accepted WF method, agri-food companies and public decision makers can take advantage of this method to support a sustainable water management and the implementation of green marketing strategies. ii List of acronyms AF = Allocation factor AMD = Availability Minus the Demand ARPAV = Veneto Regional Agency for Environmental Prevention and Protection ARPAV = Veneto Regional Agency for Environmental Prevention and Protection AWARE = Available WAter REmaining for area in a watershed), B2B = Business to Business B2C = Business to Consumers BIB1 = Bibione soil C = Clay CAB1 = Caberlotto soil CAP1 = Capitello soil CFO1 = Ca' Fornera soil CMT = Meteorological Centre of Teolo CON1 = Conche soil CRL1 = Caorle soil CTU1 = Ca' Turcata soil DM = Dry Matter DNM = Data Needs Matrix DQR = Data Quality Rating EEA =European Environment Agency EF = Environmental Footprint EMEP = European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme EPD = Environmental Product Declaration ET = Evapotranspiration ILCD = International Reference Life Cycle Data System iii IPCC = Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPP = Integrated Product Policy L = Loam LCA = Life Cycle Assessment LCI = Life Cycle Inventory analysis LCIA = Life cycle impact assessment LCIA = Life Cycle Impact Assessment LCT = Life Cycle Thinking LS = Loamy sand MEL1 = Casa Scaramello soil OEF = Organisation Environmental Footprint Organization PDO = Product Designation of Origin PEF = Product Environmental Footprint PEFCR =Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules QUA1 = Quarto d'Altino soil S = Sand SAB1 = Sabbioni soil SCL = Sandy clay loam SCO1 = Santa Scolastica soil SIC = Silty clay SICL = Silty clay loam SIL = Silt loam SL = Sandy loam SOIL6 = Default soil from PestLCI 2.0 database SMEs = Small and Medium Enterprises STU = Soil Typological Units iv TDF1 = Torre di Fine soil VAD1 = Valcerere Dolfina soil VAN1 = Vanzo soil VED1 = Casa Vendramin soil WF = Water Footprint WFA = Water Footprint Assessment WFN = Water Footprint Network WULCA = Working Group on Water Use in LCA v vi Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. i List of acronyms .................................................................................................................. iii 1 Introduction and objectives ........................................................................................... 9 2 Circular economy ........................................................................................................ 14 2.1 European policies for circular economy ............................................................. 17 3 Circular economy in the agri-food sector ................................................................... 20 3.1 Problems of the linear economic model in the agri-food sector ......................... 20 3.2 Benefits of the circular economy in the agri-food sector ................................... 22 4 Life Cycle based methods to support the transition towards circular economy in the agri-food sector ................................................................................................................... 24 4.1 Life Cycle Assessment ....................................................................................... 25 4.2 Water Footprint .................................................................................................. 28 4.3 Application of LCA in the agri-food sector: main methodological problems.... 30 4.3.1 Definition of the functional unit ................................................................... 31 4.3.2 System boundaries definition ....................................................................... 34 4.3.3 Allocation procedures ................................................................................... 35 4.3.4 Emission models for pesticides and fertilisers emissions ............................ 39 5 Harmonised LCA guidelines for agri-food production chain ..................................... 45 5.1 ILCD Handbook ................................................................................................. 46 5.2 Envifood Protocol ............................................................................................... 48 5.3 Product Environmental Footprint method .......................................................... 49 6 PestLCI 2.0 sensitivity to soil variations for the evaluation of pesticide distribution in LCA studies ........................................................................................................................ 53 6.1 Description of PestLCI 2.0 ................................................................................. 54 6.2 Soil and tillage sensitiveness evaluation method ............................................... 59 6.3 Experimental farm description ........................................................................... 60 6.3.1 Climatological data ....................................................................................... 60 6.3.2 Soil data ........................................................................................................ 60 6.3.3 Crop and pesticide