Paludiculture Or Paludifuture? Environmental and Economic Analysis of Cattail-Based Insulation Material from Paludiculture in the Netherlands
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2020 Paludiculture or paludifuture? Environmental and economic analysis of cattail-based insulation material from paludiculture in The Netherlands Marle de Jong - 6310095 Utrecht University & Universität Leipzig First supervisor UU: Prof. Dr. Martin Junginger Second supervisor Leipzig: Prof. Dr.- Ing. Daniela Thrän Internship organisation: Over Morgen, Amersfoort Internship supervisor: Daniël van Staveren Date: June 15th, 2020 Content ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 7 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 10 2. THEORY, CONCEPTS AND CASE STUDY DESCRIPTION.................................................................................. 14 2.1 PEATLANDS ..................................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) .......................................................................................................................... 17 2.3 INSULATION MATERIAL AND PROPERTIES ............................................................................................................... 22 2.4 ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF SYSTEM CHANGES ............................................................................................................ 25 2.5 CASE STUDY DESCRIPTION: PALUDICULTURE WITH CATTAIL AS BIO-BASED INSULATOR .................................................... 27 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND PROPOSED METHODS ......................................................... 30 3. METHODOLOGY: CONSEQUENTIAL ONE-FACTOR LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT ................................................ 31 3.1 GOAL AND SCOPE DEFINITION ............................................................................................................................. 31 3.2 INVENTORY ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................................................ 34 3.3 IMPACT ASSESSMENT: CARBON FOOTPRINT .......................................................................................................... 40 3.4 CHANGE IN GHGS EMISSIONS OF PEATLANDS DUE TO ELEVATED WATER TABLE ............................................................. 40 4. METHODOLOGY: COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF PALUDICULTURE ................................................................. 43 4.1 OVERVIEW ...................................................................................................................................................... 43 4.2 DATA INVENTORY ............................................................................................................................................. 43 4.3 DEFAULT SCENARIO: ECONOMIC VIABILITY WITHOUT CARBON CREDIT SYSTEM .............................................................. 45 4.4 ALTERNATIVE SCENARIO: ECONOMIC VIABILITY WITH A CARBON CREDIT SYSTEM ........................................................... 46 5. INTERMEDIATE RESULTS: FUNCTIONAL UNIT ............................................................................................. 48 6. RESULTS: LCA .............................................................................................................................................. 49 6.1 IMPACT ASSESSMENT: DAIRY FARMING AND INSULATION ......................................................................................... 49 6.2 IMPACT ASSESSMENT: GHG PEATLANDS ............................................................................................................... 54 6.3 CHANGE IN GHG EMISSIONS DUE TO ALTERED PEATLAND MANAGEMENT .................................................................... 55 6.4 INTERPRETATION .............................................................................................................................................. 56 7. RESULTS: COMMERCIAL VIABILITY OF PALUDICULTURE ............................................................................. 57 7.1 DEFAULT SCENARIO: PALUDICULTURE WITHOUT CARBON CREDITS .............................................................................. 57 7.2 ALTERNATIVE SCENARIO: PALUDICULTURE WITH CARBON CREDITS ............................................................................. 59 7.3 CARBON BREAKEVEN PRICE FOR THE INCOME AND NPV FROM PALUDICULTURE ............................................................ 60 8. UPSCALING: ESTIMATION OF POTENTIAL GHG BENEFITS FROM PALUDICULTURE FOR DUTCH PEATLANDS 61 9. DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................ 63 9.1 SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS........................................................................................................................................ 63 9.2 LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ............................................................................... 66 10. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................ 70 11. REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 71 12. APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................. 76 APPENDIX 1: OVERVIEW OF EXISTING AND FUTURE PALUDICULTURE PILOT PROJECTS, JUNE 2018 (GEURTS & FRITZ, 2018). ..... 76 APPENDIX 2: CARBON FOOTPRINT OF DUTCH DAIRY FARMS, 2011-2017 (DOORNEWAARD ET AL., 2017) ............................. 77 APPENDIX 3: RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION OF WORLD REGIONS TO MILK PRODUCTION AND GHG EMISSIONS ASSOCIATED TO MILK PRODUCTION, PROCESSING AND TRANSPORTATION (FAO, 2010). .................................................................................. 78 1 APPENDIX 4: PRODUCTION FLOWS AND RELATED GHG EMISSIONS FROM GLASS AND STONE WOOL PRODUCTION (ECOINVENT, CUT- OFF CRITERIA: 5%) ................................................................................................................................................. 79 APPENDIX 5: AVERAGE INCOME FOR DUTCH DAIRY FARMS IN THE PERIOD 2001-2009 (VOGELZANG & BLOKLAND, 2011) ....... 81 APPENDIX 6: DETAILED DATA OF THE TOTAL GWP/F.U. IN REFERENCE AND ALTERNATIVE SYSTEMS ........................................ 82 APPENDIX 7: ESTIMATED YEARLY COSTS AND BENEFITS FROM CATTAIL-BASED PALUDICULTURE .............................................. 83 APPENDIX 8: DETAILED DATA OF THE NPV FOR WEST AND NORTH-NETHERLANDS WITH A CARBON CREDIT SYSTEM ................. 84 APPENDIX 9: DETAILED DATA FOR THE SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS .......................................................................................... 85 2 List of abbreviations Abbreviation Meaning AS Alternative system/scenario CH4 Methane CO2 Carbon dioxide DW Dry weight eq equivalent(s) EU (ETS European Union (Emission Trading Scheme) FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations f.u. Functional unit GHG(s) Greenhouse gas(ses) GWP Global Warming Potential ha Hectare HDPE High-density polyethylene IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ISO International Organisation for Standardisation LCA Life-cycle Assessment LCI Life-cycle Inventory LCIA Life-cycle Impact Assessment LULUCF sector Land use, land use change and forestry sector Mt Megatons N2O Nitrous oxide NPV Net present value OM Organic matter PAS2050 Publicly Available Specification 2050 R Thermal resistance RS Reference system/scenario t Ton yr Year List of figures KEY FIGURES Key Figure 1: Schematic representation of the reference system (dairy farming) and alternative system (paludiculture). ...... 7 Key Figure 2: Total GWP/f.u. in reference system and in three proposed alternative systems with paludiculture. .................. 8 Key Figure 3: Individual contributions of cost items and benefits to Net present value (NPV) (project lifetime of 30 years, discount rate 6%), in- and excluding carbon credits. ........................................................................................................ 8 Figure 1: Energy consumption of different insulation materials per f.u. (=the mass in kg of material needed to have a value of thermal resistance equal to 1 m2 K/W for a 1 m2 panel), cradle-to-gate (Schiavoni, D’Alessandro, Bianchi & Asdrubali, 2016). ............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Figure 2: Peatland carbon exchange (Flores, 2014). ................................................................................................................ 14 Figure 3: History of land subsidence and sea level rise (Van de Ven, 1993 in Brouns, 2016). .................................................. 15 Figure 4: Peatland areas in The Netherlands (Rienks & Gerritsen, 2005). ............................................................................... 15 Figure 5: Drainage depths (Van den Born et al., 2016)............................................................................................................