Thailand has increased wood pellet production for export and domestic use. The variations in prod... more Thailand has increased wood pellet production for export and domestic use. The variations in production processes, raw materials, and transportation related to wood pellet production make it necessary to evaluate the environmental impacts assessment. The objective of this study was to compare via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), eight different cases of wood pellet production varying in terms of raw materials, production processes, energy use, and the format of transportation and to compare LCA of electricity production from wood pellets and fossil fuels. The comparison results show that leucaena is better as a feedstock for wood pellet production than acacia due to shorter harvest cycle and lesser use of resources. Pellet production consumes the most energy contributing significantly to the environmental impacts. The use of fossil fuels in wood pellet production and transportation also has a major contribution to the environmental impacts. Using wood pellets for electricity production ...
Thailand is one of the upcoming wood pellet exporters in the Southeast Asia region. Wood pellet p... more Thailand is one of the upcoming wood pellet exporters in the Southeast Asia region. Wood pellet production has been gradually increasing in Thailand; however, the recent trend is more rapid. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the feedstock security for wood pellet production in Thailand. The important issue of feedstock security analysis relates to availability and diversity of feedstock (Shannon index) to meet the increased demand for the wood pellets in the future. The results present that the feedstock supply (from waste wood and fast-growing tree wood) in Thailand is 5.32 million tonnes of wood pellets per year. However, increasing 25% of wood pellet export and 50% of wood pellet domestic use causes a deficit in fast-growing tree wood because para-rubber waste wood is not distributed uniformly in all regions of the country. The present diversity of feedstock supply is quite low (Shannon index 0.17). Increasing the fast-growing tree plantation area in the wastel...
The current model of a linear economy with end-of-pipe waste treatment is not sustainable. Cleane... more The current model of a linear economy with end-of-pipe waste treatment is not sustainable. Cleaner production helps reduce resource use and emissions, but is still not an optimal solution without considering a life cycle perspective. Life cycle-based tools such as life cycle assessment and life cycle costing are useful for identifying optimal environmental and economic options for product systems. SDG 12 dealing with responsible consumption and production is key for sustainability. Developing of a circular economy requires life cycle thinking and life cycle-based tools for assessment. All these issues are discussed along with illustrative examples.
The development of new bio-based diesel substitutes can improve their compatibility with diesel e... more The development of new bio-based diesel substitutes can improve their compatibility with diesel engines. Nevertheless, for actual implementation, their environmental and economic performance needs to be studied. This study quantified the eco-efficiency of three bio-based diesels, viz., fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), partially hydrogenated FAME (H-FAME), and bio-hydrogenated diesel (BHD), to address the perspective of producers as well as policymakers for implementing the advanced diesel alternatives. The eco-efficiency was assessed as a ratio of life cycle costing as the economic indicator and three different environmental damages—human health, ecosystem quality, and resource availability. The eco-efficiency of FAME was the most favorable among all the potential substitutes with regard to human health and ecosystem quality, but the least favorable for resource availability impact. Even though BHD was beneficial in terms of life cycle costing, it was the least preferable when consid...
Bagasse-based electricity is gaining attention as an affordable, reliable, sustainable, and promi... more Bagasse-based electricity is gaining attention as an affordable, reliable, sustainable, and promising renewable energy source in Pakistan. Therefore, the focus of this analysis was to identify the environmental burdens associated with bagasse-based electricity production via high-pressure cogeneration. The scope of this study was defined as cradle to gate; involving cane production, cane transportation to the mill, the production of bagasse, and then the burning of bagasse in the cogeneration power plant to produce electricity. The overall results revealed that most of the impacts were contributed by the agricultural phase. For some impact categories—such as global warming, fine particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, and fossil resource scarcity—the bagasse-based electricity performed better than the grid mix electricity. However, the grid mix electricity performed better than the bagasse-based electricity in terms of eutrophication, land use, and water consumption...
Thailand has a strategic national policy to increase organic rice farming. This study firstly app... more Thailand has a strategic national policy to increase organic rice farming. This study firstly applied Life Cycle Assessment for evaluating the quantitative environmental impacts at the regional and national levels to facilitate the national policy decision on the expansion of organic rice cultivation areas. The impact categories of interest included global warming, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity, and the life cycle impact assessment method applied was ReCiPe. The results showed that the life cycle environmental impacts from organic rice cultivation in the nine provinces in the North were lower than those from the 12 provinces in the Northeast, due mainly to the higher yields and lower use of fertilizers in the former. The methane emissions in the North (11,147 kg CO2e/ha) were similar to those in the Northeast (11,378 kg CO2e/ha). However, nitrous oxide emissions in the Northeast were higher than in the North...
Agriculture and related industries form the backbone of many Asian economies. Not only do they pr... more Agriculture and related industries form the backbone of many Asian economies. Not only do they provide food, but they are increasingly proving to be a reliable local source of energy and materials. Biofuels from palm oil and sugarcane are prominent examples where the palm and sugar mills serve as biorefineries – providing food, fuels as well as materials. Nevertheless, there are also associated environmental impacts which need to be considered along with economic considerations. A life cycle approach is useful for both environmental as well as economic assessment. In particular eco-efficiency, a tool combining both environmental and economic aspects is very useful to analyze biorefinery configurations and look at the trade-offs between the environmental and economic aspects. The increase of value-added products from the biorefineries may lead to increased economic benefits but also increased environmental emissions. Indicators such as eco-efficiency show the relative advantages of t...
This research introduces an approach to analyze the nexus of water, energy and rice production sy... more This research introduces an approach to analyze the nexus of water, energy and rice production system at the watershed scale. The nexus relationship equations, developed to suit the local scale facilitating analysis in the rice production sector, were integrated with a Material Flow Analysis tool to expand the visualization capability. Moreover, the nexus flow was linked with the selected resource security, eco-efficiency and economic indicators, taking into account the spatial and temporal effect of water availability. The study covers the nexus resource flows not only in the rice production sector but also all other sectors in the whole watershed to assess local resource security. The tool covers wider implications, trade-offs and synergy impacts that were not much covered in previous studies. The tool was applied to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies of the impacts from proposed scenarios of alternative agricultural practices and land-use change options. The scenarios applying...
Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua
Chemical water quality monitoring is essential in areas where the harmful effects of naturally oc... more Chemical water quality monitoring is essential in areas where the harmful effects of naturally occurring or artificially introduced chemicals on health are significant. It is very difficult for developing countries to monitor a large number of chemicals due to human and financial constraints and hence simple guidelines are required in selecting and prioritising chemicals in the monitoring programmes. The aim
Water, energy, and food are the most basic and essential sectors for human welfare. However, an i... more Water, energy, and food are the most basic and essential sectors for human welfare. However, an inextricable nexus and competition exists among these sectors. Production of molasses-based bioethanol is an interesting case resulting in the production of different food and energy materials while consuming water, energy, land, and other raw materials, throughout its life cycle. This paper briefly describes the nexus among water, energy, and food for bioethanol in Pakistan and its environmental implications. A life cycle approach has been used for evaluating four footprint categories including the carbon, ecological, water scarcity, and energy footprints along with an energy analysis of bioethanol. In comparison to conventional gasoline, bioethanol would have benefits in terms of lesser greenhouse gas emissions, better use of productive land, and superior energy performance, but, this will be at the expense of higher impacts in terms of water scarcity. Therefore, considering only a single aspect could result in inadvertent trade-offs that may go unnoticed. The quantified values would help accomplish integrated resource management along with their utilization within limits so as to be available for other uses. This study could help in developing strategies for optimal management of resources to maximize the synergies and minimize the possible trade-offs.
A comparative life cycle assessment of the sugarcane biorefinery in different conceptual arrangem... more A comparative life cycle assessment of the sugarcane biorefinery in different conceptual arrangements was conducted considering four different alternatives with increasing utilization of byproducts. The first alternative with the least use of byproducts was taken as the base case and the fourth alternative was a completely integrated plant with gradually enhanced and efficient use of byproducts. The functional unit was defined as one tonne of sugarcane processed in the biorefinery complex for the production of cane sugar and its allied byproducts. The calculations were performed for the eight most relevant impact categories including global warming, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial acidification, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, mineral resource scarcity, and fossil resource scarcity. Overall, it was observed that for most of the impact categories, the values were progressively reduced with an increased use of byproducts (i.e. prevention of cane burning and its recovery; filter cake, ash, wastewater, and sludge as fertilizer; bagasse and cane trash for high pressure cogeneration; ethanol as biofuel and recovery of CO2; biogas for waste to energy production). In general, it could be concluded that an enhanced and efficient use of byproducts would significantly improve the environmental performance of the biorefinery complex.
Palm oil is a cheap and versatile edible oil in widespread use as a food ingredient that has been... more Palm oil is a cheap and versatile edible oil in widespread use as a food ingredient that has been linked to negative health and environmental outcomes. The current study aimed to understand the prospects for future health-focused policy development to limit food use of palm oil and promote a greater diversity of oils in Thailand's food system. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders. The interviews probed views on the economic, health and environmental dimensions of the issue, the prospects for health-focused policy development and the policy development process. Transcripts were analysed using a health policy analytical framework. Thailand. Stakeholders from a range of ministries, regulatory agencies, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and academia. There are several impediments to the emergence of strong regulation, including the primacy of economic considerations in setting policy, doubt and misperception about health im...
Biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas Linnaeus (JCL) has been considered for partial substitu... more Biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas Linnaeus (JCL) has been considered for partial substitution of diesel fuel for transportation in Thailand. The aim of this study is to investigate the energy consumption for long-term investment (20 years) of Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME) production in Thailand using a life cycle approach. Apart from the average result, two scenarios--best and worst case--are set up to illustrate the range of results due to the variety of management practices. The main contributors to the energy use are JCL cultivation, transesterification, and transportation process. The net energy gain (NEG) and net energy ratio (NER) of biodiesel and coproducts from the life cycle of JCL are 4720 GJ/ha and 6.03, respectively. Even if only biodiesel is considered without coproducts, the NER is 1.42, still higher than 1. The study will support decision makers in the energy policy sector to make informed decisions vis-a-vis promotion of JCL plantations for biodiesel.
In the context of the world's energy crisis and environmental concerns, crop-based ethanol h... more In the context of the world's energy crisis and environmental concerns, crop-based ethanol has emerged as an energy alternative, the use of which can help reduce oil imports as well as emissions of CO2 and other air pollutants. However, a clear disadvantage of ethanol is its high cost over gasoline under the current pricing scheme that does not include externalities. The intent of this study is to perform a life cycle analysis comparing environmental and cost performance of molasses-based E10 with those of CG. The results show that although E10 provides reduction in fossil energy use, petroleum use, CO2 and NOx emissions, its total social costs are higher than those of gasoline due to higher direct production costs and external costs for other air emissions, e.g. CH4, N2O, CO, SO2, VOC and PM10. An analysis of projection scenarios shows that technological innovations towards cleaner production help maximize ethanol's benefits whilst minimizing its limitations.
Thailand has increased wood pellet production for export and domestic use. The variations in prod... more Thailand has increased wood pellet production for export and domestic use. The variations in production processes, raw materials, and transportation related to wood pellet production make it necessary to evaluate the environmental impacts assessment. The objective of this study was to compare via Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), eight different cases of wood pellet production varying in terms of raw materials, production processes, energy use, and the format of transportation and to compare LCA of electricity production from wood pellets and fossil fuels. The comparison results show that leucaena is better as a feedstock for wood pellet production than acacia due to shorter harvest cycle and lesser use of resources. Pellet production consumes the most energy contributing significantly to the environmental impacts. The use of fossil fuels in wood pellet production and transportation also has a major contribution to the environmental impacts. Using wood pellets for electricity production ...
Thailand is one of the upcoming wood pellet exporters in the Southeast Asia region. Wood pellet p... more Thailand is one of the upcoming wood pellet exporters in the Southeast Asia region. Wood pellet production has been gradually increasing in Thailand; however, the recent trend is more rapid. Therefore, the objective of this study is to analyze the feedstock security for wood pellet production in Thailand. The important issue of feedstock security analysis relates to availability and diversity of feedstock (Shannon index) to meet the increased demand for the wood pellets in the future. The results present that the feedstock supply (from waste wood and fast-growing tree wood) in Thailand is 5.32 million tonnes of wood pellets per year. However, increasing 25% of wood pellet export and 50% of wood pellet domestic use causes a deficit in fast-growing tree wood because para-rubber waste wood is not distributed uniformly in all regions of the country. The present diversity of feedstock supply is quite low (Shannon index 0.17). Increasing the fast-growing tree plantation area in the wastel...
The current model of a linear economy with end-of-pipe waste treatment is not sustainable. Cleane... more The current model of a linear economy with end-of-pipe waste treatment is not sustainable. Cleaner production helps reduce resource use and emissions, but is still not an optimal solution without considering a life cycle perspective. Life cycle-based tools such as life cycle assessment and life cycle costing are useful for identifying optimal environmental and economic options for product systems. SDG 12 dealing with responsible consumption and production is key for sustainability. Developing of a circular economy requires life cycle thinking and life cycle-based tools for assessment. All these issues are discussed along with illustrative examples.
The development of new bio-based diesel substitutes can improve their compatibility with diesel e... more The development of new bio-based diesel substitutes can improve their compatibility with diesel engines. Nevertheless, for actual implementation, their environmental and economic performance needs to be studied. This study quantified the eco-efficiency of three bio-based diesels, viz., fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), partially hydrogenated FAME (H-FAME), and bio-hydrogenated diesel (BHD), to address the perspective of producers as well as policymakers for implementing the advanced diesel alternatives. The eco-efficiency was assessed as a ratio of life cycle costing as the economic indicator and three different environmental damages—human health, ecosystem quality, and resource availability. The eco-efficiency of FAME was the most favorable among all the potential substitutes with regard to human health and ecosystem quality, but the least favorable for resource availability impact. Even though BHD was beneficial in terms of life cycle costing, it was the least preferable when consid...
Bagasse-based electricity is gaining attention as an affordable, reliable, sustainable, and promi... more Bagasse-based electricity is gaining attention as an affordable, reliable, sustainable, and promising renewable energy source in Pakistan. Therefore, the focus of this analysis was to identify the environmental burdens associated with bagasse-based electricity production via high-pressure cogeneration. The scope of this study was defined as cradle to gate; involving cane production, cane transportation to the mill, the production of bagasse, and then the burning of bagasse in the cogeneration power plant to produce electricity. The overall results revealed that most of the impacts were contributed by the agricultural phase. For some impact categories—such as global warming, fine particulate matter formation, terrestrial acidification, and fossil resource scarcity—the bagasse-based electricity performed better than the grid mix electricity. However, the grid mix electricity performed better than the bagasse-based electricity in terms of eutrophication, land use, and water consumption...
Thailand has a strategic national policy to increase organic rice farming. This study firstly app... more Thailand has a strategic national policy to increase organic rice farming. This study firstly applied Life Cycle Assessment for evaluating the quantitative environmental impacts at the regional and national levels to facilitate the national policy decision on the expansion of organic rice cultivation areas. The impact categories of interest included global warming, terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and freshwater ecotoxicity, and the life cycle impact assessment method applied was ReCiPe. The results showed that the life cycle environmental impacts from organic rice cultivation in the nine provinces in the North were lower than those from the 12 provinces in the Northeast, due mainly to the higher yields and lower use of fertilizers in the former. The methane emissions in the North (11,147 kg CO2e/ha) were similar to those in the Northeast (11,378 kg CO2e/ha). However, nitrous oxide emissions in the Northeast were higher than in the North...
Agriculture and related industries form the backbone of many Asian economies. Not only do they pr... more Agriculture and related industries form the backbone of many Asian economies. Not only do they provide food, but they are increasingly proving to be a reliable local source of energy and materials. Biofuels from palm oil and sugarcane are prominent examples where the palm and sugar mills serve as biorefineries – providing food, fuels as well as materials. Nevertheless, there are also associated environmental impacts which need to be considered along with economic considerations. A life cycle approach is useful for both environmental as well as economic assessment. In particular eco-efficiency, a tool combining both environmental and economic aspects is very useful to analyze biorefinery configurations and look at the trade-offs between the environmental and economic aspects. The increase of value-added products from the biorefineries may lead to increased economic benefits but also increased environmental emissions. Indicators such as eco-efficiency show the relative advantages of t...
This research introduces an approach to analyze the nexus of water, energy and rice production sy... more This research introduces an approach to analyze the nexus of water, energy and rice production system at the watershed scale. The nexus relationship equations, developed to suit the local scale facilitating analysis in the rice production sector, were integrated with a Material Flow Analysis tool to expand the visualization capability. Moreover, the nexus flow was linked with the selected resource security, eco-efficiency and economic indicators, taking into account the spatial and temporal effect of water availability. The study covers the nexus resource flows not only in the rice production sector but also all other sectors in the whole watershed to assess local resource security. The tool covers wider implications, trade-offs and synergy impacts that were not much covered in previous studies. The tool was applied to evaluate the trade-offs and synergies of the impacts from proposed scenarios of alternative agricultural practices and land-use change options. The scenarios applying...
Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua
Chemical water quality monitoring is essential in areas where the harmful effects of naturally oc... more Chemical water quality monitoring is essential in areas where the harmful effects of naturally occurring or artificially introduced chemicals on health are significant. It is very difficult for developing countries to monitor a large number of chemicals due to human and financial constraints and hence simple guidelines are required in selecting and prioritising chemicals in the monitoring programmes. The aim
Water, energy, and food are the most basic and essential sectors for human welfare. However, an i... more Water, energy, and food are the most basic and essential sectors for human welfare. However, an inextricable nexus and competition exists among these sectors. Production of molasses-based bioethanol is an interesting case resulting in the production of different food and energy materials while consuming water, energy, land, and other raw materials, throughout its life cycle. This paper briefly describes the nexus among water, energy, and food for bioethanol in Pakistan and its environmental implications. A life cycle approach has been used for evaluating four footprint categories including the carbon, ecological, water scarcity, and energy footprints along with an energy analysis of bioethanol. In comparison to conventional gasoline, bioethanol would have benefits in terms of lesser greenhouse gas emissions, better use of productive land, and superior energy performance, but, this will be at the expense of higher impacts in terms of water scarcity. Therefore, considering only a single aspect could result in inadvertent trade-offs that may go unnoticed. The quantified values would help accomplish integrated resource management along with their utilization within limits so as to be available for other uses. This study could help in developing strategies for optimal management of resources to maximize the synergies and minimize the possible trade-offs.
A comparative life cycle assessment of the sugarcane biorefinery in different conceptual arrangem... more A comparative life cycle assessment of the sugarcane biorefinery in different conceptual arrangements was conducted considering four different alternatives with increasing utilization of byproducts. The first alternative with the least use of byproducts was taken as the base case and the fourth alternative was a completely integrated plant with gradually enhanced and efficient use of byproducts. The functional unit was defined as one tonne of sugarcane processed in the biorefinery complex for the production of cane sugar and its allied byproducts. The calculations were performed for the eight most relevant impact categories including global warming, freshwater eutrophication, terrestrial acidification, terrestrial ecotoxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, human carcinogenic toxicity, mineral resource scarcity, and fossil resource scarcity. Overall, it was observed that for most of the impact categories, the values were progressively reduced with an increased use of byproducts (i.e. prevention of cane burning and its recovery; filter cake, ash, wastewater, and sludge as fertilizer; bagasse and cane trash for high pressure cogeneration; ethanol as biofuel and recovery of CO2; biogas for waste to energy production). In general, it could be concluded that an enhanced and efficient use of byproducts would significantly improve the environmental performance of the biorefinery complex.
Palm oil is a cheap and versatile edible oil in widespread use as a food ingredient that has been... more Palm oil is a cheap and versatile edible oil in widespread use as a food ingredient that has been linked to negative health and environmental outcomes. The current study aimed to understand the prospects for future health-focused policy development to limit food use of palm oil and promote a greater diversity of oils in Thailand's food system. Eighteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of stakeholders. The interviews probed views on the economic, health and environmental dimensions of the issue, the prospects for health-focused policy development and the policy development process. Transcripts were analysed using a health policy analytical framework. Thailand. Stakeholders from a range of ministries, regulatory agencies, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and academia. There are several impediments to the emergence of strong regulation, including the primacy of economic considerations in setting policy, doubt and misperception about health im...
Biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas Linnaeus (JCL) has been considered for partial substitu... more Biodiesel production from Jatropha curcas Linnaeus (JCL) has been considered for partial substitution of diesel fuel for transportation in Thailand. The aim of this study is to investigate the energy consumption for long-term investment (20 years) of Jatropha Methyl Ester (JME) production in Thailand using a life cycle approach. Apart from the average result, two scenarios--best and worst case--are set up to illustrate the range of results due to the variety of management practices. The main contributors to the energy use are JCL cultivation, transesterification, and transportation process. The net energy gain (NEG) and net energy ratio (NER) of biodiesel and coproducts from the life cycle of JCL are 4720 GJ/ha and 6.03, respectively. Even if only biodiesel is considered without coproducts, the NER is 1.42, still higher than 1. The study will support decision makers in the energy policy sector to make informed decisions vis-a-vis promotion of JCL plantations for biodiesel.
In the context of the world's energy crisis and environmental concerns, crop-based ethanol h... more In the context of the world's energy crisis and environmental concerns, crop-based ethanol has emerged as an energy alternative, the use of which can help reduce oil imports as well as emissions of CO2 and other air pollutants. However, a clear disadvantage of ethanol is its high cost over gasoline under the current pricing scheme that does not include externalities. The intent of this study is to perform a life cycle analysis comparing environmental and cost performance of molasses-based E10 with those of CG. The results show that although E10 provides reduction in fossil energy use, petroleum use, CO2 and NOx emissions, its total social costs are higher than those of gasoline due to higher direct production costs and external costs for other air emissions, e.g. CH4, N2O, CO, SO2, VOC and PM10. An analysis of projection scenarios shows that technological innovations towards cleaner production help maximize ethanol's benefits whilst minimizing its limitations.
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