Dataset Information

Environmental Impacts of the Brazilian Egg Industry: Life Cycle Assessment of the Battery Cage Production System.

ABSTRACT: Brazil stands as one of the world's leading producers of animal protein, ranking sixth in global egg production. However, estimated growth in production demand, along with environmental impacts, represents a potential threat to the sustainability of the food system. Methods for assessing and quantifying the environmental impacts generated by Brazilian egg production remain scarce, lacking current reports on comparative effects or guiding standards. The objective of this study was to conduct a life cycle assessment from cradle to farm gate, adhering to ISO 14040 and 14044 standards, for the battery cage egg production systems and associated products in Brazil, with the aim of supporting and promoting sustainability improvements in the Brazilian egg industry. The entire life cycle modeling and process sustainability analysis were executed using the openLCA software, integrated with the Ecoinvent database. Emissions related to egg production yielded results of 65.06 kg SO₂ eq., 27.74 kg N eq., 3086.71 kg CO₂ eq., 75,152.66 CTUe, 2.75 × 10^-5 CFC-11 eq., and 10,044.68 kg MJ eq. per ton of eggs produced. These findings can serve as comparative benchmarks for future studies and for analyzing data across different egg production systems in Brazil.

SUBMITTER: Maciel FF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10967559 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Environmental Impacts of the Brazilian Egg Industry: Life Cycle Assessment of the Battery Cage Production System.

Maciel Fabiane de Fátima FF Gates Richard Stephen RS Tinôco Ilda de Fátima Ferreira IFF Pelletier Nathan N Ibarburu-Blanc Maro A MA Renato Natalia Dos Santos NDS Sousa Fernanda Campos de FC Andrade Rafaella Resende RR Silva Guilherme Moreira de Melo GMM Becciolini Valentina V

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20240311 6

Brazil stands as one of the world's leading producers of animal protein, ranking sixth in global egg production. However, estimated growth in production demand, along with environmental impacts, represents a potential threat to the sustainability of the food system. Methods for assessing and quantifying the environmental impacts generated by Brazilian egg production remain scarce, lacking current reports on comparative effects or guiding standards. The objective of this study was to conduct a li ...[more]

PMID: 38539960

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Project description:The aim of this study was to evaluate life cycle environmental impacts associated with the generation of electricity from biogas produced by the anaerobic digestion (AD) of agricultural products and waste. Five real plants in Italy were considered, using maize silage, slurry, and tomato waste as feedstocks and cogenerating electricity and heat; the latter is not utilized. The results suggest that maize silage and the operation of anaerobic digesters, including open storage of digestate, are the main contributors to the impacts of biogas electricity. The system that uses animal slurry is the best option, except for the marine and terrestrial ecotoxicity. The results also suggest that it is environmentally better to have smaller plants using slurry and waste rather than bigger installations, which require maize silage to operate efficiently. Electricity from biogas is environmentally more sustainable than grid electricity for seven out of 11 impacts considered. However, in comparison with natural gas, biogas electricity is worse for seven out of 11 impacts. It also has mostly higher impacts than other renewables, with a few exceptions, notably solar photovoltaics. Thus, for the AD systems and mesophilic operating conditions considered in this study, biogas electricity can help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to a fossil-intensive electricity mix; however, some other impacts increase. If mitigation of climate change is the main aim, other renewables have a greater potential to reduce GHG emissions. If, in addition to this, other impacts are considered, then hydro, wind, and geothermal power are better alternatives to biogas electricity. However, utilization of heat would improve significantly its environmental sustainability, particularly global warming potential, summer smog, and the depletion of abiotic resources and the ozone layer. Further improvements can be achieved by banning open digestate storage to prevent methane emissions and regulating digestate spreading onto land to minimize emissions of ammonia and related environmental impacts.

Dataset Information

Environmental Impacts of the Brazilian Egg Industry: Life Cycle Assessment of the Battery Cage Production System.

Publications

Environmental Impacts of the Brazilian Egg Industry: Life Cycle Assessment of the Battery Cage Production System.

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