Different types of environmental assessments are available:
environmental impact assessment [6], environmental risk assessment [7], and life cycle assessment (LCA). While the first two
methods assess site-specific change in environmental conditions
that could pose a threat to human health and well-being (e.g.,
concentration of specific pollutants), the third analysis is holistic
and evaluates the local and global impacts through all stages of a
product life cycle [8]. LCA can identify which stage of seaweed
production has the highest impact on a series of environmental
indicators and guide the designer to make choices that minimize
the impacts.
The last decade has seen an increase of LCA studies about
seaweed production and use. Researchers showed that biogas or
bioethanol production have lower environmental impact than their
fossil substitutes [9–15]. However, the energy price can hinder the
development of production plants solely dedicated to biogas and
bioethanol [4]. The economic aspect might be improved by the
development of biorefineries that use the biomass in successive
steps to extract multiple valuable products, i.e., biogas, bioethanol,
fertilizer, and proteins [16–18]. High-value substances like proteins [19] or fucoidan [20] can increase the revenue of the production process and sustain the biorefinery economy.
At the current stage, Europe has several research projects on
biorefineries but no industrial scale facility [4]. Performing a LCA
based on laboratory data, also called anticipatory or prospective
LCA [21–23], introduces uncertainty in results and is likely overestimating the impact compared with industrial optimized processes [23–25]. However, this should not discourage the LCA
practitioners, who can still provide an informative result that can
be used during the development process of pilot to large scale
cultivation sites. Increasing the number of reports and publication
will foster the data sharing and improve the reliability and quality of
future studies.
This chapter describes how to perform an LCA following the
protocol described by the ISO standard [8]. Through the description, seaweed cultivation will be used to provide examples and
highlight features of particular relevance.
2 Methods
LCA methodology is constantly evolving and improving, thanks to
the contribution of practitioners and scientists. While the concept of
a holistic assessment—considering all the stages in a product
manufacturing or service provision—is common in all LCAs, the procedure might differ, based on different purpose of the analysis and
assumptions. The protocol to conduct an LCA is formalized in the ISO
standard 14040:2006 [26] and 14044:2006 [8]. The standard offers a
104
Michele Seghetta and Pietro Goglio
environmental impact assessment [6], environmental risk assessment [7], and life cycle assessment (LCA). While the first two
methods assess site-specific change in environmental conditions
that could pose a threat to human health and well-being (e.g.,
concentration of specific pollutants), the third analysis is holistic
and evaluates the local and global impacts through all stages of a
product life cycle [8]. LCA can identify which stage of seaweed
production has the highest impact on a series of environmental
indicators and guide the designer to make choices that minimize
the impacts.
The last decade has seen an increase of LCA studies about
seaweed production and use. Researchers showed that biogas or
bioethanol production have lower environmental impact than their
fossil substitutes [9–15]. However, the energy price can hinder the
development of production plants solely dedicated to biogas and
bioethanol [4]. The economic aspect might be improved by the
development of biorefineries that use the biomass in successive
steps to extract multiple valuable products, i.e., biogas, bioethanol,
fertilizer, and proteins [16–18]. High-value substances like proteins [19] or fucoidan [20] can increase the revenue of the production process and sustain the biorefinery economy.
At the current stage, Europe has several research projects on
biorefineries but no industrial scale facility [4]. Performing a LCA
based on laboratory data, also called anticipatory or prospective
LCA [21–23], introduces uncertainty in results and is likely overestimating the impact compared with industrial optimized processes [23–25]. However, this should not discourage the LCA
practitioners, who can still provide an informative result that can
be used during the development process of pilot to large scale
cultivation sites. Increasing the number of reports and publication
will foster the data sharing and improve the reliability and quality of
future studies.
This chapter describes how to perform an LCA following the
protocol described by the ISO standard [8]. Through the description, seaweed cultivation will be used to provide examples and
highlight features of particular relevance.
2 Methods
LCA methodology is constantly evolving and improving, thanks to
the contribution of practitioners and scientists. While the concept of
a holistic assessment—considering all the stages in a product
manufacturing or service provision—is common in all LCAs, the procedure might differ, based on different purpose of the analysis and
assumptions. The protocol to conduct an LCA is formalized in the ISO
standard 14040:2006 [26] and 14044:2006 [8]. The standard offers a
104
Michele Seghetta and Pietro Goglio