Abstract
Greenhouses require large amounts of energy, which is the dominant factor making greenhouses more emission intensive than open-field cultivation. Alternative heating systems, such as combined heat and power (CHP), biogas, and industrial waste heat, are continuously being researched for reducing the environmental impacts of greenhouses. This paper assesses utilizing industrial waste heat and CO2 enrichment in greenhouses as an example to propose “agro-industrial symbiosis” (AIS), to refer to a symbiotic co-operation between agricultural and industrial partners. The global warming potentials (GWPs) of greenhouse production using different heating systems are inadequately compared in the literature, which is the research gap addressed herein. Additionally, potential emission reductions of greenhouse production with industrial waste heat are yet to be assessed via lifecycle assessment (LCA). A comparative LCA of Finnish greenhouse tomato and cucumber production using various heating systems was conducted. Naturally, replacing fossil fuels with bioenergy and renewables significantly decreases the GWP. CHP systems result in decreased GWP only when using biogas as the energy source. Additionally, utilizing industrial waste heat and CO2 resulted in a low GWP. These results are applicable worldwide to guide political decision-making and clean energy production in the horticultural sector.
Highlights
Published: 12 August 2021Human interference with nature and its operating systems, such as the climate, has continuously increased over the Anthropocene
Applying a combined heat and power (CHP) boiler to cover the heat demand of a greenhouse tomato production resulted in a global warming potentials (GWPs) of 4394 kg CO2 -eq functional unit (FU)−1, which is considerably higher than that obtained using a conventional natural gas boiler
This paper signifies the impacts of heat demand and the heating method on the GWP of greenhouse production
Summary
Human interference with nature and its operating systems, such as the climate, has continuously increased over the Anthropocene. Greenhouses protect plants from atmospheric impacts and modify the microclimate for the crops, leading to improved quality and higher yields of production, while lengthening the market availability of domestic crops. Due to their high economic efficiency, greenhouses are an attractive business for agricultural entrepreneurs, which explains the continuous growth of greenhouse production in Finland over the past few years [3]. Greenhouse production consumes high quantities of energy, requires multiple production inputs, and generates large amounts of waste, which can lead to environmental concerns
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