Abstract
Global climate change resulting from increased greenhouse gas emission and environmental pollution remain a serious threat to the world. Food processing industries is one of the major contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions. Intergovernmental Panel on climate change (IPCC) reported that greenhouse gas emission should be reduced to avert the worst effects of climate change. One of the ways to reducing greenhouse gas emission is by assessing the environmental impact associated with food production, and one of the well-known methodologies used for environmental impact evaluation is life cycle assessment model (LCA). This paper presents the results of LCA analysis of cassava flour production in Southwestern Nigeria. The result shows that global warming potential of cassava flour production was 1.105E+01 kg CO2 equivalent, eutrophication 2.632E-03 kg NO3 equivalent and acidification 5.583E-03 kg SO2 equivalent. In this study, the major contributor to global warming is the carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from burning of fossil fuel (Coal) used for drying operation which emits 93% of the CO2, while 7% of the total CO2 emission is from the diesel generator. This study has shown that cassava flour production is contributing greatly to environmental global warming potential in Southwest Nigeria. Key words: Greenhouse gas, life cycle assessment, global warming, eutrophication, acidification.
Highlights
Cassava (Manihot esculanta crantz), is extensively cultivated as annual crop in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world for its edible, starchy, tuberous root which serve as a major source of carbohydrates
The objective of the study was to identify and quantify potential environmental impacts associated with cassava flour production in Southwest Nigeria, especially activities that have the largest impacts and suggest improvement options or impact reduction strategies towards the sustainability of the system
Results presented in this work are related to two aspects; the energy use in the production of cassava flour and the environmental impacts of the product system boundary
Summary
Cassava (Manihot esculanta crantz), is extensively cultivated as annual crop in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world for its edible, starchy, tuberous root which serve as a major source of carbohydrates. Under adverse growth conditions may take about 18 months to produce crop, and 8 months under favourable conditions. Cassava tolerates a wide range of soil pH (4.0 to 8.0). It is grown in a Savannah climate, but it can grow in a wide range of rainfall conditions such as 1000 to 2000 mm/a (Kuiper et al, 2007). Cassava ranks third on the list of major food crops in developing countries after rice and maize with production in 2010 estimated at 249 million tonnes (UNCTAD, 2012). The output of cassava has grown much faster in Africa than in the other major producing
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