Abstract
Although there is great opportunity, the bioeconomy is not a silver bullet in the quest to solve various environmental problems. This assessment tests the no agricultural waste concept, an agricultural system where all residues are utilized within a value chain, to elucidate whether the concept does indeed improve environmental performance across various regions, and if so, explores how various biorefinery concepts might be organized into various value chains to attain environmental benefits. In order to valorize this, the study illustrates how to do a step-wise assessment in order to design biorefinery set-ups based on their feedstock compatibility and region of implementation. The results show that no agricultural waste systems do not always result in environmental benefits, especially when environmental impacts are measured via a holistic interpretation of environmental damages, namely monetizing environmental damages. Furthermore, disagreement is shown when comparing environmental impacts interpreted via a single impact category, here global warming potential (GWP) and monetized environmental damages (MED). The performance of the various biorefineries was highly affected by the degree of decarbonization present in the energy grid of each region. While energy intensive biorefineries are able to provide benefit in terms of global warming savings, tradeoffs are observed where impacts are shifted to other areas of environmental impact. Despite these tradeoffs, across multiple regions, there is great potential for large-scale implementation of biorefineries as a tool for ameliorating environmental damages.
Highlights
The bioeconomy is perceived as one way to reduce environmental impacts, in particular emissions of CO2 caused by the use of fossil fuels
There is great opportunity, the bioeconomy is not a silver bullet in the quest to solve various envi ronmental problems. This assessment tests the no agricultural waste concept, an agricultural system where all residues are utilized within a value chain, to elucidate whether the concept does improve environmental performance across various regions, and if so, explores how various biorefinery concepts might be organized into various value chains to attain environmental benefits
The results show that no agricultural waste systems do not always result in environmental benefits, especially when environmental impacts are measured via a holistic interpretation of environmental damages, namely monetizing environmental damages
Summary
The bioeconomy is perceived as one way to reduce environmental impacts, in particular emissions of CO2 caused by the use of fossil fuels. The updated version has more focus on the deployment of local bioeconomies in the EU as well as increased focus on the sustainability issues related to the bioeconomy. In addition to the strategy of the European Union, several national and regional bio economy strategies have been developed to support the bioeconomy in a particular country or region (de Besi and McCormick, 2015; Motola et al, 2018). Even though strategies are developed for the entire EU or individual nations, they are most likely to be implemented regionally (de Besi and McCormick, 2015; Motola et al, 2018).
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