TY - JOUR
T1 - Integration of greenhouse gas control technologies within the energy, water and food nexus to enhance the environmental performance of food production systems
AU - Al-Ansari, Tareq
AU - Korre, Anna
AU - Nie, Zhenggang
AU - Shah, Nilay
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/9/20
Y1 - 2017/9/20
N2 - The sustainability of food production systems is inherently linked with energy, water and food (EWF) resources directly and in-directly throughout their lifecycle. The understanding of the interdependencies between the three resource sectors in the context of food production can provide a measurable account for resource requirements, while meeting food security objectives. The energy, water and food Nexus tool developed by the authors has been designed to model the inter-dependency between energy, water and food resources, whilst conducting an environmental assessment of product systems. With emphasis on the inter-linkages between EWF resources, the tool quantifies material flows, natural resource and energy consumption at component unit process level. This work integrates greenhouse gas control and waste to power technologies within the energy, water and food Nexus tool and evaluates the environmental impact of a hypothetical food product system designed to deliver a perceived level of food self-sufficiency (40%) for the State of Qatar. Multiple system configurations, representative of different pathways for the delivery of consistent food products are evaluated, transforming a once linear product system into a circular design. The sub-systems added consist of a biomass integrated gasification combined cycle which recycles solid waste into useful forms of energy that can be re-used within the nexus. In addition, a carbon capture sub-system is integrated to capture and recycle CO2 from both the fossil fuel powered and the biomass integrated gasification combined cycle energy sub-systems. The integration of carbon capture with the biomass integrated gasification combined cycle transforms the carbon neutral biomass integrated gasification combined cycle process to a negative greenhouse gas emission technology known as bio-energy with carbon capture and storage. For the different scenarios and sub-system configurations considered, the global warming potential can be theoretically balanced (reduced by ∼98%) through the integration of photovoltaics, biomass integrated gasification combined cycle and carbon capture technologies. The peak global warming potential, i.e. a fully fossil fuel dependent system, is recorded at 1.73 × 109 kg CO2 eq./year whilst the lowest achievable global warming potential is 2.18 × 107 kg CO2 eq./year when utilising a combination of photovoltaics, carbon capture integrated with combined cycle gas turbine in addition to the integrated negative emission achieving system. The natural gas consumption is reduced by 7.8 × 107 kg/year in the best case configuration, achieving a credit. In the same scenario, the photovoltaics land footprint required is calculated to a maximum of 660 ha. The maximum theoretically achievable negative emission is 1.09 × 109 kg CO2/year.
AB - The sustainability of food production systems is inherently linked with energy, water and food (EWF) resources directly and in-directly throughout their lifecycle. The understanding of the interdependencies between the three resource sectors in the context of food production can provide a measurable account for resource requirements, while meeting food security objectives. The energy, water and food Nexus tool developed by the authors has been designed to model the inter-dependency between energy, water and food resources, whilst conducting an environmental assessment of product systems. With emphasis on the inter-linkages between EWF resources, the tool quantifies material flows, natural resource and energy consumption at component unit process level. This work integrates greenhouse gas control and waste to power technologies within the energy, water and food Nexus tool and evaluates the environmental impact of a hypothetical food product system designed to deliver a perceived level of food self-sufficiency (40%) for the State of Qatar. Multiple system configurations, representative of different pathways for the delivery of consistent food products are evaluated, transforming a once linear product system into a circular design. The sub-systems added consist of a biomass integrated gasification combined cycle which recycles solid waste into useful forms of energy that can be re-used within the nexus. In addition, a carbon capture sub-system is integrated to capture and recycle CO2 from both the fossil fuel powered and the biomass integrated gasification combined cycle energy sub-systems. The integration of carbon capture with the biomass integrated gasification combined cycle transforms the carbon neutral biomass integrated gasification combined cycle process to a negative greenhouse gas emission technology known as bio-energy with carbon capture and storage. For the different scenarios and sub-system configurations considered, the global warming potential can be theoretically balanced (reduced by ∼98%) through the integration of photovoltaics, biomass integrated gasification combined cycle and carbon capture technologies. The peak global warming potential, i.e. a fully fossil fuel dependent system, is recorded at 1.73 × 109 kg CO2 eq./year whilst the lowest achievable global warming potential is 2.18 × 107 kg CO2 eq./year when utilising a combination of photovoltaics, carbon capture integrated with combined cycle gas turbine in addition to the integrated negative emission achieving system. The natural gas consumption is reduced by 7.8 × 107 kg/year in the best case configuration, achieving a credit. In the same scenario, the photovoltaics land footprint required is calculated to a maximum of 660 ha. The maximum theoretically achievable negative emission is 1.09 × 109 kg CO2/year.
KW - Biomass
KW - Carbon capture
KW - Gasification
KW - LCA
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85024116843&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.097
DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.097
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85024116843
SN - 0959-6526
VL - 162
SP - 1592
EP - 1606
JO - Journal of Cleaner Production
JF - Journal of Cleaner Production
ER -