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Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 923930

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Resources, Conservation and Recycling


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Life cycle assessment of raw materials for non-wood pulp mills: Hemp and ax
S. Gonzlez-Garca , A. Hospido, G. Feijoo, M.T. Moreira
Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782-Santiago de Compostela, Spain

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 29 April 2008
Received in revised form 29 January 2010
Accepted 31 January 2010
Keywords:
Environmental impact
Flax
Hemp
LCA
Life Cycle Assessment
Non-wood bre production

a b s t r a c t
At the present time, there is a remarkable increasing interest for using non-woody bres as raw materials
for pulp mills. The present study aims to identify and quantify the environmental impacts associated with
the production of hemp and ax bres for speciality paper pulp by using the Life Cycle Assessment (from
now, LCA) methodology. One ton of bre entering the pulp mill was used as functional unit in both
systems.
Inventory data for the foreground system (agricultural inputs and outputs) were obtained directly from
growers (Spanish plantations and expert advisors) and combined, when necessary, with bibliographic
sources. Data for the background system such as production of chemicals and pesticides, machinery or
electricity were taken from the Ecoinvent database.
The CML baseline 2000 methodology was selected to quantify the potential environmental impact
associated to the crops. Specically global warming (GWP), acidication (AP), eutrophication (EP) and
photochemical oxidant formation (POP) were evaluated. In addition, two ow indicators were considered:
energy (EU) and pesticide use (PU).
Production of hemp bre reported higher values for all the impact categories analyzed. On the contrary,
ow indicators were more intensive in the ax scenario due to irrigation and pesticide consumption. LCA
tool aided to identify the hot spots, so that a proposal for upgrading alternatives to reduce environmental
impacts could be made. Production and use of fertilizers as well as the stage of scutching were identied
as the hot spots in both crops; in addition, harvesting has also signicant contribution in hemp production
and irrigation regarding the ax scenario. Future work will be focused on the study of non-wood bre
processing in order to get a complete picture of the non-wood pulp life cycle.
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Paper pulp manufacturing is the rst non-food industrial utilization of plant biomass (Gutierrez et al., 2001). Paper is dened as
a sheet mainly constituted by recycled or virgin bres of cellulose,
and its properties and resistance depend on its brous composition,
distribution in the sheet as well as number and strength of interbre bonds. In theory, all vascular plants in nature can be used as
sources of cellulosic bres for paper and pulp manufacture; however, both availability and production costs limit the natural source
of bre (Garca Hortal and Jimenez Alcaide, 2005).
Nowadays wood bres constitute the main virgin source of
paper pulp raw materials in developed countries (Sigoillot et al.,
2005). However, in the last years the pulp and paper sector has
been facing several problems related to the shortage of forest industry traditional resources. As a result, there is an increasing interest

Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 981563100x16020; fax: +34 981547168.


E-mail addresses: sara.gonzalez@usc.es (S. Gonzlez-Garca),
almudena.hospido@usc.es (A. Hospido), gumersindo.feijoo@usc.es (G. Feijoo),
mariateresa.moreira@usc.es (M.T. Moreira).
0921-3449/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2010.01.011

in using non-wood bres, mainly for specialty paper production,


and many fast growing annual as well as perennial plants have
been identied, cultivated and studied for their suitability for pulp
and paper manufacture (Garca et al., 2003). Among the non-wood
plants, straw has been used in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin
America for the production of paper pulp as well as in Spain and
other European countries for manufacturing of high-quality pulps
for speciality papers (Hedjazi et al., 2009; Sigoillot et al., 2005; Zhao
et al., 2006). Several reasons support this interest: their easy availability as agricultural waste (such as wheat straw, rice straw or
sugar cane bagasse), avoiding shortage of forest resources, good
yields and stable productions of annual plants, farmers can receive
subsidies for their cultivation and bres present a wide range of
characteristics and chemical composition (higher yields of cellulose and lower lignin contents in comparison with these of woods)
(Ye and Farriol, 2007). In addition, non-wood paper pulps are easier to obtain because of the linkages nature (Camarero et al., 2004;
Sigoillot et al., 2005).
This paper is focused on the environmental study of hemp and
ax straw as potential sources of bre from which high quality
paper products are produced. Both crops have been two of the most
important bre crops in Europe, although hemp is more widespread

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S. Gonzlez-Garca et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 923930

than ax in NE Spain (Lloveras et al., 2006). Hemp and ax are the


raw materials used in a Spanish specialty paper pulp mill with a
long experience in chemical and mechanical treatments of nonwood bres coming from annual plants. Besides, this factory can
be considered representative of the present movements related to
the growing interest in applying green biotechnology to cooking
and bleaching processes to reduce pollution as well as improve the
quality of pulp produced (Hedjazi et al., 2009).
Hemp and ax cultivation have excellent agronomic characteristics, they can also be excellent predecessors in crop rotation,
and in addition can provide high bre yields (Casa et al., 1999;
Gorchs and Lloveras, 2003; Lloveras et al., 2006; Svennerstedt and
Svensson, 2006; Zentner et al., 1989). Bast bres (phloem) derived
from the vascular bundles of the plant stem mixed approximately
with 15% of core bres (xylem) are used as raw material in pulp
making (Ebskamp, 2002). These crops were considered in the study
because they both are two of the most important non-wood raw
materials used nowadays for speciality paper pulp (Camarero et
al., 2004; Lloveras et al., 2006) and their environmental evaluation
and comparison is recommended to evaluate possible differences
in their production.
An agricultural process, as the cultivation of hemp or ax,
includes not only eld operations but also impacts related to the
post-preparation of product, extraction of raw materials (fuels,
minerals, . . .) as well as production and transportation of system
inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, . . .) and their effects must
be taken into account in order to achieve a holistic evaluation of the
system. In this sense, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a methodology
that aims to analyse products, processes or services from an environmental perspective, has been shown to be an useful and valuable
tool for environmental evaluation of agricultural systems (Audsley
et al., 1997; Brentrup et al., 2001; Halberg, 1999; Lewis et al., 1999;
Mil i Canals, 2003; Mil i Canals et al., 2006; Payraudeau and van
der Werf, 2005; Pizzigallo et al., 2006; van der Werf, 2002a; van der
Werf and Petit, 2002b; van der Werf et al., 2007).
The approach is not only gathering the inventory data for each
crop (taking into account eld operations, bre processing and
transport to the gate of pulp mill) but also identication of hot
spots and discussion of some improvement opportunities with the
aim of comparison between two agricultural systems with similar
nal products.

2. Materials and methods


2.1. LCA methodology
The purpose of this LCA study is to determine which nonwoody bre (hemp or ax), from an environmental point of view,
is more favourable for its use as raw material in high quality paper
pulp manufacturing. Two plantations located in NE Spain representing the state of the art production system and suppliers of
bres to a Spanish pulp mill were considered as agricultural standard scenarios for hemp and ax production (season 20032006
and 20002001, respectively). Data for foreground system (agricultural inputs and outputs, and agricultural standard practices)
were obtained from expert advisors and personal communications with Spanish growers, and complemented when necessary
with bibliographic sources (Casa et al., 1999; Easson and Molloy,
2000; Gorchs and Lloveras, 2003; Lloveras et al., 2006; van der
Werf, 2004; Zah et al., 2007). Climatic conditions in the region
are regarded as Mediterranean with a minimum annual precipitation of 700 mm and 400 to 900 m over sea level. The soil texture
was loam with clay 23.5%, organic matter 2.4% and CaCO3 equivalent 22%, pH (water) is about 8.3 (Lloveras et al., 2006). Data
for background system (agro-chemical and pesticide production,

machinery production and transportation) were taken from the


Ecoinvent database (Dones et al., 2004; Nemecek et al., 2004;
Spielmann et al., 2004).
The function of the agricultural systems under study is to produce non-wood pulp bre and therefore the functional unit was
dened as 1 ton of bre ready to be processed in a pulp mill. Moreover, both bres have a very similar yield in terms of pulp and they
can be used in the same proportion in the pulp mill. The selection
of functional unit seems to be in agreement with other agricultural LCA studies with different types of products (Brentrup et al.,
2004a,b; Charles et al., 2006; Mil i Canals et al., 2006; Ramjeawon,
2004), where mass-based functional units were also selected.
As the focus of this study was the bre production, no posterior processing (either the bre or the by-products: woody core
and dust) was included within the system boundaries. The system
boundaries included then all the life cycle stages from the cradle
(raw materials production) to the pulp mill gate as described below.
Although the specic period of growth in both crops is quite short
(35 months), a 12-month seasonal period was considered here
since soil preparation activities were also included and no rotation
crops activities take place in the eld.
The impact assessment phase was carried out following the
CML baseline 2000 methodology (Guine et al., 2001) and in particular the impact categories usually used in an agricultural LCA
(global warming (GWP), acidication (AP), eutrophication (EP) and
photochemical oxidant formation (POP)) were analyzed as well
as two ow indicators concerning to the use of non-renewable
energy resources and pesticide active substance consumption. The
selection of these impact categories seems to be suitable for the
evaluation of crops related to industrial products (van der Werf and
Turunen, 2008). SimaPro 7.0 (PR Consultants) was used to perform
the impact assessment stage.
2.2. Hemp system description/production
Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is a slender and annual herbaceous
crop which depending on its handling and agro-chemical aspects
can supply up to 20 tonnes of dry matter per hectare (Struik et al.,
2000). Nowadays, this crop is awakening great interest as a renewable source for many industrial products such as paper-making,
horse bedding, house building and insulation materials or biodiesel
(Acosta Casas and Rieradevall i Pons, 2005; Gorchs and Lloveras,
2003; van der Werf and Turunen, 2006; Yates, 2006).
Historically, hemp was grown for its bre for industrial applications for millennia throughout Europe and, due to a recent
relaxation of cropping rules within the European Union, there has
been a renewed increase in interest in the crop. In Spain hemp cultivation has never stopped and at the present time, it is mainly grown
in NE Spain (Gorchs and Lloveras, 2003).
System boundaries cover up to (and including) the agricultural
production subsystem (comprising: soil management, fertilisation,
sowing and harvesting), straw processing subsystem (that is to
say the stems post-treatment once harvested: retting, sun drying,
scutching, baling and storage) and transportation of the bre bales
to the pulp mill gate (Fig. 1).
The establishment of hemp crop consists in the seedbed preparation with a combination of both plough and rotary harrow.
Fertilizers application is prior to seeding. Sowing date is around
late April, Spanish cultivars are seeded and a cereal drill is usually
used. Harvesting is around middle August and does not required
special equipment (Gorchs and Lloveras, 2003). Machinery for forage harvest is generally used. Hemp is cut and spread out over the
soil in windrows to be retted (dew retting). This step can last up
to 3 weeks and to help the process, the hemp bundles are periodically turned over. When the moisture content is 1114%, the straw
is mechanically scutched in order to separate the valuable bres

S. Gonzlez-Garca et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 923930

925

Fig. 1. Subsystems included in the LCA of bre hemp/ax production: System boundaries and process chain. White boxes are common for both cultivations, black boxes only
occurs at hemp production and spotted boxes at ax production.

from the woody core in the retted straw. Roughly, the average bre
content in the retted straw is 33%. Next, bales of bre (325 kg per
bale) are formed with a round baler and storage (van der Werf,
2002a).
Inventory data of global process of hemp cultivation and processing is shown in Table 1. Production of sowing seed is considered
in the same way as the bre production system although with
some differences regarding sowing rate (lower), harvesting date
(up to one more month) and energy consumption in seed processing (Martnez et al., 2007; Narain and Singh, 1988).
Inventory data related to the production of fertilizers used in the
system (ammonium nitrate, potassium chloride and triple super
phosphate) were taken from the Ecoinvent database (Nemecek et
al., 2004). The use of agro-chemicals is an important source of
nutrient related emissions in eld with an important contribution to global warming, acidication and eutrophication (Charles
et al., 2006). Emissions rates are variable due to the inuence of
soil type, climatic conditions and agricultural practices and it is

necessary to develop an entire mineral balance for each particular scenario to determine emissions from fertilizers. However, the
lack of data made that impossible and the calculation of nutrient
related emissions (ammonia, nitrate, nitrogen, nitrous and nitrogen oxides, phosphate) was done by means of emission factors
proposed by several authors (Arrouays et al., 2002; Audsley et al.,
1997; EMEP/CORINAIR, 2006).
Hemp crop is rarely threatened by dangerous pest so no pesticides or herbicides are required. Supply of irrigated water is
unnecessary, due to sufcient annual rainfall.
Yields can vary largely depending on producers, climatic conditions, region, soil characteristics, sowing and harvesting date,
and the type of seed sown (Bennett et al., 2006; Forrest and
Young, 2006; Keller et al., 2001 Mediavilla et al., 2001; Schfer and
Honermeier, 2006; Struik et al., 2000). For example, an increase up
to 50% in total bre yield can be obtained increasing the seed rate
in 100% depending on seed type (Bennett et al., 2006).
2.3. Flax system description/production

Table 1
Inventory of bre hemp crop (Data per tonne of bre).
Inputs
Materialsa

Units

Seeds

kg

Fertilizers
Ammonium nitrate
Triple superphosphate
Potassium chloride
Diesel
Agricultural machinery

kg N
kg P2 O5
kg K2 O
kg
kg

Value
50.00

85.00
65.00
125.00
74.85
23.05

Energy

Units

Value

Electricity for
scutching
Transportation
Fertilizers
Fibre bales

kWh

336

t km
t km

90.48
180.00

Outputs
Products and co-products

Units

Value

Straw (1114% moisture)


Fibre
Woody core
Hemp dust

t
t
t
t

3.00
1.00
1.50
0.50

a
Supplemental irrigation is not required as rainfall during growing season is
enough.

Flax is an annual plant with slender stems. It is native to the


region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India; however, it has always been a minor crop in Spain in comparison to
hemp (Lloveras et al., 2006). It is also a bast bre plant, i.e. its bres
are derived from the outer part of the stem. This crop is sown for
both its seeds (linseed or seed ax) and bres (bre ax), which are
alternative types of the same specie, Linum usitatissimum. They both
can be used as dual purpose crops under specic conditions (Easson
and Molloy, 2000). The present study deals with the simultaneous
production of seed for re-sowing and straw.
As presented for hemp, ax system covers up to (and including)
the agricultural production, straw processing and nal transport
from plantation to pulp mill gate (see Fig. 1). The agricultural production subsystem is similar to hemp but there are also some
differences which are: smaller fertilizers consumption, the necessity of irrigation and the requirement of pesticides application.
Inventory data of global process of ax cultivation and processing
is shown in Table 2.
The straw processing subsystem is the same as hemp, although
the bre bales size are considered as different at 250 kg per bale.

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Table 2
Inventory for bre ax crop (data per tonnes of bre).
Inputs
Materials

Units

Seeds
Fertilizers
Calcium ammonium nitrate
Triple superphosphate
Potassium chloride
Herbicides
MCPA (40%)
Supplemental irrigation a
Diesel
Agricultural machinery

kg

Value
68.15

kg N
kg P2 O5
kg K2 O

30.06
41.76
41.76

g
m3
kg
kg

Energy

Units

Value

Electricity for scutching


Transportation
Fertilizers
Herbicides
Fibre bales

kWh

414.88

t km
kg km
t km

88.00
47.70
107.63

467.66
3340
60.67
11.36

Outputs
Products and co-products

Units

Value

Straw (1114% moisture)


Fibre
Woody core
Seeds (9% moisture)

t
t
t
t

3.70
1.00
2.70
0.37

As rainfall is not signicant during growing season, irrigation is required.

Approximately, bre yield is around 27% of retted straw. Finally,


bre bales are delivered to the same pulp mill for their processing.
Sowing date is at the end of March and the seed rate is lower
than hemp scenario. In addition, the upper part of the plant is cut
and threshed by a combined harvester in order to separate seeds
from the rest of the plant and the straw is laid over the eld in rows
to the dew retting stage.
As for the hemp scenario, inventory data related to the production of fertilizers (calcium nitrate ammonium, potassium chloride
and triple super phosphate) and of pesticides (chlorophenoxy compound) consumed by the crop came from the Ecoinvent database
(Nemecek et al., 2004).
Plant protection substances are applied in order to control
organisms to improve the productivity of arable farming systems.
Nevertheless, a part of the substances applied impact upon terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as well as humans via wind drift,
evaporation, leaching or surface run-off (Brentrup et al., 2004a).
Emissions of synthetic pesticides to air, surface water, groundwater and soil were estimated according to the method proposed by
Hauschild (2000).
2.4. Allocation procedures
Allocation (partitioning of input or output ows of a unit process to the product under study) was needed along the study as
both agricultural processes yield more than one product. So, bre
hemp cultivation also produces woody core and dust, and economic
allocation was applied as bre is the driving-force for hemp cultivation and large differences in market prices are present (Gorchs and
Lloveras, 2003). On the other hand, bre ax cultivation yield also
seeds, which are used for sowing and the surplus, is sold for other
aims (oils, animal feed, ours). Unlike bre hemp crop, there are
no big differences in the market prices for ax stem and seed (van
der Werf and Turunen, 2006) and therefore results from mass or
economic allocation would be similar. For this reason, mass-based
allocation was considered.
3. Results
Among the steps dened by the impact assessment stage in the
LCA methodology (ISO 14040, 2006), only the classication and
characterization stages have been considered. Normalization and
evaluation were excluded since they are optional elements and

according to the goal and scope dened here, would not provide
extra useful information.
Table 3 shows the environmental impact associated to the
production of both crops, being ax the scenario that produces
less impact in all the impact categories analyzed as well as nonrenewable resources use, while hemp presents lower values for
the pesticide active substance consumption.

3.1. Global warming potential (GWP)


Emissions of gases with specic radioactive characteristics like
carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and nitrous oxide (N2 O) lead to an unnatural warming of Earths surface. This impact is commonly known
as global warming. In the hemp system, the production (specically ammonium nitrate) and use of fertilizers were identied as
the principal elements (70% of total GWP) responsible of emissions
contribute to this effect (Fig. 2) Regarding individual substances,
N2 O (58%) and CO2 fossil (42%) emissions dominated the contributions to global warming mainly due to the application of nitrogen
to soil, nitric acid production and combustion of fossil fuels to the
generation of electricity required.
Concerning to ax scenario, fertilizers production and use as
well as eld operations (specically irrigation process) were the
main responsible (Fig. 2). This environmental category was again
dominated by two substances (N2 O (20%) and CO2 fossil (79%)),
which are mainly emitted from energy production, nitrate based
fertilizer production and application:

Table 3
Environmental impacts of the cultivation, production and supply of hemp and ax
bre.

Impact categories
Acidication (AP)
Eutrophication (EP)
Global Warming (GWP)
Photochemical Oxidant
Formation (POP)
Flow indicators
Energy resources (EU)
Pesticide use (PU)

Unit

Hemp

Flax

kg SO2 eq. t1
kg PO4 3 eq. t1
kg CO2 eq. t1
kg C2 H4 eq. t1

9.39
14.6
1600
0.213

3.22
2.28
437
0.114

GJ t1
kg active
ingredient t1

13.2

12.4
1.18 104

S. Gonzlez-Garca et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 923930

Fig. 2. Relative contributions to GWP for bre hemp and bre ax scenarios. Field
operations refers to agricultural practices including scutching and baling. Transport refers to transportation of fertilizers, pesticides (if the case) and bre bales to
pulp mill. Others refers to the remaining processes.

3.2. Acidication potential (AP)


Acidication is an impact category due mainly to emission of
acidicating substances, which causes important effects in the soil,
groundwater, ecosystems and materials. In the hemp scenario,
acidication was mainly due to mineral based fertilizers production and use (57%), and the scutching process (eld operation)
(Fig. 3). Energy related emissions are the main contributions to
this category: Sulphur dioxide (SO2 ) originated from combustion
of sulphur-containing fossil fuels (41%), ammonia (NH3 ) emissions
associated to fertilizers use and production (34%), as well as nitrogen oxides (NOx ) from combustion (25%).
Regarding the ax scenario, eld operations such as irrigation
and scutching processes are mainly responsible for the results in
this impact category (more than 50% of total contributions), followed by fertilizers production and use (Fig. 3): SO2 and NOx
emissions represent approximately 47% and 20% respectively. NH3
emitted as consequence of nitrogen application (volatilization) and
nitrate based fertilizer production stands for one third of the acidication impact.
NH3 emissions are strongly dependent on the nitrogen-fertilizer
rate: this type of emissions increase with increasing N-fertilizer
rates applied, so it will be needed to apply the optimum amount.

Fig. 3. Relative contributions to AP for bre hemp and bre ax scenarios. Field
operations refers to agricultural practices including scutching and baling. Transport refers to transportation of fertilizers, pesticides (if the case) and bre bales to
pulp mill. Others refers to the remaining processes.

927

Fig. 4. Relative contributions to EP for bre hemp and bre ax scenarios. Field
operations refers to agricultural practices including scutching and baling. Transport refers to transportation of fertilizers, pesticides (if the case) and bre bales to
pulp mill. Others refers to the remaining processes.

3.3. Eutrophication potential (EP)


Eutrophication covers all potential impacts of having high
environmental level of macronutrients, specically nitrogen and
phosphorus emissions to air, water and soil. This situation might
cause serious damages in both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.
In the hemp scenario, the use of fertilizers is the principal source
contributes to this impact category, followed by fertilizers production (Fig. 4). Nitrate (NO3 ) leaching, nitrogen and also phosphate
emissions contribute to approximately 90% of the whole effect.
Regarding the ax scenario, fertilizers usage and production
are again the main factors responsible (Fig. 4). Nitrogen related
emissions, phosphate and NO3 leaching associated to fertilizing
process are responsible of almost 65% of total.
3.4. Photo-oxidant formation potential (POP)
Photo-oxidant formation is the formation of reactive chemical
compounds that are damaging to human health, ecosystems and
crops, by the action of sunlight on certain primary air pollutants.
Photo-oxidants may be formed in the troposphere under the inuence of ultraviolet light by means of VOCs and CO in the presence
of NOx . Generally, Photo-oxidant formation potential is known as
summer smog which is different from winter smog as it is characterised by high levels of inorganic compounds (particles, SO2 and
CO). However, CML baseline 2000 methodology does not distinguish between them and includes both in the same impact category
under the name Photo-oxidant formation potential (Guine et al.,
2001).
In the hemp system, eld operations contribute to 50% of POP,
being scutching process the main contributor to this category
(Fig. 5). Fertilizers production involves almost the 40% of total contributions, specically P-based fertilizer production. POP shows
important contributions from energy-related emissions: SO2 and
CO, which represent 71% and 17% of the total emissions, respectively. With regard to ax scenario, eld operations (irrigation and
scutching) are the main responsible (Fig. 5) and their contribution
adds up to 67% of total. As in the case of hemp system, SO2 means
66% of the emissions contribute to this category followed by CO
(26%)
3.5. Non-renewable energy use (EU)
Non-renewable energy use refers to the depletion of energetic
resources such as coal, crude oil, natural gas or uranium. Total

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Table 4
Processes that contribute more than 10% (hot spots) to impact categories or ows
in the bre hemp system.
Process

Impact category

Main contributor

EP
GWP
AP

78.4
36.2
27.0

NO3
N2 O
NH3

40.4
98.8
96.4

Ammonium nitrate production


GWP
AP
POP
EU

27.5
12.9
10.2
23.0

N2 O
NH3
SO2
Natural gas

68.2
42.0
59.6
57.1

Triple Superphosphate production


EP
AP
POP
EU

11.4
15.4
26.6
10.4

PO4 3
SO2
SO2
Oil crude

97.1
89.6
91.5
53.9

POP
EU

25.9
17.0

SO2
Uranium

96.2
36.6

EU

11.2

Oil crude

75.6

Fertilizers use

Fig. 5. Relative contributions to POP for bre hemp and bre ax scenarios. Field
operations refers to agricultural practices including scutching and baling. Transport refers to transportation of fertilizers, pesticides (if the case) and bre bales to
pulp mill. Others refers to the remaining processes.

Scutching

Harvesting

energy use of the hemp and/or ax system (agricultural production,


straw processing and transport subsystems) is 13.2 and 12.4 GJ t1
(13.2 and 18.6 GJ ha1 ) respectively. These values were calculated
using the Lower Heating Values proposed by Eco-indicator 95
methodology (Goedkoop et al., 1995). Other published studies of
similar annual plants crops (Cardone et al., 2003; Martnez et al.,
2007; van der Werf, 2004; van der Werf and Turunen, 2006) have
estimated results in the same range, obviously depending on the
intensity of the cultivation among other factors. In particular, van
der Werf (2004) reported 11.4 GJ ha1 for hemp crop, a gure that
is lower to our value where transport was included and other differences occur (i.e. amount of fertilizers used).
Although fertilizers production is an important element for
hemp crop representing 39% of energy use (Fig. 6), eld operations
are the main contributors in ax scenario (89%) as it is shown in
Fig. 6, specically irrigation process which involves 71% of total. In
the case of hemp system, scutching and harvesting stage mean the
17% and 11%, respectively. Oil crude, natural gas and uranium are
the main energy resources used in both systems (79% and 71% for
hemp and ax, respectively).

3.6. Pesticide use (PU)


Hemp crop does not require pesticide application. However,
most agricultural productions rely on the use of chemicals to maintain high crop yields (Margni et al., 2002). Flax bre production is
one of them and therefore plant protectors are applied, specically
herbicides as they do not defend well from weeds, are applied. Different types and rates of herbicide application have been reported
(Easson and Molloy, 2000; Lloveras et al., 2006; Schmidt et al., 2004;
van der Werf and Turunen, 2006; www.infoagro.com) and a dosage
of 0.468 kg of active ingredient, (4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy) acetic
acid, per ton of bre was used here. Emissions of synthetic pesticides to air, surface water, groundwater and soil were estimated
according to Hauschild (2000) methodology taking into account
physico-chemical characteristics of the active ingredient. In addition, given the organic nature of the herbicide, degradation rate has
been considered in this case determined from the time of harvesting and the herbicide half-life for microbial degradation.
3.7. Identication of the hot spots
To summarise the results, Tables 4 and 5 present the processes,
as well as the main substances within them, that are responsible for the highest contributions to impact categories and energy
use in both scenarios. Those elements are generally named hot
spots and their identication helps to improve the environmental performance of the systems under study. Results are presented
as percentage of the total value for each impact category or ow
indicator.
4. Discussion

Fig. 6. Relative contributions to EU for bre hemp and bre ax scenarios. Field
operations refers to agricultural practices including scutching and baling. Transport refers to transportation of fertilizers, pesticides (if the case) and bre bales to
pulp mill. Others refers to the remaining processes.

The present study shows that four processes represent an


important contribution for many impact categories in both crops:
fertilisation (including the production of the compounds), irrigation, harvesting and scutching.
The use of Nitrogen-based fertilizers (ammonium nitrate for
hemp and calcium ammonium nitrate for ax) is an important
source of nutrient related emissions. In some situations, the type
of fertilizers used is the main driver of the emissions at the whole
farm level and changing the type of fertilizers could reduce the
emissions and therefore, the environmental impact (Brentrup et al.,

S. Gonzlez-Garca et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 923930


Table 5
Processes that contribute more than 10% (hot spots) to impact categories or ows
in the bre ax system.
Process

Impact category

Fertilizers & pesticides use


EP
AP
PU

Main contributor

65.8
10.5
100

N2
NH3
MCPA

81.8
98.2
100

Irrigating
CO2
SO2
SO2
Uranium

98.2
69.2
52.3
47.0

Calcium ammonium nitrate production


GWP
13.8

N2 O

67.4

Triple superphosphate production


EP
AP
POP

17.9
11.1
12.2

PO4 3
SO2
SO2

97.1
89.6
91.5

11.1
22.2
22.9

CO2
SO2
SO2

98.8
87.9
96.2

GWP
AP
POP
EU

40.5
29.6
44.2
71.0

Scutching
GWP
AP
POP

2004b; Charles et al., 2006). Nitrogen based fertilizers use lead to


different N2 O, NH3 , NOx emissions and NO3 leaching rates, which
contribute considerably to eutrophication, acidication and global
warming potential. The systems studied (ax and hemp) present
different NO3 leaching rates not only due to mineral based fertilizer rate applied but also due to differences on the nitrogen
content of seeds and stems as well as on the NH3 volatilization
rate.
NO3 leaching was identied as the greatest cause of eutrophication potential in bre hemp crop and therefore its reduction
would have important consequences. In general, the optimization
of nitrogen fertilization and the reduction of the period between
harvest and the establishment of the next crop are the main actions
to reduce NO3 leaching (Gustafson et al., 2000). As in this study it
was considered that fertilization level was the optimum, the second
alternative seems to be the best option to prevent NO3 ushed
away from the soil. Other related agricultural studies show similar results regarding eutrophication and acidication potentials
(Brentrup et al., 2004b; Charles et al., 2006; Martnez et al., 2007;
van der Werf, 2004).
The manufacture of nitrogen based fertilizers involves important emissions of greenhouse gases, typically CO2 and N2 O, as well
as other gaseous inorganic compounds (NH3 ). Reducing N2 O emissions during their production (scrubbing techniques) would lead to
a reduction in the GWP associated (Brentrup et al., 2004b).
Energy related emissions (NOx , SOx , CO2 ) associated to fossil
fuels combustion are also of great importance and a change in fuel
type could lead to their reduction and as a result to their impact
on the categories under study. The increasing utilisation of renewable energy sources, for example, electricity from wind and hydro
source, would lead to reduce CO2 fossil and SOx emissions considerably.
With regard to energy resources use, hemp scenario is more
intensive than ax. Agricultural activities (eld operations) are
highly mechanized and have high energy consumption, up to 48%
and 89% of total in hemp and ax scenarios respectively. Specically, scutching and harvesting stage appear as main contributors in
hemp system, while the high electricity consumption due to irrigation (71% of the total) dominates the energy use for ax production.
Pesticide use entails important damages to human health and
ecosystem: groundwater becomes too toxic for human consumption and biological activity in the soil is impaired, resulting damage

929

to vegetation (Goedkoop et al., 1995). Pesticides use was zero for


hemp crop. In the case of ax scenario, 0.468 kg of active ingredient was used. That amount is similar than other similar studies
(Lloveras et al., 2006; van der Werf and Turunen, 2006). Field emissions associated to pesticide consumption were analyzed with a
great detail according to the method proposed by Hauschild (2000).
Finally, straw yields reported here can be considered unusually
low, specically for hemp crop where higher values (up to 8 t ha1 )
have been reported from similar Spanish regions (Lloveras et al.,
2006) and from other countries (Amaducci et al., 2000; Struik et
al., 2000; van der Werf, 2002a; van der Werf, 2004) . Values were
checked with growers and they considered that the reasons can be
short vegetative period of the plants and/or meteorological conditions. Regarding ax, values can be also considered low although
similar results have been reported for Spain (Lloveras et al., 2006)
and European countries (Schmidt et al., 2004). Different climate and
agricultural conditions in Europe cause large differences in yield
from one year to another and from one country to another (Schmidt
et al., 2004).
In order to check the possible inuence of analysing an unusually low yield for hemp cultivation, a sensitivity analysis was carried
out by using higher straw yields (but keeping the same inputs and
outputs) from the same region although under different meteorological conditions (different year) and irrigating conditions (Gorchs
and Lloveras, 2003; Lloveras et al., 2006): 6 and 8 t ha1 . As expected
hemp scenario result in less environmental impact for all the
impact categories analyzed, so the conclusions from the comparison are not affected as hemp stays as a preferable option from an
environmental point of view. Besides, energy use per ton is logically
lower when higher yields are used and therefore support even more
the choice of hemp.
5. Conclusions
This study dealt with the eld production, processing and transportation of two types of non-wood annual crops, ax and hemp,
considering bre as main product. An environmental comparison
was carried out in order to know more about these two crops that
are used as non-wood cellulosic bre for the manufacture of speciality paper pulp.
System boundaries were covered from soil management up to
straw processing and transportation of bre bales to pulp mill. Production of all inputs for each system (fertilizers, pesticides, seeds,
energy carriers) and their supply was also included, as well as
machinery production, use and maintenance.
According to the results, both systems are low-input and lowimpact crops in front of other agricultural crops i.e. potato or
sugar beet. Nevertheless, energy consumption should be a focus
of attention, specically in the irrigating and scutching processes.
In addition, a reduction of environmental impacts associated to the
use of fertilizers should be considered, as a decrease in the impact
categories and in particular, eutrophication potential, should also
be obtained.
6. Future outlook
Future work will focus on the study of non-wood bre processing stages in order to get a complete picture of the non-wood pulp
production process.
Acknowledgements
This project has been developed within the framework of the
BIORENEW Integrated Project (Project reference: NMP2-CT-2006026456). S. Gonzlez-Garca would like to express her gratitude

930

S. Gonzlez-Garca et al. / Resources, Conservation and Recycling 54 (2010) 923930

to the Spanish Ministry of Education for nancial support (Grant


reference AP2005-2374) and A. Hospido to the Xunta de Galicia
(Isidro Parga Pondal programme).
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