Kock Sven, Piastrellini Roxana, Arena Alejandro Pablo
Ernst-Abbe University of Applied Sciences, Carls-Zeiss Promenade 2, 07745, Jena, Germany.
Grupo CLIOPE, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Facultad Regional Mendoza, Coronel Rodríguez 273, M5502AJE, Mendoza, Argentina.
Heliyon. 2024 May 24;10(11):e31961. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31961. eCollection 2024 Jun 15.
Given the urgent need to achieve energy security and transition from conventional to renewable energy sources, the energy sector is expanding rapidly. However, this growth often involves trade-offs with food and water resources. One way to address this complex interplay is to adopt the Water-Energy-Food nexus within a Life Cycle Assessment. This approach allows the analysis of interrelationships among the three sectors, aiming to foster synergies and minimize trade-offs. While numerous indicators exist to quantify the water-energy relationship, no similar approaches for the energy-food relationship could be found. To bridge this gap, in this paper, we introduce a novel indicator that measures the amount of food that could be produced causing the same land use impact in form of biodiversity damage as 1 MJ of the energy product. Together with another existing indicator that measures the water scarcity footprint per megajoule, a new framework for the analysis of the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus of energy products is developed. Additionally, we present an optional net factor for both indicators. This factor helps to consider the energy use within the product's processes, contributing to a more comprehensive analysis. In our case study, we implement the outlined framework by examining biodiesel production in Argentina. We specifically analyze the impacts of two distinct agricultural technologies-Early and Late Soybean-on the Food and Water sectors. Our findings reveal that for every megajoule of the evaluated product, one could produce 62 or 93 kcal of food causing the same species loss. Additionally, the production process incurs a water scarcity footprint of 6.5 or 6.8 liters per megajoule, depending on the technology used. The proposed framework offers a means to mitigate the water and land use impacts associated with energy products. Consequently, it has the potential to enhance the WEF nexus.
鉴于实现能源安全以及从传统能源向可再生能源转型的迫切需求，能源部门正在迅速扩张。然而，这种增长往往涉及与粮食和水资源的权衡。解决这种复杂相互作用的一种方法是在生命周期评估中采用水 - 能源 - 粮食关系模型。这种方法能够分析这三个部门之间的相互关系，旨在促进协同效应并尽量减少权衡。虽然存在许多指标来量化水 - 能源关系，但尚未找到针对能源 - 粮食关系的类似方法。为了填补这一空白，在本文中，我们引入了一种新指标，该指标衡量在造成与1兆焦耳能源产品相同的生物多样性破坏形式的土地利用影响情况下能够生产的粮食量。结合另一个现有的衡量每兆焦耳水资源稀缺足迹的指标，开发了一个用于分析能源产品的水 - 能源 - 粮食（WEF）关系的新框架。此外，我们还为这两个指标提出了一个可选的净因子。这个因子有助于考虑产品生产过程中的能源使用情况，从而有助于进行更全面的分析。在我们的案例研究中，我们通过考察阿根廷的生物柴油生产来实施所概述的框架。我们具体分析了两种不同的农业技术——早熟大豆和晚熟大豆——对粮食和水部门的影响。我们的研究结果表明，对于每兆焦耳评估产品，会造成相同物种损失的情况下可以生产62或93千卡的粮食。此外，根据所使用的技术不同，生产过程每兆焦耳会产生6.5或6.8升的水资源稀缺足迹。所提出的框架提供了一种减轻与能源产品相关的水和土地利用影响的方法。因此，它有可能增强水 - 能源 - 粮食关系模型。
