Energy return on investment of Austrian sugar beet: A small-scale comparison between organic and conventional production |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA), UMR CNRS 7583, Université Paris Est Créteil et Université Paris Diderot, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, 61 avenue du Général de Gaulle, F-94010 Créteil Cedex, France;2. Laboratoire de Spectroscopie et Dynamique Moléculaire, Université de Tunis, Ecole Nationale Supérieure d''Ingénieurs de Tunis, 5 Av Taha Hussein, 1008 Tunis, Tunisia;3. Ligne AILES, Synchrotron SOLEIL, L''Orme des Merisiers, St-Aubin BP48, F-91192 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France;4. Sorbonne Université, CNRS, MONARIS, UMR 8233, 4 place Jussieu, F-75005 Paris, France;5. DEN-Service d''Etude du Comportement des Radionucléides (SECR), CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France;6. Service de Chimie Quantique et Photophysique, C.P. 160/09, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 50 avenue F.D. Roosevelt, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium;7. Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique/IPSL, UMR CNRS 8539, Ecole Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, RD36, F-91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France |
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| Abstract: | In near future it is essential for human society to switch its primary energy use from finite sources to renewable ones. Ethanol has been claimed to be a potential candidate to replace oil use to great extent. This study illustrates that ethanol production has the potential to rely on organic agriculture and thereby to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Case studies were carried out by examining three farms (2 conventional, 1 organic) in Austria who are mainly producing sugar beet. We found that organic sugar beet production provided an overall energy return on investment (EROI) of 11.3 whereas the conventional farming practice showed an EROI of 14.1 and 15, respectively. Our study indicates that organic sugar beet production shows potential to substitute conventional industrial sugar beet production to provide inputs to ethanol production. By using organically produced sugar beets as inputs to the ethanol production, fossil fuels can perhaps be avoided to a large extent in the production process, thus, it may be possible to mitigate some of the environmental impacts associated with ethanol production. Larger studies are however needed to better visualise such results. |
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| Keywords: | Energy return on investment (EROI) Organic farming Sugar beet Bioeconomy Ecological energetics |
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