The influence of organic and inorganic fertiliser application rates on UK biomass crop sustainability |
| |
Authors: | Paul Gilbert Patricia ThornleyAndrew B Riche |
| |
Affiliation: | a Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering, University of Manchester, M60 9PL, UK b Centre for Bioenergy and Climate Change, Rothamsted Research, HarpendenAL5 2JQ, UK |
| |
Abstract: | Bioenergy and energy crops are an important part of the UK’s renewable energy strategy to reach its greenhouse gas reduction target of 80% by 2050. Ensuring the sustainability of biomass feedstocks requires a greater understanding of all aspects of energy crop production, their ecological impacts and yields. This work compares the life-cycle environmental impact of natural gas and biomass from two energy crop systems grown under typical UK agronomic practice. As reported in previous studies the energy crops provide significant reductions in global warming potential (GWP) compared to natural gas. Compared to no fertiliser application, applying inorganic fertiliser increases the GWP by 2% and applying sewage sludge increases the GWP by a lesser extent. In terms of an equivalent GWP savings per unit area of land, the emissions associated with fertiliser production and application can be offset by a yield increase of <0.2 t/ha. However, very large increases in eutrophication and acidification levels are incurred compared to the natural gas reference case when applying either fertiliser. For sewage sludge the impact of varying the allocation factor between the function of wastewater treatment and that of crop growth is also illustrated. |
| |
Keywords: | Biomass Life-cycle assessment Sustainability Energy crop Fertiliser Sewage |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|