Sustainability and energy analysis of the lettuce post-harvest stage by Integration of PV
- Rasines Elena, Laura 1
- Molina García, Ángel 1
- San Miguel Alfaro, Guillermo 2
- Artés Hernández, Francisco 1
- Hontoria Hernández, Eloy 1
- Aguayo Giménez, Encarnación Pilar 1
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1
Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena
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2
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
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Argitaletxea: IEEE
ISBN: 978-1-7281-8071-7
Argitalpen urtea: 2021
Mota: Biltzar ekarpena
Laburpena
Nowadays, the food sector is improving its energy consumption to achieve a more sustainable industry, and also in economic and environmental terms. Aiming to mitigate global warming and fossil fuel dependence, it is necessary to determine the carbon footprint to assess the main impacts of a typical food production system. Among the different solutions, Life Cycle Assessment is a suitable method to evaluate the environmental impact throughout the entire supply chain. Under that framework, this paper aims to compare the environmental impact of energy consumption in lettuce post-harvest activities using two energy scenarios: current Spanish mix power generation, and sustainable Spanish mix generation by optimizing self-consumption PV power plants and using gate-togate LCA. The global warming potential for years and Cumulative Energy Demand are also determined. As a result, we obtained 25.8 gCO2eq and 479.3 kJ/kg; and 17.8 gCO2eq and 398.5 kJ/kg, respectively, for both Spanish generation mix scenarios. Refrigeration energy consumption is the most demanding stage, entailing major emission contributions. PV installations can minimize said impact by 32 % in both impact categories. Further investigation should address the analysis of implementing renewable energy sources in other fresh vegetable supply chain stages, creating a more sustainable food industry.