Title:
The Agronomic Management of Straw and its Energy Use in a Long-Term Sustainability Perspective.
Author(s):
Monteleone, M., Garofalo, P., Cammerino, A.R.
Document(s):
Paper
Abstract:
Climate change mitigation is the most important driving force for bioenergy development. Accordingly, the bioenergy environmental assessment should be focused on the actual savings of primary energy demand and carbon emissions. The “neutral” assumption related to crop residues (like cereal straws) can be certainly considered a rough simplification. Crop residues should not be viewed simply as a waste because they play a critical role in sustaining soil organic matter and therefore have an inherent C-sequestration value. Moreover, considering straws as an energy feedstock, its status of co-product is clearly assessed and its availability could be obtained according to different cropping systems, corresponding to different energy costs and carbon emissions. There are some “hidden” features in the agricultural energy and carbon assessment that are still very difficult to detect; for this reason, they are frequently neglected. In our work, through the use of a crop simulation model, we tried to estimate the long-term soil organic matter and N2O soil emissions in combination with: straw retention or removal, conventional or conservative tillage and two kind of cropping systems (single- and rotational-wheat). The resulting carbon “footprint” of straws has completely different magnitudes and the best option should be therefore followed.
Keywords:
life cycle assessment (LCA), soil organic carbon (SOC), GHG emission abatement, N2O soil emissions, land use change (LUC), agroenergy farming
Topic:
Biomass resources
Subtopic:
Biomass feedstock, residues and by-products
Event:
21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition
Session:
1BO.12.5
Pages:
113 - 119
ISBN:
978-88-89407-53-0
Paper DOI:
10.5071/21stEUBCE2013-1BO.12.5
Price:
FREE
