Abstract
The present study aims to provide a preliminary overview of the sustainability concept when biomasses conceived for food goals become the raw materials upon which different sectors, such as plastic or energy industry, can develop innovative strategies, according to a so called “greener” competitiveness. In the results hereafter presented, the definition of sustainability perspectives, according to the use of a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, will be described for maize use as raw material in different sectors. The current biopolymer industry and conventional biofuel technologies, the so called first-generation biofuels, are the more and more in competition with the food sector. The presented environmental evaluation, in terms of air emissions, energy and water consumption, is useful in order to understand the sustainability of a bio-sourced product, in comparison with the equivalent item produced by fossil fuels.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Yamada K, Halada K, Ijima K. Web-site survey of recent ecomaterials in Japan [J]. Materials Science Forum, 2007, 539–543: 2289–2294.
de Benedetti B, Toso D, Baldo G L. EcoAudit: A renewed simplified procedure to facilitate the environmentally informed material choice orienting the further life cycle analysis for ecodesigners [J]. Materials Transactions, 2010, 51(5): 832–837.
FAO. Food and agriculture organization of the united nations [EB/OL]. (2012-03-22). http://faostat.fao.org.
ISO 14040:2006, Environmental management-life cycle assessment-principles and framework [S].
ISO 14044:2006, Environmental management-life cycle assessment-requirements and guidelines [S].
Nemecek T, Kägi T. Life cycle inventories of agricultural production systems [R]. Dübendorf, Switzerland: Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, 2007.
European Energy Directive 2009/28/EC. Promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources and amending and subsequently repealing directives 2001/77/EC and 2003/30/EC [EB/OL]. [2010-09-07]. http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/energy/renewable_energy/en0009_en.htm.
Vink T H E, Davies S, Kolstad J J. The eco-profile for current ingeo polylactide production [J]. Industrial Biotechnology, 2010, 6(4): 212–224.
RECS international. Renewable energy certificate system [EB/OL]. (2012-03-22). http://www.recs.org/index.php.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
De Benedetti, B., Tecchio, P., Rollino, S. et al. Sustainability perspectives when crop use is implemented in different sectors: A life cycle assessment approach. J. Shanghai Jiaotong Univ. (Sci.) 17, 334–336 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12204-012-1281-1
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12204-012-1281-1