Life cycle assessment of biomass production: Development of a methodology to improve the environmental indicators and testing with fiber sorghum energy crop

At the Biomass Research Centre – University of Perugia some LCA studies were carried out on different biomass chains, using a detailed software (Simapro 7.0) and the EcoIndicator 99 model in order to evaluate the global burden. Results showed that EcoIndicator 99 lacks some important features (e.g. freshwater consumption, nutrient emissions into water, soil erosion) that are necessary in evaluating the environmental load of energy crops. Therefore a new LCA methodology, tailored to biomass production, was developed, in which all resources used and emissions into environment were divided into the following impact categories: depletion of abiotic resources, freshwater consumption, climate change, land use, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, ecotoxicity, soil erosion. The impact assessment methodology was tested on fiber sorghum crop production, adopting two different agricultural techniques mainly regarding irrigation management, employing data from experimental fields in Umbria Region (Italy). Results showed a more reliable approach to the impact assessment of biomass cultivation phase.