A study on comparison of life cycle energy consumption and CO2 emission in grains production-transportation in Japan and Heilongjiang province of China

For the purpose of discussing the current situation of resource consumption and environmental loading in grain supply systems, a preliminary case study of life cycle analysis for the grain production and transportation process both in Japan and the Heilongjiang province of China is examined. Attempts are made to calculate energy consumption and CO₂ emission throughout the life cycle of grain (wheat, rice, maize and bean) production and transportation, which will provide basic data to evaluate the current situation of grain supply systems. As a result of the examination, including data collection and compilation, the energy consumption and CO₂ emission in grain supply system in Japan (3.9 MJ/kg, an average of four grains) is around twice as large as that in China (2.1 MJ/kg). Although, the difference between energy consumption in the production stage in Japan (2.5 MJ/kg) and that in China (2.0MJ/kg) is small, there is quite a large difference between energy consumption in the transportation stage in Japan (1.4MJ/kg) and that in China (0.1 MJ/kg)