LIFE CYCLE ASSESSME T OF MUSSEL AD TURBOT AQUACULTURE Application and insights

314 Pages·2010·5.87 MB·English

UNIVERSIDADE DE SANTIAGO DE
COMPOSTELA

Departamento de Enxeñaría Química

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSME(cid:11)T OF
MUSSEL A(cid:11)D TURBOT AQUACULTURE
Application and insights

Memoria presentada por:

Diego Iribarren Lorenzo

Para optar al grado de Doctor por la
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

Santiago de Compostela, marzo 2010

UNIVERSIDADE DE SANTIAGO DE
COMPOSTELA

Departamento de Enxeñaría Química

D. Gumersindo Feijoo Costa, Catedrático de Ingeniería Química, y Dña. María
Teresa Moreira Vilar, Profesora Titular de Ingeniería Química, ambos de la
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela,

Informan:

Que la memoria titulada “Life Cycle Assessment of mussel and turbot
aquaculture. Application and insights” que, para optar al grado de Doctor en
Ingeniería Química, Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Química y Ambiental,
presenta D. Diego Iribarren Lorenzo, ha sido realizada bajo nuestra inmediata
dirección en el Departamento de Ingeniería Química de la Universidad de
Santiago de Compostela.
Esta memoria fue defendida el viernes 12 de marzo de 2010 en el Salón de Actos
de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Santiago de
Compostela, ante el Tribunal compuesto por:
Dr. José Mario Díaz Fernández. Departamento de Ingeniería Química y
Tecnología del Medio Ambiente. Universidad de Oviedo.
Dr. Joan Rieradevall Pons. Departamento de Ingeniería Química.
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona.
Dr. Francesc Castells Piqué. Departamento de Ingeniería Química.
Universidad Rovira i Virgili.
Dr. Francesc Hernández Sancho. Departamento de Estructura Económica.
Universidad de Valencia.
Dr. Juan Manuel Lema Rodicio. Departamento de Ingeniería Química.
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela.

Calificación: Sobresaliente Cum Laude.
To my wife, parents and sister

Abstract

The path towards sustainability in the food sector demands the modification of the
current operational and environmental patterns. In this sense, it is necessary to
pursue reductions in the consumption levels for materials and energy, as well as
the mitigation of the corresponding environmental impacts. Environmental
management tools assist companies to monitor, manage and improve their
environmental performance as well as to integrate environmental, economic and
social issues. These tools enable the implementation of eco-efficiency strategies,
life cycle thinking and environmental management systems into the business
network.
In particular, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a well-known technique for
assessing the potential impacts associated with a product. One of the sectors
where LCA has been widely implemented is the agri-food sector. However, while
LCA in agriculture is quite well established, the use of this tool to assess seafood
production systems is a more recent phenomenon.
This doctoral thesis contributes to widen the range of seafood species studied
under an LCA approach. Furthermore, this dissertation develops new trends in
LCA of seafood such as the combined application of LCA and Data Envelopment
Analysis (DEA), or the implementation of Carbon Footprinting (CF) schemes.
The Galician fishing sector is a key economic branch in Spain. Within this
sector, there is an activity where Galicia arises as the national leader. This is the
Galician aquaculture, which can be understood as a sector itself. This dissertation
evaluates two reference species in the Galician extensive and intensive
aquaculture: mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and turbot (Scophthalmus
maximus), respectively.
The novel application of LCA to the mussel sector comprises a range of
activities which can be grouped into four sub-sectors: mussel culture, dispatch
centres, canning factories and cooking plants. Detailed inventories are presented
for mussel farming, processing and consumption, as well as for the management
systems regarding the valorization of mussel shells and mussel organic remains.
From the environmental characterization of the Galician mussel sector, the main
hot spots are identified and potential improvements are then proposed. The role of
mussel purification centres is highlighted together with the influence of vessel
operation and capital goods on the potential environmental impacts associated
with mussel culture. The environmental performances of fresh, canned and frozen
mussels are also compared.
On the other hand, the application of LCA to the Galician turbot aquaculture is
presented along with a previous LCA of feed for aquaculture. Thus, not only
inventories for turbot farming and consumption are presented, but also inventories
for the production of both marine and continental aquafeed. Therefore,
recommendations for turbot farmers and also for aquafeed manufacturers are
gathered on the basis of the environmental characterization results. Furthermore, a
rough comparison between intensive and extensive aquaculture practices is
established by assuming turbot and mussels as their respective representatives.
In this thesis, LCA is proved to be suitable for the assessment of the
environmental performance of mussel and turbot aquaculture sectors. In this
sense, LCA provides transparency and accountability all along the trade chain for
mussels and turbot. Moreover, this dissertation gives insights on the potentials
behind the use of CF and the combined application of LCA and DEA.
DEA is a performance measurement methodology used to empirically quantify
the comparative productive efficiency of multiple similar entities. The combined
application of LCA and DEA joins the strengths and minimizes the weaknesses
attributable to both methodologies so that a synergistic effect is achieved while
maintaining a quantitative character. This thesis links both methodologies and
develops two LCA+DEA methods to be used depending on the objectives of the
study. First, where eco-efficiency verification is pursued, a five-step LCA+DEA
method is recommended. By using this approach, the connection between
operational efficiency and environmental impacts is revealed, quantifying the
environmental consequences of operational inefficiencies. On the other hand, if
the aim is to directly compute environmental impact efficiency and target
environmental impacts, then a three-step LCA+DEA method is proposed.
Finally, CF involves the estimation of the overall amount of greenhouse gas
emissions associated with a product along its supply chain, even including use
and end-of-life recovery and disposal. This dissertation discusses the potentials
and drawbacks of CF while showing how to assess the carbon footprint of a
certain canned mussel product according to the guidelines of an increasingly