The energy potential of agriculture, agroindustrial, livestock, and slaughterhouse biomass wastes through direct combustion and anaerobic digestion. The case of Colombia

In Colombia, agriculture and livestock production, and the processing agroindustry (including slaughterhouses) are a significant source of biomass wastes, which often generate significant environmental impacts. Waste-toenergy technologies, particularly direct combustion and anaerobic digestion systems are an alternative to revalorize these wastes as energy sources while reducing their environmental impacts. To this end, is necessary to identify the biomass-based energy potential from the available biomass wastes. It is additionally necessary to highlight potential applications of the biomass-based energy potential, to replace unsustainable energy sources like fossil fuels or cooking wood in the end-use energy mix. To this end, an inventory of the main crops and livestock produced in Colombia, and the share processed in agroindustry was developed to identify the available biomass wastes for energy applications. Based on the inventory, the biomass-based energy potential was calculated for the use of direct combustion and anaerobic digestion systems. The results show a bioenergy potential of 60,000 to 120,000 GWh per year, with higher potentialities for direct combustion systems than for anaerobic digestion. In particular, the biogas potential account for 90% of the use of natural gas and LPG. Moreover, using around half of the solid biomass available in direct combustion systems can potentially replace the use of solid fuels (i.e. wood and coal). In total, the combined use of direct combustion and anaerobic digestion can support from 50 to 97% of the use of gaseous and solid fuels. Using combined heat and power systems for heat and electricity production can increase the biomass share in the end-use energy mix up to 15 to 28%, including 27 to 53% of the 68,943 GWh of electricity produced in 2018

Data supporting the improvement of forecasting and control of electricity consumption in hotels

Improving and managing the electricity efficiency in hotel facilities is essential to reduce the hotel operation costs and its environmental impacts. The data presented shows the evolution of the electricity consumption and management between 2013 and 2015 in two hotel facilities in Cuba (one beach hotel and one city hotel). The data additionally includes the daily measures used to develop control tools for an energy management system. The data presented in the article relates to the research study: Tools to improve forecasting and control of the electricity consumption in hotels Cabello et al., 2016, and it corresponds to the energy audits developed in one beach hotel (Hotel A) and one city hotel (Hotel B) in Cuba

Environmental assessment of pig production in Cienfuegos, Cuba: Alternatives for manure management

As pork is indispensable in the diet of Cuban people, the government was forced to prioritize its production. Pig production causes several environmental impacts related with air, water and soil pollution, which can be quantified with the application of Life Cycle Assessment that allows to optimize products and processes by identifying their environmental impacts. Farming systems considered in different Life Cycle Assessment studies show substantial differences in their characteristics, namely: animal productivity, feed composition, manure management and production period, which influences the environmental performance of each system. Therefore, each study is unique for the system it assesses and should be analyzed individually. In Cuba, the environmental implications of pig production, whose understanding is cornerstone to eventually adopt more environmentally sound practices while ensuring high productivity standards, are yet to be quantified. This study provides some fundamental insights in the life cycle of pig production in the province of Cienfuegos. The assessment if focused in large farms of the province of Cienfuegos which causes large environmental impacts. Large farms accounts for the production of 77% of the pigs delivered to slaughter houses in the province. Pig production in Cienfuegos accounts for 7-12% of Cuban production. The quantification of the environmental impacts of pig production resulted in an impact per finished pig of 120 kg of live weight of 1892 MJ abiotic depletion of fossil fuels, 1019 kg-CO2-eq. global warming potential, 36 kg 1.4-dichlorobenzene-eq. human toxicity, 17 kg 1.4-dichlorobenzene-eq. terrestrial toxicity, 1 kg 1.4-ethylene-eq. photo-oxidant formation, 12 kg-SO2-eq. acidification potential and 6 kg PO4-eq. eutrophication potential. It appeared that the main opportunities to improve the environmental performance of pig production in Cienfuegos are reduction of the impacts of the anaerobic lagoons used for manure management on global warming potential, acidification potential and eutrophication and the impact on acidification potential of pig housing. Direct land spreading of manure appears as the best alternative to lagooning, considering the current situation of pig breeding in Cienfuegos

Assessing the biofuel – transport nexus. The case of the sugar industry in cuba

Cuba currently faces a limited availability of transportation to support the development needs of the country. Transport availability is mostly limited because of fuel shortage. Moreover, Cuba has an important production of sugarcane, with a significant potential to further increase its production. Using sugarcane-based bioethanol is a significant opportunity for sugarcane producer countries. There are different raw materials available in the sugar industry to produce bioethanol. Therefore, there are different scenarios to increase the production of sugarcane and energy cane, to increase bioethanol production. In this study, two scenarios of sugarcane and energy cane production were considered, from which there are eight possible scenarios of bioethanol production. These bioethanol production scenarios were matched with three transport scenarios, including a business-as-usual scenario, a scenario considering the use of bioethanol blends in standard gasoline and diesel engines, and the and introduction of vehicles running on high ethanol blends or pure bioethanol (i.e flexible fuel vehicles, and ethanol buses and trucks). In total, the production of sugarcane-based bioethanol might support from 4 to 58% of the yearly demand for transport energy in the transport scenarios. Additionally, the use of bioethanol as a transport fuel can potentially reduce transport-related greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 3–30%

An analysis of water consumption in Europe’s energy production sector: The potential impact of the EU Energy Reference Scenario 2013 (LUISA configuration 2014)

This report presents the outcome of a study carried out in the frame of a wider assessment performed with the LUISA (Land Use-based Integrated Sustainability Assessment) modelling platform, configured in compliance with the “EU Energy, Transport and GHG emissions trends until 2050” (EU Energy Reference Scenario 2013). A new methodology has been implemented to estimate and map water requirements for energy production in Europe. In this study, the category of dedicated energy crops (ENCR) played an important role. These crops are expected to emerge as additional fuel sources within the EU28 by 2020. Water requirements in the remaining energy sectors have also been estimated in order to assess whether the introduction of these ENCR may, in any way, compete with the existing water requirements for energy production. More specifically, the study tackles the following questions: • Where and to what extent will there be potential competition with cooling water required for electricity generation related to the introduction of these crops? • How will these trends evolve over time? • How will the introduction of energy crops affect the overall water consumption trends in Europe? The analysis indicates that high irrigation requirements for ENCR are foreseen in France, Poland, Spain, eastern Germany, and regions of Italy and the UK. Substantial increases in requirements are seen for several regions from 2020 to 2030. ENCR are absent in Finland, Denmark, Greece, Malta, Cyprus and Croatia for the whole simulation period. Water consumption for cooling in electricity production has been quantified for the years 2020 and 2030 for 2 scenarios with a minimum and a maximum value. There is notable variation in overall water consumption, both over time and between the scenarios. There is an increase in cooling water consumption for most regions in both scenarios over the period 2020 to 2030, which is especially high in France for the minimum scenario. The values given by the two scenarios vary greatly due to the wide range in water consumption between the different cooling technologies assumed in the two cases. In some regions there is even up to a factor 10 difference in total consumption for cooling. As for any modelling exercise, the study presents a level of uncertainty due to the number of external models giving input and to the assumptions made. In the case of the cooling water mapping, a possible range of minimum/maximum values has been used to reflect the large variation due to the type of cooling system used by each power plant. For the energy crop water requirements we relied on estimates found in the literature. Nevertheless, the study presents an overall continental scale analysis of the potential impacts of the 2013 Energy Reference scenario, covering many of the involved sectors and provides the framework for further refinements and improvements.JRC.B.3-Territorial Developmen

The biomass based electricity generation potential of the Province of Cienfuegos, Cuba

By 2013, the province of Cienfuegos in Cuba consumed about 5165 GWh of primary energy, of which an estimated 60 % was used to produce 767 GWh of electricity. 29 % of the primary energy was obtained from renewable fuel, and only less than 5 % of the biomass energy, was used to produce about 27 GWh of biomass based electricity. This study proposes and assesses opportunities to produce electricity from biomass in the sugar industry of the province. The scenarios considered include: upgrading the agricultural yield of sugarcane, producing energy cane and combusting it after the sugarcane milling season, combusting the filter cake, combusting marabu (Dichrostachys cinerea, a bush tree considered a plague in Cuba) after the sugarcane milling season, and updating the electricity generation technology. Results are given for the different scenarios and it is shown that a combined scenario, including upgrading agricultural yield of sugarcane, upgrading electricity generation technology, combusting filter cake, and producing energy cane to generate electricity after the sugarcane milling season, thus allowing to use the generation units in sugar factories during 8000 h per year affords a potential production of 1150 GWh of electricity, 50 % more than consumed in Cienfuegos province in 2013. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

Impact of shale gas development on water resources: A case study in Northern Poland

Shale gas is currently being explored in Europe as an alternative energy source to conventional oil and gas. There is, however, increasing concern about the potential environmental impacts of shale gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing (fracking). In this study we focussed on the potential impacts on regional water resources within the Baltic Basin in Poland, both in terms of quantity and quality. The future development of the shale play was modelled for the timeperiod 2015-2030 using the LUISA modelling framework. We formulated 2 scenarios which took into account the large range in technology and resource requirements, as well as 2 additional scenarios based on the current legislation and the potential restrictions which could be put in place. According to these scenarios, between 0.03 and 0.86% of the total water withdrawals for all sectors could be attributed to shale gas exploitation within the study area. A screening-level assessment of the potential impact of the chemicals commonly used in fracking was carried out and showed that due to their wide range of physicochemical properties, these chemicals may pose additional pressure on freshwater ecosystems. The legislation put in place also influenced the resulting environmental impacts of shale gas extraction. Especially important are the protection of vulnerable ground and surface water resources and the promotion of more water-efficient technologies.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen

Improved selection of the functional unit in environmental impact assessment of cement

The outcome of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies is strongly influenced by the selection of the functional unit, which must be defined in such a way that, when products are compared, the amounts compared have identical utilities. LCA studies of cements mostly use mass based functional units (MFU). However, since different cements have a different composition and binding capacity, they result in different compressive strength and durability in their applications, so that MFUs are inadequate. Therefore, this study introduces as functional unit the Cement Functional Performance (CFP): mass of cement needed to obtain 1 MPa of compressive strength during one year of durability (kg/(MPa∙year)). To evaluate the effect of the CFP, the environmental performance of three cements is compared. Results show that adding 5% of zeolite to cement results in a similar strength and 1.78 times higher durability of the produced concrete, which is explained by the reduction of chloride diffusion. Moreover, adding 19% of zeolite to cement increases its durability 2.75 times, but reduces compressive strength by 29%. As a result, cement with 5 and 19% of zeolite added has respectively 54 and 36% of the environmental impacts of Portland cement

Water footprint from growing potato crops in Cuba

This article determines the water footprint from the potato crop in Cuba between the years 2009 and 2012 using the CROPWAT model. Climate, yields and fertilization data are specific to each of the areas where the crops were grown. The results are compared with previous works in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the case of Cuba, the results show a difference of 25% with respect to international reports developed with data related to climate and average crops in the country. Other countries in the region have similar levels, although with a smaller gray component and a larger green component. The water footprint from potato crops is also compared with other crops in Cuba, finding that potatoes represent the fourth largest water demand.En el artículo se determina la huella hídrica de la cosecha de la papa en Cuba entre los años 2009 y 2012 utilizando el modelo CROPWAT. Los datos climáticos, de rendimiento y de fertilización son específicos de cada una de las áreas donde se realiza la cosecha y los resultados obtenidos se comparan con los de trabajos anteriores realizados en otros países de América Latina y el Caribe. En el caso de Cuba los resultados muestran diferencias de un 25% respecto a los obtenidos en reportes internacionales elaborados a partir de datos climáticos y de la cosecha promedios del país. Respecto a otros países de la región tienen niveles similares aunque con menor componente gris y mayor componente verde. También se compara la Huella Hídrica de la cosecha de la papa con la de otros cultivos en Cuba estableciéndose que la papa ocupa el cuarto lugar en demanda de agua

Configuration of a reference scenario for the land use modelling platform

The definition of the Reference Scenario, given in the Energy Trends to 2030 publication by DG ENER (2009 update ), assumes full implementation of the Climate and Energy package. The legislation included within the Climate and Energy Package is reflective of the legally binding targets to ensure that the EU meets its climate and energy targets for 2020. This scenario assumes that national targets under the Renewables directive (2009/28/EC) and the GHG Effort-sharing decision (2009/406/EC) are achieved. The Reference scenario is one of three energy trends scenarios, used so far for the Energy 2050 Roadmap Impact assessment . The scenarios are derived with the PRIMES model by a consortium led by the National Technical University of Athens (E3MLab). The PRIMES model is key to the definition of the scenarios because of its energy focus. The Reference Scenario itself is derived within PRIMES and is supported by other specialised models downstream. The purpose of this document is to describe how the LUMP was configured in order to be consistent with the PRIMES and other upstream models within the integrated modelling chain, including the incorporation of the legally binding objectives, directives and guidelines. In order to be coherent with the IA accompanying the Communication on the Energy Roadmap 2050, new policies adopted up until March 2010 were implemented in so far as possible. The implementation has not yet been finalized and this document will be refreshed and re-distributed in its final form once the Reference Scenario has been fully configured.JRC.H.8-Sustainability Assessmen