Publication history: Accepted - 13 January 2022; Published online - 2 February 2022.As agricultural activity intensifies across Europe there is growing concern over water quality. Agricultural run-off
is a leading cause of freshwater degradation. Simultaneously there is a continually increasing drive to promote
renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Willow coppice planted as a riparian buffer has been
suggested as a solution to help mitigate these problems. However, there is limited research into the use of such a
system and several key knowledge gaps remain, such as, the energy ratio of the system is not known, and a fully
harvested site has yet to be analysed in the literature. The aim of this research is to fill these knowledge gaps to
help inform agri-environmental policy. To do this a life cycle assessment was carried out on an established
willow buffer system, considering the global warming potential, eutrophication potential, acidification potential
and cumulative energy demand impact categories, alongside the calculation of the energy ratio. To our
knowledge it is the first site to be fully harvested and for which a full life cycle assessment has been carried out.
The willow was combusted to fuel a district heating system. Key results showed emissions of 4.66 kg CO2eq
GJheatout -1 and 0.01 kg SO2eq GJheatout -1, both of which are significant reductions compared to an oil heating
system (95% reductions for both impact categories). The system also resulted in the permanent nutrient removal
of 55.36 kg PO43-eq ha-1 yr-1 and had an energy ratio of 17.4, which could rise to 64 depending on the harvest
method.This Bryden Centre project is supported by the European Union’s
INTERREG VA Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes
Body (SEUPB). The views and opinions expressed in this paper do not
necessarily reflect those of the European Commission or the Special EU
Programmes Body (SEUPB). The work was also supported by Queen’s
University Belfast and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute in
Northern Ireland
