Life cycle assessment for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) production systems: a case study for Iran

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.006

Journal of Cleaner Production

Volume 91, 15 March 2015, Pages 43-55

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.006 Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the life cycle of rainbow trout under three culturing systems including flow-through, recirculating and semi-closed recirculating systems in Iran. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was found to be suited very well for this purpose. LCA method was used to quantify and compare the potential environmental impacts of culturing rainbow trout in the above three aquaculture systems. Differences were found between the above three systems in terms of water dependence, land competition, feed production processes and energy use. Feed production was found to be the major contributor to the potential impacts such as climate change and acidification in all of the above three systems due to variable feed conversion ratios (FCR, 1.15, 1.47 and 1.57) in flow-through, recirculating and semi-closed recirculating systems, respectively. The results indicated that the semi-closed recirculating system was less efficient than the flow-through system, with a higher level of potential eutrophication (49% greater), abiotic depletion (80% greater) and global warming (82% greater). The recirculating system required about 10 time more material and energy demands compared to the flow-through system. Water dependence in the flow-through system was calculated to be 27 and 3.7 times more than for the recirculating and semi-closed recirculating systems, respectively for the same quantity of biomass production. The major contribution to the land use was feed ingredient production (up to 95%) for the semi-closed recirculating and recirculating system. On the other hand, the land use in the flow-through system on farm rainbow trout production and feed ingredient production were calculated about 11 and 89%, respectively. Therefore, many options exist for improving the environmental performance of these aquaculture systems. The most important measure is to increase the feed and energy efficiency through improvements in rearing modes and the optimisation of feeding practices. It is recommended that excluded impacts such as biodiversity and socio-economic impacts be carefully considered in further sustainability assessments of recirculating and semi-closed recirculating systems and in continuing efforts to improve and develop these technologies on a larger scale.

Introduction

Aquaculture is a major mode of production for aquatic food products (Miller and Spoolman, 2011). There is increasing demand for aquatic food products as per capita consumption of aquaculture production is on the rise. However, increasing of aquaculture activity raises ecological and environmental concerns (Eckerberg and Nilsson, 2013). These concerns are related to quality and safety of the products as well as to other environmental issues such as emissions which may contribute to climate change, eutrophication, toxic and eco-toxic impacts, use of antibiotics, use of land and water needed for food production, loss of biodiversity, introduction of non-indigenous species, spread/amplification of parasites and disease, genetic pollution and socio-economic concerns (Ayer and Tyedmers, 2009, Biao and Kaijin, 2007, Naylor et al., 2000, Naylor et al., 2009). Thus, studies on sustainability of aquaculture products and practices are currently attracting increased attention. During the last two decades, greater efforts have been made globally in developing multi-impact methods that can integrate several environmental stress factors to provide comprehensive assessment. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an appropriate tool for assessing the potential impact of aquaculture through evaluations of material and energy flow throughout a product's life cycle. It encompasses the extraction and processing of raw materials manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use, reuse and maintenance as well as waste management and recycling (ISO, 2006, Papatryphon et al., 2004, Samuel-Fitwi et al., 2013).

LCA is a powerful tool that presents alternative scenarios to serve as indicators for policy makers to take measures for improving environmental performance and to make modifications to a production system (Cherubini, 2010, ISO, 2006). Compared to other environmental impact assessment methods, LCA incorporates all the various stages of an aquaculture production supply chain (Van der Werf et al., 2007). LCA has been applied to different aquaculture products and systems for a variety of species, at different production sites in and at various geographical locations in order to improve environmental and ecological performance. LCA has been employed in several other studies (Aubin et al., 2009, Aubin et al., 2006, Avadí and Fréon, 2013, Ayer and Tyedmers, 2009, d’Orbcastel et al., 2009, Ellingsen and Aanondsen, 2006, Iribarren et al., 2010, Jerbi et al., 2012, Mungkung et al., 2006, Papatryphon et al., 2004, Phong et al., 2011, Samuel-Fitwi et al., 2013). A variety of categories have been identified in related studies, such as potential contribution to global warming, primary production, energy use, eutrophication, acidification, water dependence and land use. These categories were applied to evaluate the effect of aquaculture production systems on ecosystems and the environment (Henriksson et al., 2012, Vázquez-Rowe et al., 2012).

Today, rainbow trout culture makes a major contribution to aquatic production for direct consumption in Iran. The aquaculture capacity of rainbow trout has increased tremendously in recent years such that productivity increased from 3994 metric tonne in 1998 to 131,547 metric tonnes in 2011 and around 85% of this depended on inland waters (Statistics, 2011). Iran has been nominated as the largest producer of fresh water rainbow trout in the world with this high level of productivity. In present study, three distinct production systems, the flow-through system, the semi-recirculating system and the recirculating system were investigated. All activities including fish feed application, energy use, transportation, packaging materials as well as pharmaceuticals and other chemicals have impacts on the environment (Henriksson et al., 2012). Therefore it is necessary to investigate some formal assessment of the environmental impact of production systems in Iran. Preliminary environmental assessment studies in Iran have focused on local problems and various biological performance indicators such as fish health and feed input rates. Results of these assessments cannot provide a comprehensive view of the overall environmental impacts (e.g. impacts of biodiversity) for such practices. Therefore, assessment needs to be made for the potential impact of these systems as well as their components. To the best of our knowledge, no comprehensive study has been undertaken to determine the environmental impact assessment using LCA of fish and seafood products in Iran. The aim of this study was to make life cycle assessments of three culture systems, namely the flow-through system, the recirculating system and the semi-closed recirculating system. These were quantified and compared in an effort to identify aspects of each system's production chain that contribute most to its overall environmental impact. Results of this study could be used to optimize rainbow trout production systems in terms of their environmental sustainability. The quantifiable benefits include the direct evaluation of rainbow trout production systems to advise on regulation and environmental impact mitigation measures for policy makers and to guide rainbow trout farmers towards implementing better aquaculture practices.

Section snippets

Systems description

Due to concerns over environmental issues and the sustainability of production systems, three types of production systems were selected among rainbow trout production systems, each with a different culturing technique and management system. What follows is a description of these systems:

Results

The semi-closed recirculating system resulted in dramatically higher life cycle contributions to environmental impact categories considered in this analysis. Compared to the flow-through system, the recirculating system resulted in greater life cycle contributions to four of the six impact categories, and the largest difference, with the exception of eutrophication potential, was approximately six times greater (Fig. 5). This higher energy demand also resulted in larger contributions to several

Discussion

The actual approaches applied to aquaculture production are oriented towards decreasing energy dependency and improving the products' environmental profile. These objectives were set in response to economic change (energy cost) and the legal context (environmental regulations). A holistic approach is required to meet these objectives. As aquaculture involves a complex food chain, several steps need to be evaluated in order to make a reasonably accurate assessment of its environmental impact

Conclusion

LCA proved to be a beneficial and powerful tool for qualifying and studying the evaluation of rainbow trout production systems, permitting the characterization of production systems based on potential environmental impacts (Aubin et al., 2009). This is the most common approach for considering the broader environmental impacts of production processes, and has been the subject of intense research activity over the past several years in terms of methodological development, analysis of application

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Life cycle assessment for rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) production systems: a case study for Iran

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Systems description

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

J. Clean. Prod.

Aquaculture

Fish. Res.

J. Clean. Prod.

Ocean Coast. Manag.

Aquac. Eng.

J. Environ. Manag.

Renew. Energy

Appl. Energy

Aquac. Eng.

Aquac. Eng.

Mar. Policy

Resour. Conserv. Recycl.

Aquac. Eng.

Aquaculture

Livest. Sci.

Aquac. Eng.

Aquaculture

Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.

Trends Food Sci. Technol.

J. Clean. Prod.

Survey of approaches to improve reliability in LCA

Int. J. Life Cycle Assess.

Simapro Version 7.1

Environmental Policy Integration in Practice: Shaping Institutions for Learning