Addressing Nutrient Depletion in Tanzanian Sisal Fiber Production Using Life Cycle Assessment and Circular Economy Principles, with Bioenergy Co-Production

Tracey Anne Colley, Judith Valerian, Michael Zwicky Hauschild, Stig Irving Olsen and Morten Birkved
Additional contact information
Tracey Anne Colley: Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (QSA) Group, Department of Technology, Sustainability Division, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Judith Valerian: Department of Food and Resource Economics (DeFRE), School of Agriculture Economics and Business Studies (SAEBS), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), P.O. Box 3007 Morogoro, Tanzania
Michael Zwicky Hauschild: Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (QSA) Group, Department of Technology, Sustainability Division, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Stig Irving Olsen: Quantitative Sustainability Assessment (QSA) Group, Department of Technology, Sustainability Division, Management and Economics, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), DK-2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
Morten Birkved: SDU Life Cycle Engineering, Institut for Grøn Teknologi (IGT), University of Southern Denmark, DK-5230 Odense, Denmark

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-32

Abstract: Nutrient depletion in Tanzanian sisal production has led to yield decreases over time. We use nutrient mass balances embedded within a life cycle assessment to quantify the extent of nutrient depletion for different production systems, and then used circular economy principles to identify potential cosubstrates from within the Tanzanian economy to anaerobically digest with sisal wastes. The biogas produced was then used to generate bioelectricity and the digestate residual can be used as a fertilizer to address the nutrient depletion. Life cycle assessment was used in a gate-to-gate assessment of the anaerobic digestion options with different cosubstrates. If no current beneficial use of the cosubstrate was assumed, then beef manure and marine fish processing waste were the best cosubstrates. If agricultural wastes were assumed to have a current beneficial use as fertilizer, then marine fish processing waste and human urine were the best cosubstrates. The largest reduction in environmental impacts resulted from bioelectricity replacing electricity from fossil fuels in the national electricity grid and improved onsite waste management practices. There is significant potential to revitalize Tanzanian sisal production by applying circular economy principles to sisal waste management to address soil nutrient depletion and co-produce bioenergy.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; sisal production; circular economy; nutrient depletion; anaerobic digestion; waste management; bioenergy; biogas; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/8881/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/16/8881/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:16:p:8881-:d:610859

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().