A Comparative LCA of Aeroponic, Hydroponic, and Soil Cultivations of Bioactive Substance Producing Plants

Lenka Wimmerova, Zdenek Keken, Olga Solcova, Lubomir Bartos and Marketa Spacilova
Additional contact information
Lenka Wimmerova: Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, CZ-165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Zdenek Keken: Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, CZ-165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Olga Solcova: Department of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the CAS, Rozvojova 1/135, CZ-165 02 Prague, Czech Republic
Lubomir Bartos: Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamycka 129, CZ-165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
Marketa Spacilova: Department of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering, Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals of the CAS, Rozvojova 1/135, CZ-165 02 Prague, Czech Republic

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: Sustainable agriculture is currently trendy. It is supported not only for the urban environment but also as an innovation of conventional practices in order to increase the efficiency and quality of agricultural production. This study presents the results achieved within selected soil-less (hydroponic and aeroponic) systems. Then, it compares them, using the tool of comparative life cycle assessment (LCA), with the results of soil cultivation. The attention is directed towards biomass production and the content of bioactive substances, which can compensate for higher operating costs of soil-less cultivation systems. Coffea arabica has shown a significant increase of caffeine and theobromine contents, both in leaves and roots, as well as higher biomass yield during the aeroponic cultivation. On the contrary, Senecio bicolor evinced the results of a considerably increased growth in the hydroponic system, with no higher contents of alkaloid or flavonoids, except for the rutin concentration. The LCA results of the compared soil and soil-less systems showed that the consumption of fertilizers, diesel, and water in soil systems and of conventional electricity in aeroponics and hydroponics contributed mostly to their environmental burden. The major environmental impact categories are terrestrial ecotoxicity, human non-carcinogenic toxicity, and global warming. Therefore, in order to make the soil-less cultivation systems sustainable, these environmental aspects need to be considered deeply.

Keywords: soil-less; agriculture; life cycle assessment; Coffea arabica; Senecio bicolor; caffeine; rutin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2421/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2421/ (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:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2421-:d:753923

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 ().