Evaluation of the environmental impacts of rice paddy production using life cycle assessment: case study in Bangladesh

Jimmy, Abdun Naqib; Khan, Nazmul Ahsan; Hossain, Muhammed Noor; Sujauddin, Mohammad

doi:10.1007/s40808-017-0368-y

Original Article
Published: 20 August 2017

Evaluation of the environmental impacts of rice paddy production using life cycle assessment: case study in Bangladesh

Abdun Naqib Jimmy¹,
Nazmul Ahsan Khan¹,
Muhammed Noor Hossain² &
Mohammad Sujauddin ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5913-882X¹

Modeling Earth Systems and Environment volume 3, pages 1691–1705 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

The world is heading towards sustainability. Environmental dimension of sustainability is getting momentum and therefore it is imperative to know the peril through environmental load of a product, process, or activity throughout its life cycle. This study focuses on life cycle assessment (LCA) of rice production in Bangladesh, the fourth highest producer of rice in the world. The objective of this study was to estimate the different environmental impacts from production of paddy rice, in a typical scenario, and identify the environmental hotspots. A life cycle impact assessment has been carried out using ReCiPe methodology, which consists of 18 midpoint impact indicators. The resulting LCA has pointed out the magnitude of impact per kg of paddy produced from the harvested field; a CO_2eq emission of 3.15 kg as global warming potential, a P_eq emission of 0.00122 kg as freshwater eutrophication, fossil depletion of 0.68 kg oil_eq, a 1,4-DCB-kg oil_eq emission of 1.15 kg as human toxicity, a NMVOC emission of 0.016 kg as particulate matter formation, a N_eq emission of 0.0154 kg as marine eutrophication and use of 2.97 m³ of water for irrigation purpose. Contribution analysis shows that irrigation and emissions from paddy field are the most environmentally burdening stages across all major impact categories. Manufacture of fertilizer and pesticide also play a significant role in putting environmental load. The application of this study helped to identify improvement opportunities to reduce environmental impacts within this and related production systems, and demonstrated its usefulness in setting priorities to realize these opportunities.

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Notes

“The method has been given the name ReCiPe as it provides a ‘recipe’ to calculate life cycle impact category indicators. The acronym also represents the initials of the institutes that were the main contributors to this project and the major collaborators in its design: RIVM and Radboud University, CML, and PRé Consultants” in https://www.pre-sustainability.com/faq/what-does-the-acronym-recipe-mean.
Ecoinvent is the world’s leading LCI database which delivers both in terms of transparency and consistency. The ecoinvent database provides a well-documented process data for a large number of products to help make informed choices.

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Department of Environmental Science and Management, North South University, Bashundhara, Dhaka, 1229, Bangladesh
Abdun Naqib Jimmy, Nazmul Ahsan Khan & Mohammad Sujauddin
Department of Energy and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Muhammed Noor Hossain

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Abdun Naqib Jimmy
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Nazmul Ahsan Khan
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Muhammed Noor Hossain
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Mohammad Sujauddin
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Correspondence to Mohammad Sujauddin.

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Jimmy, A.N., Khan, N.A., Hossain, M.N. et al. Evaluation of the environmental impacts of rice paddy production using life cycle assessment: case study in Bangladesh. Model. Earth Syst. Environ. 3, 1691–1705 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-017-0368-y

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Received: 10 July 2017
Accepted: 11 August 2017
Published: 20 August 2017
Issue Date: December 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40808-017-0368-y

Keywords

Life cycle assessment
Rice paddy
Impact evaluation
Cultivation
Bangladesh