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Agricultural application of life cycle iNdeX (LInX) for effective decision making

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 03:14 authored by Bailey, JA, Amyotte, P, Faisal KhanFaisal Khan
Mechanisms for evaluating system sustainability should allow for the consideration of three main parameters: social, economic and environmental. While, there are methods for comparing processes, projects or systems on the basis of environmental impact or cost, few incorporate all three parameters into the decision process. Life cycle index (LInX) is an indexing system that is meant to simplify the decision making process by incorporating a life cycle based approach with components of sustainability and safety. Although LInX was designed for large industrial systems, this paper presents the application on a small anaerobic digestion (AD) unit on a dairy farm in Clymer, New York. An AD unit can be used to generate electricity from the combustion of biogas produced from organic waste. From the analysis, the AD unit performed well on environmental and cost parameters, but not as well on risk and social parameters. However, the AD unit performed similar to natural gas and biomass-based production. One recommendation for the method is that consideration be given to modifying parameters and weightings to suit agriculture and location specific needs. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

History

Publication title

Journal of Cleaner Production

Volume

18

Issue

16-17

Pagination

1703-1713

ISSN

0959-6526

Department/School

Australian Maritime College

Publisher

Elsevier Sci Ltd

Place of publication

The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford, England, Oxon, Ox5 1Gb

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Environmentally sustainable mineral resource activities not elsewhere classified