Analysis of the carbon footprint of stored grains preserved with
Myco CURB® ES liquid compared to other grain storage methods
By Carmen Coetzee, Luis Conchello, Raf Van Grieken and Frits Kusters, Kemin Animal Nutrition & Health EMENA and Andrea Blanco Acuña, Inge Hageman and Richard Helling, DOW
Introduction The growing human population will drive global demand for food and feed, which impacts major grains production (Tilman, 2011). A substantial increase in grain production of as much of 70% is needed, coupled with ensuring that the agriculture environmental footprint created is kept as low as possible. Given the limited resources and availability of uncultivated land, it is projected that grain production needs to come mostly from existing farmland (Gan, 2014). The rising greenhouse gas emissions globally have elevated
concerns of the impact on the planet and effects on climate change. The United Nations have established the 17 global Sustainable Development Goals which aim to restore and promote social, economic and environmental sustainability. Goal 13: “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts” emphasises that actions need to be integrated into national policy, strategies and planning. Therefore, identifying measures to reduce on-farm emissions is a contribution to this goal, in reducing carbon emissions. Sixty-five percent of Agricultural energy emissions in 2050 is expected to come from on farm energy use (World Resources Institute, 2020).
Material and Methods A gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment study was conducted to investigate the greenhouse gas emission in CO2
equivalents (CO2
Key Conclusions In collaboration with DOW and Adesco, a gate-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment study was conducted to investigate the greenhouse gas emission in CO2 equivalents (CO2-eq) between three different methods of grain (barley and wheat) storage; aeration, drying and preservative addition. • Myco CURB ®
ES liquid treated grain reduces up to 3 times
the Kg CO2-eq per ton of stored grain compared to aerated and dried grains. • The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) of 1 kg of Myco CURB ES liquid is 2.3 kg of CO2-eq. • The Life Cycle Assessment of this study in which Myco CURB ES Liquid is used, meets the requirements of ISO 14040 and 14044. Validated by BLONK Consultants.
machinery and fertilizers used in the cultivation of these grains. The study was conducted based on data from Ireland and is
applicable to climatic conditions that are typically Atlantic climate conditions (West North Europe) with a high average rainfall along the year, wet harvests, and high ruminant production. Barley and wheat harvested at approximately 19 to 21% moisture
-eq)
between three different methods of grain (Barley and wheat) storage; aeration, drying and preservative addition (mould inhibitor: Myco CURB ES liquid). The cultivation of grain is considered in this study for the nutritional losses only. This means that only the additional grain is included that is needed to compensate for the nutritional degradation (nutritional losses) due to mould growth and activity. It is expected that no burden shifting to other impact categories
such as water-use and land-use will occur through the treatment of grains with Myco CURB ES liquid, since, for the Myco CURB ES liquid treated stored grain method, less additional grain is needed to compensate for nutritional losses which translates to less land, water,
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content (mc), were split into three types of grain storage methods (aerated, dried and preservative treated). The electrical energy (kWh/ ton) in aeration and drying; the diesel fuel (kg/ton) consumption used in drying; the nutritional losses (in wt% grain loss) and the amount of preservative added (kg/ton) were recorded across the three storage methods. The data was collected from Adesco in Ireland. The cultivation of grain is considered in this study for the nutritional losses only. Nutritional losses due to nutritional degradation over the period
depend on various factors, such as moisture content (final moisture content: aeration (13-15%), drying (12-14%) and preservation (17- 18%)), storage time (approximately 3 months), temperature (20 C°)
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