Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12348/4760
Recirculating Aquaculture Is Possible without Major Energy Tradeoff: Life Cycle Assessment of Warmwater Fish Farming in Sweden
Abstract
- Seafood is seen as promising for more sustainable diets. The increasing production in land-based closed Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RASs) has overcome many local environmental challenges with traditional open net-pen systems such as eutrophication. The energy needed to maintain suitable water quality, with associated emissions, has however been seen as challenging from a global perspective. This study uses Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to investigate the environmental performance and improvement potentials of a commercial RAS farm of tilapia and Clarias in Sweden. The environmental impact categories and indicators considered were freshwater eutrophication, climate change, energy demand, land use, and dependency on animal-source feed inputs per kg of fillet. We found that feed production contributed most to all environmental impacts (between 67 and 98%) except for energy demand for tilapia, contradicting previous findings that farm-level energy use is a driver of environmental pressures. The main improvement potentials include improved by-product utilization and use of a larger proportion of plant-based feed ingredients. Together with further smaller improvement potential identified, this suggests that RASs may play a more important role in a future, environmentally sustainable food system.
- External link to download this item: https://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c01100
Collections
- Sustainable aquaculture [2696]
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Author
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Bergman, K.
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Henriksson, P.J.
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Hornborg, S.
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Troell M.
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Borthwick, L.
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Jonell, M.
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Philis, G.
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Ziegler, F.
Author(s) ORCID(s)
- Patrik John Gustav Henrikssonhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3439-623X
Subject(s)
AGROVOC Keywords
Type
- Journal Article
Publisher
- American Chemical Society