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Ionic liquids (ILs) are a sort of green solvent that possess considerable promise for many industrial applications, such as the delignification of biomass. This study conducted an integrated life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) of the utilization of 1 g of ILs for the ionosolv delignification process. [bmim][Cl] was selected as a case study. By using the CML 2001 environmental impact analysis method, 1 g of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride [bmim][Cl] utilization for the ionosolv delignification process emitted 3.67 g CO 2 eq of GWP100, 0.013 g SO 2 eq of acidification potential, 0.015 g PO 4 3- eq of eutrophication potential, and 32.417 g 1,4-DCB eq of HTP 20a.

Traditional Cambodian food has higher nutrient balances and is environmentally sustainable compared to conventional diets. However, there is a lack of knowledge and evidence on nutrient intake and the environmental greenness of traditional food at different age distributions. The relationship between nutritional intake and environmental impact can be evaluated using carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from agricultural production based on life cycle assessment (LCA). The objective of this study was to estimate the CO2 equivalent (eq) emissions from the traditional Cambodian diet using LCA, starting at each agricultural production phase. A one-year food consumption scenario with the traditional diet was established. Five breakfast (BF1–5) and seven lunch and dinner (LD1–7) food sets were consumed at the same rate and compared using LCA. The results showed that BF1 and LD2 had the lowest and highest emissions (0.3 Mt CO2 eq/yr and 1.2 Mt CO2 eq/yr, respectively). The food calories, minerals, and vitamins met the recommended dietary allowance. The country’s existing food production system generates CO2 emissions of 9.7 Mt CO2 eq/yr, with the proposed system reducing these by 28.9% to 6.9 Mt CO2 eq/yr. The change in each food item could decrease emissions depending on the type and quantity of the food set, especially meat and milk consumption.

This paper considers how farmers perceive to climate variability impacts, and suggests that perception these impact responses is as important as understanding responses to climate variability impacts. Based on a survey of 215 rainfed farmers in Bengkulu Province, we tested two hypotheses regarding climate variability impacts: (1) that climate variability has negative impacts on rainfed farming based on farmer’s perception, (2) that age, formal education, farming experience, land area, and participation in farmer groups will influence farmer’s climate variability perceptions. Using a multiple weighted score analysis and linier regression model we found support for the two hypotheses and furthermore showed that most of the farmers agreed that climate variability has a negative impact on rainfed farming. Farmers' formal education and participation in farmer groups influence farmers' perceptions on the impact of climate variability. With farmer groups, farmers can discuss various problems that arise due to climate variability.

Coffee is an important agricultural commodity that is branded according to its environmental criteria in the global market. Therefore, Indonesia’s coffee production system needs to be investigated to meet the demand for eco-labeling, which has become a consumer preference. This study aims to assess the comprehensive sustainability evaluation of coffee production nurtured by an organic fertilizing system (OFS), chemical-organic fertilizing system (COFS), and chemical fertilizing system (CFS) that focuses on the energy–environment–economic nexus. A life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle cost analysis (LCC), and energy analysis were performed as methods to evaluate the environmental impact, economic performance, and energy requirement analysis. The results indicated that the OFS had superior performance in two sustainability aspects: resulting in the lowest environmental damage and generating the highest economic benefit. Simultaneously, COFS shows the highest sustainability performance as it consumes the least energy. In contrast, CFS indicated the lowest sustainability performance in all aspects: highest environmental impact, lowest economic benefit, and highest energy consumption. Therefore, OFS is strongly recommended to be applied broadly, considering its environmental and economic superiority. Consequently, massive OFS application was followed by higher energy consumption. Alternatively, COFS can be considered for application due to its higher energy performance, even though it can potentially result in higher environmental damage and lower economic benefit. However, the government should explicitly provide some effort for the broad application of OFS in financial and assistance support since the shifting process needs more time to adapt.

Small-scale fisheries are facing significant challenges from climate change. Fishers feel the impact of climate change, which forces them to adapt. We, therefore, analyzed local climatic changes, fishers’ perceptions regarding climate change and its impacts, adaptation responses, and determinants. Three decades of meteorological data were analyzed (1985–2020). A total of 300 fishermen were selected using quota sampling and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the descriptive and binary logit regression models to explain the determinants of adaptation responses. The findings indicate that fishers’ perceptions of climatic changes align with historical climatic data. Typologies of adaptation responses used in the study showed that time fishing adjustment was the most widely used adaptation option by fishermen. For this reason, fishermen are very active in looking for information about climate change to help them find the right time to go to sea and reduce the risk of climate change. Analysis using the binary logit regression model showed that fishing income, boat power, and climate change perceptions were the significant (p<0.1) factors significantly influencing adaptation responses. Therefore, to strengthen the adaptation responses in small-scale fisheries, fishers’ perceptions should be considered.

The concern for reducing environmental impacts in pulp and paper industries can be supported with the tools to measure the environmental impacts quantitatively, such as life cycle assessment (LCA) and Emergy Evaluation Analysis (EMA). The sources of potential agricultural wastes for pulp production in Indonesia include oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), sugarcane bagasse, bamboo, rice straw, and banana stem. In this study, the first attempt at EFB-based pulp production’s EMA has been done. The main tool for conducting this study was based on EMA and was supported by the LCA framework. The foreground data and model used in this study were based on literature related to pulp production from EFB. In addition, the background data was obtained from the life cycle inventory database. The EMA of EFB-based pulp production was based on emergy yield ratio (EYR), environmental loading ratio (ELR) and emergy sustainability index (ESI). The result shows that EFB-based pulp production has 1.23, 4.43 and 0.28 of EYR, ELR and ESI, respectively.

PurposeDissolving pulp production is mostly reliant on wood, which drastically depletes forest resources. To prevent the over-exploitation, the efforts were required by considering waste materials utilization. Therefore, a comprehensive assessment to account for environmental impacts was needed. The purpose of this research was to determine the environmental impact of empty fruit bunches (EFB) utilization from oil palms as a promising raw material substitute for wood in the production of dissolving pulp and furfural as co-product.MethodsThe consequential life cycle assessment (cLCA) was performed by following the methodology in ISO 14040. Inventory for the input–output materials and energies for the proposed integrated dissolving pulp and furfural co-production process was evaluated based on laboratory-scale experiments. Meanwhile, the field survey as a reference for the existing practice in the conventional dissolving pulp industry was conducted. The SimaPro v8.0.5® software was used for the LCA calculation with the Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen Leiden (CML) environmental impact assessment method. Several environmental impact categories, such as acidification, global warming, eutrophication, and human toxicity potential, were quantified.Results and discussionThis study examined three proposed scenarios for dissolving pulp and furfural co-production compared with the conventional dissolving pulp production. In the Scenario 1, 50% of the wood consumption was replaced by EFB and applied to acid prehydrolysis/soda cooking followed by ECF bleaching, with an additional process to co-produce furfural. In the Scenario 2, 100% of wood consumption was replaced by EFB, with the same cooking and bleaching parameters as those in Scenario 1. In the Scenario 3, 100% of wood consumption was replaced by EFB, and the acid was replaced by water in the prehydrolysis process to improve the total environmental performance with the same conditions as the previous scenarios. The Scenario 3 was the most promising scenario and had the lowest environmental impact.ConclusionsThis research was conducted to propose EFB, which is environmentally sustainable and economically profitable, as a wood substitute in the co-production of dissolving pulp and furfural. The scenarios were proposed and compared with the existing practices. Based on the cLCA approach, this study recommended the EFB as a promising raw material and referred to Scenario 3 for the environmentally friendly system production.

Indonesian agriculture faces multifaceted challenges, particularly the need to enhance productivity while maintaining environmental sustainability to ensure high-quality food production. Soil degradation and excessive use of chemical fertilizers have contributed significantly to declining soil fertility and land degradation. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of biochar and compost derived from lignocellulosic baglog, spent substrate from Ganoderma lucidum mushroom cultivation, to improve soil quality and fertility, especially under sub-optimal soil conditions. The treatments were tested on tomato plants using different application rates. A factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was employed, comprising two factors with three replications. The first factor was the baglog waste compost dosage at four levels: B0 (0 g/polybag), B1 (200 g/polybag), B2 (300 g/polybag), and B3 (400 g/polybag). The second factor was the biochar dosage, also at four levels: K0 (0 g/polybag), K1 (250 g/polybag), K2 (500 g/polybag), and K3 (750 g/polybag). Key growth parameters, plant height, number of leaves, stem diameter, and leaf area, showed notable improvement compared to control plants grown without biochar or baglog compost. Applying both in balanced amounts is essential to promote optimal tomato plant growth.

A comparative evaluation of energy requirement and CO2 emission was performed for native polyculture microalgae oil production in a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The wastewater provided nutrients for algae growth. Datasets of microalgae oil production and their details were collected from the Minamisoma pilot plant. Environmental impact estimation from direct energy and material balance was analyzed using SimaPro® v8.0.4. in two scenarios: existing and algal scenarios. In the existing scenario, CO2 emission sources were from wastewater treatment, sludge treatment, and import of crude oil. In the algal scenario, CO2 emission with microalgae production was considered using wastewater treatment, CO2 absorption from growing algae, and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) for extraction, along with the exclusion of exhausted CO2 emission for growing algae and use of discharged heat for HTL. In these two scenarios, 1 m3 of wastewater was treated, and 2.17 MJ higher heating value (HHV) output was obtained. Consequently, 2.76 kg-CO2 eq/m3-wastewater in the existing scenario and 1.59 kg-CO2 eq/m3-wastewater in the algal scenario were calculated. In the HTL process, 21.5 MJ/m3-wastewater of the discharged heat energy was required in the algal scenario. Hence, the efficiency of the biocrude production system will surpass those of the WWTP and imported crude oil.

A comparative evaluation of economic efficiency was performed for native polyculture microalgae oil production in an oxidation ditch (OD) process wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). A cost function was developed for the process. The operational cost per 1 m3 of wastewater (w.w.) was 1.34$/m3-w.w. in the existing scenario, 1.29 $ /m3-w.w. in algal scenario A (no cost for CO2 and waste heat) and 1.36$/m3-w.w. in algal scenario B (no cost for CO2). The conditions were set as follows: hydraulic retention time (HRT): 4 days, microalgal productivity: 0.148 g/L and daily treatment volume: 81.6 m3-w.w./d. The cost differences were related to the increase in polymer flocculants for algae separation (+0.23 $ /m3-w.w), carbon credits from CO2 absorption (−0.01$/m3-w.w), the sales of biocrude (−0.04 $ /m3-w.w) and sludge disposal (−0.18 $/m3-w.w). Hence, the introduction of the algae scenario was the same cost-effective as the existing scenario. Microalgae oil production in an OD process WWTP can serve as a new energy system and reduce the environmental load in a society with a declining population.