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- ItemWater footprint analysis for the assessment of milk production in Brandenburg (Germany)(München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2010) Drastig, K.; Prochnow, A.; Kraatz, S.; Klauss, H.; Plöchl, M.The working group "Adaptation to Climate Change" at the Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB) is introduced. This group calculates the water footprint for agricultural processes and farms, distinguished into green water footprint, blue water footprint, and dilution water footprint. The green and blue water demand of a dairy farm plays a pivotal role in the regional water balance. Considering already existing and forthcoming climate change effects there is a need to determine the water cycle in the field and in housing for process chain optimisation for the adaptation to an expected increasing water scarcity. Resulting investments to boost water productivity and to improve water use efficiency in milk production are two pathways to adapt to climate change effects. In this paper the calculation of blue water demand for dairy farming in Brandenburg (Germany) is presented. The water used for feeding, milk processing, and servicing of cows over the time period of ten years was assessed in our study. The preliminary results of the calculation of the direct blue water footprint shows a decreasing water demand in the dairy production from the year 1999 with 5.98×109 L/yr to a water demand of 5.00×109 L/yr in the year 2008 in Brandenburg because of decreasing animal numbers and an improved average milk yield per cow. Improved feeding practices and shifted breeding to greater-volume producing Holstein-Friesian cow allow the production of milk in a more water sustainable way. The mean blue water consumption for the production of 1 kg milk in the time period between 1999 to 2008 was 3.94±0.29 L. The main part of the consumed water seems to stem from indirect used green water for the production of feed for the cows.
- ItemModeling the water demand on farms(München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2012) Drastig, K.; Prochnow, A.; Kraatz, S.; Libra, J.; Krauß, M.; Döring, K.; Müller, D.; Hunstock, U.The decreasing availability of water caused by depletion and climate change combined with a growing world population requires the productive use of water now and in the future. The young researcher group "AgroHyd" at the Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB) is currently modeling the water demand for agricultural processes at the farm scale and developing indicators to link the hydrological and agricultural perspectives. The aim of the group is to increase productivity in agriculture by raising water productivity in plant production and livestock farming. The effects of various agronomic measures, individual and in combination, on water productivity are assessed using several indicators. Scenarios of agricultural measures, climate and diets are used to test to what extent the water demand for food production will increase due to growing global change in different regions of the world.
- ItemEnergy intensity and global warming potential of corn grain ethanol production in Wisconsin (USA)(Hoboken, NJ : Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2013) Kraatz, S.; Sinistore, J.C.; Reinemann, D.J.Increasing demand for renewable alternative fuels, such as ethanol, is driven by decreasing availability of fossil resources and increasing attention to climate change. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the tool used to evaluate environmental impacts, such as energy intensity (EI) and global warming potential (GWP), from ethanol production, but the application of this tool varies greatly. The goals of this study were to enumerate the life cycle EI, net energy value (NEV), and GWP of corn grain ethanol production in Wisconsin, to explore ethanol production scenarios which differ at the treatment of the whole stillage (WS) coproduct, and to evaluate the various solutions to the multifunctionality problem which arises in LCA. In Scenario 1, all suggested solutions to the multifunctionality problem are considered by transforming WS into the animal feed dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS). Scenario 2 avoids allocation using an integrated system which recycles the WS with an anaerobic biodigester and a combined heat and power (CHP) plant to provide electricity and steam to the ethanol refinery and returns the residue to the land as fertilizer. Based on the Scenario 1 analysis, we recommend the use of the subdivision (SD) solution to the multifunctionality problem because it enables clear comparisons between different ethanol production systems, it distinguishes between the environmental impacts from ethanol production and coproduct processing and it reduces the number of assumptions in the LCA calculations. From the comparison of both scenarios, we find that recycling the WS into electricity, heat, and fertilizer is the most environmentally beneficial coproduct use because it results in a 54% lower EI and a 67% lower GWP than the processing of WS into DDGS.