Ecological accounting for an integrated “pig–biogas–fish” system based on emergetic indicators

With the expansion of urbanization in China, the integrated biogas-utilization system has gained its popularity for both renewable energy production and multi-level utilization of organic waste. To appraise the ecological performance of the integrated biogas system, systematic accounting is undertak...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecological indicators 2014-12, Vol.47, p.189-197
Main Authors: Wu, X.F., Wu, X.D., Li, J.S., Xia, X.H., Mi, T., Yang, Q., Chen, G.Q., Chen, B., Hayat, T., Alsaedi, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accounting
Agriculture
Biogas
China
Ecological economy
Ecological indicators
Ecology
Economics
Emergy
Indicators
Sustainability
Urbanization
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Summary:With the expansion of urbanization in China, the integrated biogas-utilization system has gained its popularity for both renewable energy production and multi-level utilization of organic waste. To appraise the ecological performance of the integrated biogas system, systematic accounting is undertaken for an integrated “pig–biogas–fish” system in Hubei province, China. Based on Odum's concept of embodied solar energy as a unified measure for environmental resources, human labors and purchased goods, a set of emergetic indicators are employed to quantify the system sustainability. The results reveal that in a 20-year designed lifetime scenario, 94.69% of the total emergy inputs for the “pig–biogas–fish” system are attributed to purchased social resources. Three kinds of products, namely pig, biogas, fish are taken into consideration, and transformity of the “pig–biogas–fish” system is calculated as 1.26E+05seJ/J. Compared with the Chinese conventional agriculture system, the integrated biogas system shows a higher sustainability. Given that most biogas systems have a lifespan less than 20 years, for the “pig–biogas–fish” system, six other scenarios with different lifespans are studied to investigate the impact of the lifespan on sustainability. The findings suggest that the “pig–biogas–fish” system should be well operated for at least 8 years to prove its advantage in ecological economy over the conventional agriculture system. This has essential policy implications that local government should strengthen subsequent management on biogas production to extend the practical service life of the biogas system.
ISSN:1470-160X
1872-7034
DOI:10.1016/j.ecolind.2014.04.033