New methodology for assessing the environmental efficiency of transport: Application to the valorization of biomass from phytoremediation

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2022-11, Vol.846, p.157434-157434, Article 157434
• Main Authors: Vigil, Miguel, Franco-Vazquez, L., Marey-Pérez, M.F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon neutrality; Life cycle perspective; Phytoextraction; Transport emissions optimisation
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.157434

It is known that any environmental remediation process must be approached as a system and that the transport of materials is key to determining its sustainability. The aim of this work is to establish how far it was possible to transport plant material from a phytoextraction process in such a way that the environmental gain of the remediation process is not compromised. In the absence of a general methodology to answer our question, a new methodology based on spatial analysis and the life cycle perspective is proposed to calculate, under different hypotheses and depending on the type of remediation, the maximum distance that a lorry can travel, taking as a limit the distance in which the environmental benefit would be equal to 0. The results obtained show that there are significant differences depending on the type of optimisation proposed for the transport route as well as the type of valorization of the plant material to be carried out. Thus, in the case of bioethanol, biomass could be transported up to 25 km. For biodiesel, it can be shipped over distances between 255 and 415 km and finally, if it is valorized by anaerobic co-digestion, biodigesters up to 267 km away could be sought for the most favourable case. [Display omitted] •A new methodology is developed to compare the environmental burdens when designing transport routes for materials•The methodology is applied to facilitate the selection of phytoextractor crops for the remediation of soils contaminated by heavy metals.•The maximum distances at which the biomass from phytoextraction of heavy metals can be valorized are defined for a real case in Spain.