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Estimating Carbon Footprint Under an Intensive Aquaculture Regime

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Sustainable Aquaculture

Abstract

This chapter presents a method to assess the carbon footprint and edible protein content Energy Return On Investment ratio (ep-EROI) of one of the most important and representative fish species, namely, turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) cultivated in Spain under an intensive aquaculture regime. The analysis was performed considering a cradle-to-farm gate life cycle assessment (LCA). To do so, representative hatcheries, nurseries and turbot farms were inventoried in detail. The relative contribution to overall greenhouse gases (GHG ) emission and cumulative energy demand (CED) were evaluated. The results indicated that intensive turbot farming has significant GHG emission and energy requirements mainly due to electricity and feed requirements. The subsystem related with hatching and nursing reports the highest contribution to the impacts under study. Regarding the ep-EROI, an average level of 0.38% was obtained for Spanish turbot, which is considerably low in comparison with other aquaculture species. Results from this study can be used to optimise and promote more sustainable turbot production chains.

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Acknowledgements

This study was carried out in the framework of the project FUNDACIÓN OESA-ACUICULTURA Project reference: 220/01078. Dr. S. González-García would like to express her gratitude to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitivity for financial support (Grant reference RYC-2014-14984). Dr. P. Villanueva-Rey wishes to thank the Galician Government for financial support (postdoctoral student grants programme). The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group GRC2013-032 and to the CRETUS Strategic Partnership (AGRUP2015/02). All these programmes are co-funded by FEDER (UE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Technology, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Sara Gonzalez-Garcia, Pedro Villanueva-Rey, Gumersindo Feijoo & Maria Teresa Moreira

Authors
  1. Sara Gonzalez-Garcia
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  2. Pedro Villanueva-Rey
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  3. Gumersindo Feijoo
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  4. Maria Teresa Moreira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Teresa Moreira .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

    Faisal I. Hai

  2. Asian Institute of Technology, Klongluang Pathumthani, Thailand

    Chettiyappan Visvanathan

  3. Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, Louisiana, USA

    Ramaraj Boopathy

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Gonzalez-Garcia, S., Villanueva-Rey, P., Feijoo, G., Moreira, M.T. (2018). Estimating Carbon Footprint Under an Intensive Aquaculture Regime. In: Hai, F., Visvanathan, C., Boopathy, R. (eds) Sustainable Aquaculture. Applied Environmental Science and Engineering for a Sustainable Future. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73257-2_8

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