Energy use and environmental impacts analysis of greenhouse crops production using life cycle assessment approach: A case study of cucumber and tomato from Tehran province, Iran

This study investigated of energy use efficiency, environmental effects and cumulative exergy demand. Controlling various factors and improving ecological conditions in greenhouse crops is associated with the high energy consumption required. After performing the analysis, the results of energy consumption showed the energy use was 405405.75 and 412911.99 MJ ha-1, respectively. Among the inputs diesel fuel had the most significant contribution more than 60% share of energy consumption. Also, the output energy is 104982.94 and 228281.37 MJ ha-1 in cucumber and tomato, respectively. The results of energy indices in greenhouse cucumber and tomato production showed the energy use efficiency of tomato (0.55) was higher than cucumber (0.26). The life cycle assessment (LCA) results showed that carbon dioxide is the highest among 18 air pollutants, carbon dioxide in cucumber and tomato (18836.81 and 338.28) kg respectively. The main for higher emissions of carbon dioxide is attributed to diesel fuel consumption as the source of environmental pollutants. ReCiPe 2016 method was used in this study for classifications of damage assessment, the results of human health category for cucumber and tomato is 0.012 and 0.004 DALY, respectively. Resources have a significant amount for cucumber (25.35 USD2013), also, releases are more relevant than the other categories. According to results, On-greenhouse emissions had the highest impact on human health classification, with 82% and 78% for cucumber and tomato, respectively. Non-renewable, fossil form has the highest energy produced for cucumber (2802.88 MJ ton-1) and tomato (1301.14 MJ ton-1). Also, renewable, biomass, and water forms were in the second and third orders. The non-renewable primary form had the lowest energy, equal to 18.70 MJ ton-1 and 8.12 MJ ton-1 for cucumber and tomato, respectively. In general, results clearly showed that tomato production is more suitable than cucumber in terms of energy consumption and environmental effects. In addition, it is essential to provide the design principles, structure, location, common coverings in greenhouses, and the necessary solutions to reduce energy consumption for each area. Furthermore, the design of greenhouse systems with high production capacity, minimum energy consumption, and reduction of chemical fertilizers should be considered. (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).