1 Department of Environmental Science and Management,Ardhi University, SEST, Dar es Salaam,Tanzania.
2 Mechanical Engineering,Federal University of Technology, Akure, SEET, Akure, Ondo, Nigeria.
3 Departmet of Laboratory Technology, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Cemtral Region, Ghana.
Research Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2020, 08(03), 446–465
Received on 12 November 2020; revised on 28 December 2020; accepted on 30 December 2020
In this study, significant environmental impacts of beer production process were established throughout its life cycle it is necessary to characterize all beer production operations; to carry out an inventory of inputs and outputs in every process; to evaluate possible human and ecological effects resulting from environmental emissions; and to define possible improvement potential. There are four major significant environmental impact categories; first ecotoxicity due to pollutants emitted with environmental score of 9.1762E-6 which was equivalent to 28.16%. It included impacts from marine aquatic which was the greater contributor to total ecotoxicity accounting for 74.12%, followed by terrestrial ecotoxicity with 23.5% and fresh water ecotoxicity which was least contributor with 2.3%, the major cause was burning fossil fuels for steam production and release of inadequately treated wastewater. Second was depletion of fossil fuels with environmental score of 6.8923E-6 equivalent to 21.15%. It was mainly due high consumption of natural gas, lubricating oils and diesels for machines and distribution trucks. Third major impact category was global warming with environmental score of 4.9001E-6 equivalent to 15.02% where the major flow contributor was carbon dioxide accounting 91% of total impact and the major causes were gaseous pollutants and heat released during energy production and transportation activities. The fourth significant impact category was human toxicity with environmental impact score of 4.6208E-6 which accounts for 14.18% of total environmental impacts. Its major flow contributor was dioxins making up 51%. The main causes were pollutant from burning fossil fuels in trucks and energy production and use of harmful chemicals.
Life Cycle Assessment; Beer Production; Environmental Impacts; Ecotoxicity; Fossil Fuel Depletion; Global Warming; Human Toxicity; Particulate Matter
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Yvonne Laurent Mganga, Peter Makinde and Ellen Akua Pokuah. Life cycle assessment of the environmental impacts of beer production process. World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2020, 8(3), 446-465. Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2020.8.3.0385