Sustainable Energy Solutions in Agriculture

Sustainability in agriculture and associated primary industries, which are both energy-intensive, is crucial for the development of any country. Increasing scarcity and resulting high fossil fuel prices combined with the need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, make the improvement of energy efficient farming and increased use of renewable energy essential. This book provides a technological and scientific endeavor to assist society and farming communities in different regions and scales to improve their productivity and sustainability. To fulfill future needs of a modern sustainable agriculture, this book addresses highly actual topics providing innovative, effective and more sustainable solutions for agriculture by using sustainable, environmentally friendly, renewable energy sources and modern energy efficient, cost-improved technologies. The book highlights new areas of research, and further R&D needs. It helps to improve food security for the rapidly growing world population and to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use in agriculture, which presently contributes 22% of the global carbon dioxide emissions. This book provides a source of information, stimuli and incentives for what and how new and energy efficient technologies can be applied as effective tools and solutions in agricultural production to satisfy the continually increasing demand for food and fibre in an economically sustainable way, while contributing to global climate change mitigation. It will be useful and inspiring to decision makers working in different authorities, professionals, agricultural engineers, researchers, and students concerned with agriculture and related primay industries, sustainable energy development and climate change mitigation projects.

Section 1: Introduction 1. Towards a sustainable energy technologies based agriculture Jochen Bundschuh, Guangnan Chen & Shahbaz Mushtaq1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 Challenges 1.2 Sustainable energy options in agriculture 1.2.1 Energy efficiency and energy conservation 1.2.1.1 Enhancing irrigation and energy efficiency of the irrigated systems1.2.1.2 Cooling and heating 1.2.2 Use of biomass and biomass waste for carbon-neutral production of biofuel, electricity and bio-coal fertilizers 1.2.3 Decentralized renewable energy systems (solar, wind, geothermal) 1.2.4 Economic benefit of green food 1.3 Conclusions Section 2: Energy efficiency and management 2. Global energy resources, supply and demand, energy security and on-farm energy efficiency Ralph E.H. Sims2.1 Introduction 2.1.1 Energy access 2.1.2 Environmental impacts 2.1.3 Food price and energy nexus 2.2 Global energy trends 2.2.1 Bridging the emissions gap 2.3 Other major related issues 2.3.1 Economic viability 2.3.2 Competing land uses 2.3.3 Dangerous climate change 2.3.4 Existing efforts are inadequate 2.4 Global energy supply for agriculture 2.5 Energy efficiency in agriculture 2.5.1 Tractors and machinery 2.5.2 Irrigation 2.5.3 Fertilizers 2.5.4 Dairy farms 2.5.5 Sheep and beef farms 2.5.6 Intensive livestock production and fishing 2.5.7 Greenhouse production 2.5.8 Fruit production 2.5.9 Cropping 2.6 Conclusions 3. Energy in crop production systems Jeff N. Tullberg3.1 Introduction 3.2 Energy distribution in farming systems3.3 Input energy efficiency 3.3.1 Farm machinery operations 3.3.2 Tractive power transmission 3.3.3 Efficiency of tractor-powered tillage 3.4 Land preparation by tillage 3.4.1 Tillage equipment 3.4.2 Tillage objectives and functions 3.5 Embodied energy 3.5.1 Machinery 3.5.2 Fertilizer 3.5.3 Agricultural chemicals 3.6 More energy-efficient cropping systems 3.6.1 General considerations 3.6.2 No-till and conservation agriculture 3.6.3 Controlled traffic farming 3.6.4 Precision and high-technology 3.6.4.1 Precision agriculture 3.6.4.2 Precision guidance 3.6.4.3 Robotics 3.6.5 Cropping system energy comparisons 3.7 Conclusion 4. The fossil energy use and CO2 emissions budget for Canadian agriculture James Arthur Dyer, Raymond Louis Desjardins & Brian Glenn McConkey4.1 Introduction 4.1.1 Energy use issues 4.1.1.1 GHG emissions 4.1.1.2 Energy supply 4.1.1.3 Food security 4.1.1.4 Biofuel crops 4.1.1.5 CC adaptation 4.1.2 Defining the farm energy budget 4.1.2.1 Group 1 4.1.2.2 Group 2 4.1.2.3 Group 3 4.1.2.4 Excluded energy terms 4.2 Methodology 4.2.1 Modeling farm energy consumption 4.2.2 Computations for field operations 4.2.3 Response to tillage systems 4.2.4 Converting energy use to fossil CO2 emissions 4.2.5 Interfacing farm energy use with other GHG emission models 4.3 Farm energy use calculations 4.3.1 Land use areas 4.3.1.1 Land use 4.3.1.2 Farm field operations 4.3.1.3 Farm energy use budget 4.3.1.4 Fossil energy use for livestock production 4.4 Results 4.5 Discussion and conclusions 5. Energy efficiency technologies for sustainable agriculture and food processing LijunWang5.1 Introduction 5.2 Energy consumption in the agricultural production and food processing 5.2.1 Energy consumption in the agricultural production 5.2.2 Energy consumption in the food industry 5.2.2.1 Overview of energy consumption in the food industry 5.2.2.2 Energy use in different food manufacturing sectors 5.2.2.3 Energy use for production of different food products 5.2.3 Energy sources in the agricultural and food industry 5.2.3.1 Energy sources for agricultural production 5.2.3.2 Energy sources for food processing 5.2.4 Energy efficiency in agricultural production and food processing 5.3 Energy conservation and management in agricultural production and food processing 5.3.1 Energy conservation in agricultural production 5.3.2 Energy conservation in the utilities in food processing facilities 5.3.2.1 Energy savings in steam supply 5.3.2.2 Energy savings in compressed air supply5.3.2.3 Energy savings in power supply 5.3.2.4 Energy savings in heat exchanger 5.3.2.5 Energy savings by recovering waste heat 5.3.3 Energy conservation in energy-intensive unit operations of food processes 5.3.3.1 Energy savings in thermal food processing 5.3.3.2 Energy savings in concentration, dehydration and drying 5.3.3.3 Energy savings in refrigeration and freezing 5.4 Utilizations of energy efficiency technologies in agricultural production and food processing 5.4.1 Application of novel thermodynamic cycles 5.4.1.1 Heat pump 5.4.1.2 Novel refrigeration cycles 5.4.1.3 Heat pipes 5.4.2 Application of non-thermal food processes 5.4.2.1 Food irradiation 5.4.2.2 Pulsed electric fields 5.4.2.3 High-pressure processing 5.4.2.4 Membrane processing 5.4.2.5 Supercritical fluid processing 5.4.3 Application of novel heating methods 5.4.3.1 Microwave and radio frequency heating 5.4.3.2 Ohmic heating 5.4.3.3 Infrared radiation heating 5.5 Summary 6. Energy-smart food – technologies, practices and policies Ralph E.H. Sims & Alessandro Flammini6.1 Introduction 6.1.1 The key challenges 6.1.2 Scales of agricultural production 6.1.2.1 Subsistence 6.1.2.2 Small family farms 6.1.2.3 Small businesses 6.1.2.4 Large farms 6.2 Energy inputs and GHG emissions 6.2.1 Energy inputs for primary production 6.2.1.1 Tractors and machinery 6.2.1.2 Irrigation 6.2.1.3 Fertilizers 6.2.1.4 Livestock 6.2.1.5 Protected cropping in greenhouses 6.2.1.6 Fishing and aquaculture 6.2.1.7 Forestry 6.2.2 Energy inputs for secondary production 6.2.2.1 Drying, cooling and storage 6.2.2.2 Transport and distribution 6.2.3 Food processing 6.2.3.1 Preparation and cooking 6.3 The human dimension 6.3.1 Food losses and wastage 6.3.2 Changing diets 6.3.3 Modern energy services 6.4 Renewable energy supplies from agriculture 6.4.1 Renewable energy resources 6.4.2 Renewable energy systems 6.4.2.1 Biomass and bioenergy 6.4.2.2 Non-biomass renewable energy 6.4.3 The potential for energy-smart agriculture 6.4.3.1 A landscape approach to farming systems 6.4.3.2 Institutional arrangements and innovative business models 6.5 Policy options 6.5.1 Present related policies 6.5.2 Future policy requirements 6.5.2.1 Agriculture 6.5.2.2 Energy access 6.5.2.3 Climate change 6.5.2.4 Efficient energy use 6.5.2.5 Renewable energy deployment 6.5.2.6 Human behavior 6.6 Achieving energy-smart food 7. Energy, water and food: exploring links in irrigated cropping systems Tamara Jackson & Munir A. Hanjra7.1 Introduction 7.1.1 Energy in agriculture 7.2 The energy-water nexus in crop production 7.2.1 Energy for irrigation 7.2.1.1 Factors affecting irrigation energy use 7.2.2 Energy and fertilizer 7.2.3 Energy and agrochemicals 7.2.4 Energy for machinery and equipment 7.2.4.1 Factors affecting input energy use for crop production 7.3 Patterns of energy consumption in irrigated agriculture 7.3.1 Study sites 7.3.2 Data requirements 7.3.3 Analyzing water application and energy consumption 7.3.3.1 Crop water requirements 7.3.3.2 Energy accounting 7.3.4 Results and discussion 7.3.4.1 Water application and energy consumption: baseline conditions 7.3.4.2 Potential energy and water savings using pressurized irrigation systems 7.3.5 Summary 7.4 Options for sustainable energy and water management in irrigated cropping systems7.4.1 Technical interventions 7.4.2 Policy strategies 7.5 Conclusions 8. Energy use and sustainability of intensive livestock production Jukka Ahokas, Mari Rajaniemi, Hannu Mikkola, Jüri Frorip, Eugen Kokin, Jaan Praks, Väino Poikalainen, Imbi Veermäe &Winfried Schäfer8.1 Energy and livestock production 8.1.1 What is energy 8.1.2 Energy consumption and emissions 8.1.3 Direct and indirect energy 8.1.4 Efficiency 8.1.5 Energy analysis 8.1.5.1 Methodology of energy analysis 8.1.5.2 Energy ratio 8.1.5.3 Specific energy consumption 8.1.5.4 Types of energy analysis 8.2 Livestock production sustainability 8.2.1 Sustainability 8.2.2 CO2 – equivalents 8.2.3 Livestock GHG emissions 8.3 Ener

Jochen Bundschuh (1960, Germany), finished his PhD on numerical modeling of heat transport in aquifers in Tübingen in 1990. He is working in geothermics, subsurface and surface hydrology and integrated water resources management, and connected disciplines. From 1993 to 1999 he served as an expert for the German Agency of Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and as a long-term professor for the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) in Argentine. From 2001 to 2008 he worked within the framework of the German governmental cooperation (Integrated Expert Program of CIM; GTZ/BA) as adviser in mission to Costa Rica at the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE). Here, he assisted the country in evaluation and development of its huge low-enthalpy geothermal resources for power generation. Since 2005, he is an affiliate professor of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. In 2006, he was elected Vice-President of the International Society of Groundwater for Sustainable Development ISGSD. From 2009–2011 he was visiting professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. By the end of 2011 he was appointed as professor in hydrogeology at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia where he leads a working group of 26 researchers working on the wide field of water resources and low/middle enthalpy geothermal resources, water and wastewater treatment and sustainable and renewable energy resources (http://www.ncea.org.au/groundwater). In November 2012, Prof. Bundschuh was appointed as president of the newly established Australian Chapter of the International Medical Geology Association (IMGA).Dr. Bundschuh is author of the books “Low-Enthalpy Geothermal Resources for Power Generation” (2008) (Balkema/Taylor & Francis/CRC Press) and “Introduction to the Numerical Modeling of Groundwater and Geothermal Systems: Fundamentals of Mass, Energy and Solute Transport in Poroelastic Rocks”. He is editor of the books “Geothermal Energy Resources for Developing Countries” (2002), “Natural Arsenic in Groundwater” (2005), and the two-volume monograph “Central America: Geology, Resources and Hazards” (2007), “Groundwater for Sustainable Development” (2008), “Natural Arsenic in Groundwater of Latin America (2008). Dr. Bundschuh is editor of the book series “Multiphysics Modeling”, “Arsenic in the Environment”, and “Sustainable Energy Developments” (all Balkema/CRC Press/Taylor & Francis). Dr. Guangnan Chen graduated from the University of Sydney, Australia, with a PhD degree in 1994. Before joining the University of Southern Queensland as an academic in early 2002, he worked for two years as a post-doctoral fellow and more than five years as a Senior Research Consultant in a private consulting company based in New Zealand. Dr. Chen has extensive experience in conducting both fundamental and applied research. His current research focuses on the sustainable agriculture and energy use. The researches aim to develop a common framework and tools to assess energy uses and greenhouse gas emissions in different agricultural sectors. These projects are funded by various government agencies and farmer organsations. In addition, Dr Chen has also conducted significant research to compare the life cycle energy consumption of alternative farming systems, including the impact of machinery operation, conservation farming practice, irrigation, and applications of new technologies and alternative and renewable energy. Dr. Chen has so far published 80 papers in international journals and conferences, including 7 invited book chapters. He serves as a member of editorial board for the International Journal ofAgricultural&Biological Engineering (IJABE), and wasthe Guest Editor of a special issue on agricultural engineering, Australian Journal of Multi-Disciplinary Engineering in both 2009 and 2011. He is currently a member of Board ofTechnical Section IV (Energy inAgriculture), CIGR (Commission Internationale du Génie Rural), one of the world’s top professional bodies in agricultural and biosystems engineering.