Life cycle assessment of plant cell cultures
Year of publication
2022
Authors
Kobayashi, Yumi; Kärkkäinen, Elviira ; Häkkinen , Suvi ; Nohynek , Liisa ; Ritala , Anneli ; Rischer , Heiko; Tuomisto, Hanna
Abstract
A novel food such as plant cell culture (PCC) is an important complementary asset for traditional agriculture to tackle global food insecurity. To evaluate environmental impacts of PCC, a life cycle assessment was applied to tobacco bright yellow-2 and cloudberry PCCs. Global warming potential (GWP), freshwater eutrophication potential (FEUP), marine eutrophication potential, terrestrial acidification potential (TAP), stratospheric ozone depletion, water consumption and land use were assessed. The results showed particularly high contributions (82–93%) of electricity consumption to GWP, FEUP and TAP. Sensitivity analysis indicated that using wind energy instead of the average Finnish electricity mix reduced the environmental impacts by 34–81%. Enhancement in the energy efficiency of bioreactor mixing processes and reduction in cultivation time also effectively improved the environmental performance (4–47% reduction of impacts). In comparison with other novel foods, the environmental impacts of the PCC products studied were mostly comparable to those of microalgae products but higher than those of microbial protein products produced by autotrophic hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria. Assayed fresh PCC products were similar or close to GWP of conventionally grown food products and, with technological advancements, can be highly competitive.
Show moreOrganizations and authors
Publication type
Publication format
Article
Parent publication type
Journal
Article type
Original article
Audience
ScientificPeer-reviewed
Peer-ReviewedMINEDU's publication type classification code
A1 Journal article (refereed), original researchPublication channel information
Journal
Parent publication name
Volume
808
Article number
151990
ISSN
Publication forum
Publication forum level
2
Open access
Open access in the publisher’s service
Yes
Open access of publication channel
Partially open publication channel
License of the publisher’s version
CC BY
Self-archived
Yes
License of the self-archived publication
CC BY
Other information
Fields of science
Environmental sciences; Plant biology, microbiology, virology; Industrial biotechnology
Keywords
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Internationality of the publisher
International
Language
English
International co-publication
No
Co-publication with a company
No
DOI
10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151990
The publication is included in the Ministry of Education and Culture’s Publication data collection
Yes