Bugs & issues - Agri-footprint

Process 

Description of issue

Solution

Pesticide data

Corrected insecticide and fungicide emissions.

Peat emissions

Corrected methane emissions for grass cultivations

Energy content roughages

.

Corrected content of grass, fodder beet, lucerne at cultivation stage

The emissions for the crop residues (sugar beet, sugar cane, peas green and beans green) were based on IPCC 2006 categories.

Emissions for the following crops improved: sugar beet (based on IPCC: Potatoes and tubers), sugar cane (Perennial grasses), peas green (Beans and pulses) and beans, green (Beans and pulses)

Yield values corrected for Maize forage/US, from 8174 to 45477.8 kg/ha

Incorrect energy parameter input for roughages.

The regionalization was incorrect.

Process 

Description of issue

Solution

Environmental credit for manure removed from pig systems (no credit was awarded for other animal systems). The credit was based on the PEFCR red meat (which was never completed). 

Because of consistency the credit was removed for all pig systems. The 64 manure credit systems are now tagged as obsolete but are still available in the database for users to model impacts of manure in a different way.

Palm cultivation

Incorrect peat emissions for palm cultivations. 

Peat emissions for palm cultivations, some corrections were made for cultivations in:

• Brazil

• Thailand

All other countries remained the same.

Default fishing process

The default fishing processes (for example “Landed fish, at processing {DK} Economic, U”) now includes “Fish, unspecified, in sea”

Specific fishing processes

Specific fishing processes (for example “Anchoveta, at landing {PE} Economic, U”) fuel use has been replaced from heavy fuel oil (without emissions from combustion) with “Energy, from diesel burned in machinery

Transportation impact in market mixes

For all market mixes, the transport mode (e.g. truck, barge, train, ship) were aggregated into one default dataset for that mode, neglecting differences in e.g. vehicle size and fuel type used. This causes misrepresentation in transport emissions, particularly for long distances.

Economic allocation for Crude palm oil, crude peanut oil, crude maize germ oil, co-products and derivative products

Prices for palm kernel, crude peanut oil and maize germ meal extracted are wrong, causing economic allocation for the impact to main products to be too low and the impact for the co-product to be too high.

Soybean hulls (“Soybean hull (solvent), proxy market mix, at regional storage {US} Economic”)

Soybean hulls (“Soybean hull (solvent), proxy market mix, at regional storage {US} Economic”)are replaced by the Dutch proxy mix (“Soybean hull (solvent), proxy market mix, at regional storage {NL} Economic”) in the following products:

• Sow pig compound feed, at processing {NL} Economic

• Dairy cow compound feed, at processing {NL} Economic

Energy use for a few compound feeds 

Incorrect energy values

Dairy cow compound feed, at processing {US} Economic (per 1000 kg) – energy swapped

• Heat from natural gas: 87.5 kWh -> 135 MJ

• Electricity use: 135 MJ -> 87.5 kWh

Dairy cow compound feed, at processing {NL} Economic (per 930 kg)

• Heat from natural gas: 12.6 MJ -> 125.55 MJ

• Electricity use: 8.14 kWh -> 81.375 kWh

Calves <1 year ration, at farm {NL} Economic

The first grass input (“Grass, at farm {NL} Economic”) in “Calves <1 year ration, at farm {NL} Economic” was replaced by “Grass silage, at farm {NL} Economic”

Process 

Description of issue

Solution

Emissions from ammonia as fertilizer for USDA crops

Upstream emissions of ammonia as fertilizer not included for USDA crops (which can be recognized with "US-**" in the database). This means that production of ammona is not included in the cultivation LCI's for USDA crops. Emissions from ammonia are included in the dataset.

USDA crops will either be updated or excluded from Agri-footprint in the future.

Methane emissions USDA rice cultivation

Methane emissions are not included in USDA rice cultivations. This significantly lowers the carbon footprint of this product

USDA crops will either be updated or excluded from Agri-footprint in the future.

Lime inputs are not included for non-arable crops

Lime as input is not included for all orchard cultivations in AFP. This means that production of lime is not included in the cultivation LCI's for orchards. Emissions from lime are included in the dataset. Arable crops do not have this problem

Impact of lime will be added to new update of Agri-footprint. Impact of lime production is low and the amount of orchard type of crops in Agri-footprint is limited. 

Grass, at dairy farm/NL

Phosphor emissions from manure and fertilizer mapped to the wrong compartment (soil instead of water) for roughages. Roughages in AFP include: grass, lucerne and fodder beet.

The error has impact on eutrophication impact category only. Roughages will be updated and expanded in the next Agri-footprint update. 

Pea slurry, at processing/NL Economic

Process of pea wet milling should be using pea flour as a raw material input, while now it uses dry peas.

Will be updated in new Agri-footprint version.

Pea protein-concentrate, at processing/NL Economic

Pea flour should be used for pea protein concentrate instead of the pea market mix.

Will be updated in new Agri-footprint version.

Bleaching Earth

Wrong transportation distance used for transporting bleaching earth. Bleaching earth used in small quantities for some oil refining processes.

Distance will be corrected in new Agri-footprint version

Fertilizer splits for Belgium

Fertilizer splits for Belgium based on data from Belarus. Although the amount of NPK used for Belgian cultivations are correct the total amount of NPK is expressed based on fertilizer splits that are available in Belarus. Most important difference is that Belarus uses urea as the most commonly used nitrogen fertilizer, wheras Belgium uses calcium ammonium nitrate more often and barely uses urea.

This issue has impact on the type of fertilzer use and its production for Belgian cultivations only. It does not have impact on the total amount synthetic fertilizer use for Belgian cultivations and most of the emissions: laughing gas emissions (all related to the amount of N). The only type of emission the error has influence on is the amount of ammonia from fertilizer, since this determined by the type of fertilizer used (Tier 2 emission modelling.