Cumulative exergy demand index in flower production in Alborz Province

Throughout history, and especially within the last decades, the production of ornamental plants has developed into a highl specialized, intensive form of agriculture. The present study analyzed cumulative exergy demand (CExD) by providing life cycle inventory of Cineraria flower production. The initial data including input materials and used energy during production season was collected from 30 greenhouses in the studied region. Required data for the production of inputs were taken from the EcoInvent and US LCI database. SimaPro software was employed to analyze primary data. In this study, one bush of Cineraria was chosen as the functional unit and the boundary of study was selected from seeding to flowering. CExD for production one bush of Cineraria flower in Iran was 130 MJ eq that among the impact categories of CExD, nonrenewable-fossil had the largest share. Also, diesel fuel were identified as the most influential inputs. Therefore, the use of renewable fuels such as biogas or biodiesel can reduce the share of fossil fuels.

Keywords:

Cumulative exergy demand , Energy , Ornamental plants