LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF WHEAT PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING SYSTEM

Abstract

Wheat being the leading source of vegetable protein in the human diets has higher protein content than other major staple grains or cereals like rice or maize; therefore it was necessary to study the environmental impacts associated with its field production and industrial processing using the life cycle assessment tool. The functional unit selected for the study was 1kg of wheat, and emission from various inputs into the system was aggregated into a large inventory table. Four environmental impacts were considered namely; global warming, acidification, eutrophication and ozone layer depletion. It was discovered that global warming has the highest impact score which is closely followed by eutrophication; 4.7153E – 02 kg CO₂ equivalent and 3.5907E– 04kg NO₃^- equivalent respectively, while ozone layer depletion has the lowest environmental impact score of 1.1889E – 07 kg R11 equivalent. High emission of CO₂ gas from fossil fuel during field operations and processing of wheat was observed as the reason for the high impact score of global warming.