Life cycle assessment (LCA) from 'cradle to farm gate' of biomass sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) crops on southern Italy

In the framework of the Prin research project Italian ‘Optimisation of agro-environmental scenarios for bioenergy crops’ of the Ministry of University of Italy (MIUR), a field experiment was carried out in 2006 and the LCA was applied to study the environmental effects of the production of bio-energy of two hybrids of fiber sorghum (H133 and H128, Syngenta) grown with different water levels (I1= restoration of 100% of ETm throughout growing season and I2=restoration of 100% of ETm until stem elongation phase). In all studied treatments low variability was shown among values of the impact categories related to the three-sowing dates and the two water regimes; in fact, in terms of energy resource, in the average of genotypes and water levels, 17.32, 14.53 and 12.07 inhab. respectively for the 2nd, the 1st and the 3rd sowing dates, whilst the I1 water level (100% of ETc restoration until physiological maturity) showed higher value than I2 treatment (100% of ETc restoration until the beginning of stem elongation) (17.44 inhab. against 11.84 ). Among the agricultural phases, fertilisation recorded the highest values for all impact categories, particularly for “global warming” (11.41 inhab.); “ozone depletion” (60.64 inhab.); “atmosphere acidification” (18.00 inhab. ); “eutrophication” (51.22 inhab.). Irrigation and fertilization strongly affected the environmental impacts.