TY - JOUR
T1 - Life cycle assessment of plant cell cultures
AU - Kobayashi, Yumi
AU - Kärkkäinen, Elviira
AU - Häkkinen, Suvi T.
AU - Nohynek, Liisa
AU - Ritala, Anneli
AU - Rischer, Heiko
AU - Tuomisto, Hanna L.
N1 - Funding Information:
We greatly appreciate and thank Juha T?htiharju and Tuuli Teikari for excellent technical assistance. This research received no specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
PY - 2022/2/20
Y1 - 2022/2/20
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Attributional LCA
KW - Cellular agriculture
KW - Environmental impact
KW - Food production
KW - Novel food
KW - Plant cell culture (PCC)
KW - Sustainability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85120500315&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151990
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151990
M3 - Article
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 808
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 151990
ER -
