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Global Warming Potential and Energy Intensity of Cheese Manufacturing in Wisconsin

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  2011 Louisville, Kentucky, August 7-10, 2011  1110984.(doi:10.13031/2013.37384)
Authors:   Horacio Andres Aguirre-Villegas, Franco Xavier Milani, Simone Kraatz, Douglas J Reinemann
Keywords:   Global warming potential, energy intensity, life cycle assessment, GHG emissions, allocation, dairy, cheese processing

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods were used to quantify the Global Warming Potential (GWP) and Energy Intensity (EI) of cheese and dried whey manufacture in Wisconsin. Several allocation methods to assign environmental impacts to cheese and dried whey were compared: Economic, total solids, and nutritional value were each applied to the entire process and to individual processes unique to each product. The differences in the GWP and EI for cheese and dried whey were highly influenced by the choice of allocation method. The EI of cheese ranged from 5.08 MJ kg-1 to 15.01 MJ kg-1 and the GWP of cheese ranged from 0.31 kg CO2-eq kg-1 to 0.99 kg CO2-eq kg-1. This study demonstrates the importance of the allocation method on LCA analysis and suggests methods to more accurately assess the environmental burdens when more than one product is produced at a dairy plant.

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