Bioenergy is becoming increasingly important for agriculture. However, the use of first generation crops for biofuels and bioenergy production is controversial due to their competition with food and feed. The cultivation of three different energy crops-wheat, maize and triticale-for biomass in order to produce biogas in Lombardy, in the Po Valley (Italy), was evaluated in this study to quantify their environmental profiles and identify the best biomass source from an environmental perspective. The choice of these cropping systems was based on the fact that they are well-known and extensively cultivated for energy purposes in Italy. The standard framework of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was followed in this study and detailed inventories for these crops were designed. The environmental profile was analysed in terms of abiotic depletion, acidification, eutrophication, global warming, ozone layer depletion, photochemical oxidants formation, human toxicity and ecotoxicity. In addition, an energy analysis was performed using the cumulative energy demand method. According to the results, the selection of the best biomass source depends on several factors such as the functional unit and biomass yield. Therefore, a sensitivity assessment was done in order to identify these differences. Moreover, the most critical processes throughout the life cycle of the cropping systems were identified and improvement alternatives were proposed, specifically for the mineral fertilization (one of the most important hot spots). Thus, different scenarios built on alternative nitrogen based fertilizers were assessed in detail and discussed, resulting in the identification that the use of calcium ammonium nitrate instead of urea should improve the environmental profile regardless of the energy crop. Finally, the combination of triticale or wheat with maize classes 300, 400 and 500 in rotation systems was done in order to achieve similar biomass yields, per ha, to the maize classes 600 and 700, which were also evaluated. The best results were obtained for maize classes 600 and 700 regardless of the functional unit considered in all the categories assessed except in GWP, where triticale with maize 400 and with maize 500 were the best options.

The purpose of this research is to develop a direct spectrometric approach to monitor soils and waters, at a lower cost than the widely used chromatographic techniques; a spectrometric approach that is effective, reliable, fast, easy to implement, and without any use of organic solvents whose utilization is subject to law limitation. It could be suitable at least as an alert method in case of massive contamination. Here, we present for the first time a catalog of excitation– emission and total synchronous fluorescence maps that may be considered as fingerprints of a series of homologated pesticides, in large use in Morocco, aiming at a direct detection of their remains in agricultural soils and neighboring waters. After a large survey among farmers, agricultural workers and product distributors in two important agricultural regions of Morocco (Doukkala-Abda and Sebou basin), 48 commercial pesticides, which are fluorescent, were chosen. A multi-component spectral database of these targeted commercial pesticides was elaborated. For each pesticide, dissolved in water at the lowest concentration giving a no-noise fluorescence spectrum, the total excitation-emission matrix (TEEM), the total synchronous fluorescence matrix (TSFM) in addition to synchronous fluorescence spectra (SFS) at those offsets giving the highest fluorescence intensity were recorded. To test this preliminary multi-component database, two real soil samples, collected at a wheat field and at a vine field in the region of Doukkala, were analyzed. Remains of the commercial Pirimor (Carbamate) and Atlantis (Sulfonylurea) were identified by comparison of the recorded TEEM, TSFM, and SFS to those of the preliminary catalog at one hand, and on the basis of the results of a field pre-survey. The developed approach seems satisfactory, and the fluorimetric fingerprint database is under extension to a higher number of fluorescent pesticides in common use among the Moroccan agricultural regions.

The cultivation of three different cereals e wheat, triticale and maize (five classes: 300, 400, 500, 600 and 700) e dedicated to grain production for feed purposes was assessed to quantify their environmental profiles and identify the most sustainable crop from an environmental perspective. The most critical processes throughout the life cycle of the cropping systems were also identified. These cereals were chosen because they are the most widespread cereal crops in the Po Valley (Lombardy region), the most important agricultural area in Italy. The standard framework of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was followed to assess the environmental performance of the different cropping systems. Several impact categories were evaluated, including climate change (CC), ozone depletion (OD), terrestrial acidification (TA), freshwater eutrophication (FE), marine eutrophication (ME), human toxicity (HT), photochemical oxidant formation (POF), terrestrial ecotoxicity (TEC), freshwater ecotoxicity (FEC), marine ecotoxicity (MEC), water depletion (WD), fossil depletion (FD) as well as land use as an indicator. The results showed that the maize class 300 was the cereal with the worst environmental profile in the base case, considering economic allocation and no environmental burdens related with digestate production. This scenario presented the most intensive agricultural practices and the lowest biomass yield in comparison with the other crops. In contrast, the maize classes 600 and 700 were the cereal crops with the best environmental profiles in most impact categories. The lower requirements of fertiliser (and thus, fertilisation activities) as well as the higher biomass yield were responsible of these favourable results. However, according to the environmental results, the selection of the best biomass source depends on several methodological assumptions such as the functional unit and the allocation criteria considered (between the grain and the straw) as base for the calculations. Thus, the results of a sensitivity analysis showed that the choice of a mass allocation instead of economic one caused lower environmental impacts in all the categories. Moreover, the consideration or not of the environmental burdens related to the digestate production (the main organic fertiliser used) was also a critical step in the environmental evaluations. The inclusion of environmental loads related to digestate production caused a notable increase in the impact of all the cropping systems regardless the cereal and the impact category. This conclusion could be extrapolated to other systems that exclude the additional burdens allocated to the production of organic fertilisers.