Carbon footprint in commercial cultivation of marine shrimp: a case study in southern Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT A life-cycle assessment was conducted during semi-intensive and super-intensive commercial cultivation of marine shrimp from December 2011 to June 2012, considering all phases from the preparation of the nursery to harvesting of the shrimp, to determine the carbon footprints of each process. Inputs and outputs associated to the production of 1 kg of shrimp were evaluated using the CML-1A baseline method, V3.01 EU25, with Software SimaPro® 8.0.2, to identify the factors of impact that are most relevant to the category global warming, measured in kg of CO2 eq. The grow-out phase contributed the most to the final results in super-intensive culture, which had a higher carbon footprint, 47.9967 kg of CO2 eq., which was 1.0042 kg of CO2 eq. in the semi-intensive culture. The most important impacting factor is the use of electrical energy, which is required to maintain dissolved oxygen and the biofloc particles in suspension in the super-intensive culture and for movement of large volumes of water in the semi-intensive system.

Keywords

• environmental impact
• life-cycle analysis
• Litopenaeus vannamei
• semi-intensive culture
• super-intensive culture