Benefits of a pea and tonic

Environ. Int. 130, 104870 (2019)

Agriculture is a large source of greenhouse gas emissions, and fertilizer runoff can cause other environmental issues. Legumes could be a greener alternative, because of their nitrogen-fixing ability and reduced emissions relative to other crops, while also providing protein for humans and animals.

Credit: David Cabrera Navarro/Alamy Stock Photo

To investigate this potential, Theophile Lienhardt of Bangor University, Wales, and collaborators conduct a life-cycle analysis of peas (Pisum sativum L.) for gin production. In 12 of the 14 considered categories, pea gin had a smaller environmental footprint than wheat gin, including 12% lower global warming. The distillation and fermentation process resulted in a protein-rich animal feed coproduct, further mitigating emissions due to land clearing, cultivations, processing and transport associated with the production of alternatives. Overall, they conclude that each litre of pea gin avoids 2.2 kg CO₂eq emissions.

The authors suggest there is great potential for use of legume starches in alcohol and biofuel production, which could reduce reliance on South American soybean, and mitigate the large associated emissions.