@article{caffrey_veal_chinn_2014, title={The farm to biorefinery continuum: A techno-economic and LCA analysis of ethanol production from sweet sorghum juice}, volume={130}, ISSN={0308-521X}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2014.05.016}, DOI={10.1016/j.agsy.2014.05.016}, abstractNote={This paper describes the economic, environmental, and energy issues of the farm to biorefinery continuum related to production of ethanol from soluble sugars recovered from sweet sorghum using the BE3 (bioenergy economics, energy, and environmental) model methodology. A comparative analysis of five process configurations was conducted to determine how process decentralization affects the total production system. An increased integration of on-farm processing resulted in a moderate increase in the breakeven sales price of ethanol ($0.08/L), however the substantial increase in value-added agricultural practices (approximately 180%) can offer greater returns to the farm operation. Benefits outside the scope of this analysis related to decentralized processing include: increased rural development, reductions in transportation requirements, additional income to farmers, and dissipation of some environmental impacts. Using a single parameter sensitivity analysis for those process configurations the greatest economic impacts were found to be related to conversion efficiency, crop yield, and press efficiency. Conservative values were used throughout the process modeling procedure (e.g. crop yield, Brix level of juice, conversion efficiency, and by-product usage), yet with system optimization, breakeven sales price could be significantly decreased.}, journal={Agricultural Systems}, publisher={Elsevier BV}, author={Caffrey, Kevin R. and Veal, Matthew W. and Chinn, Mari S.}, year={2014}, month={Sep}, pages={55–66} }
 @misc{caffrey_veal_2013, title={Conducting an Agricultural Life Cycle Assessment: Challenges and Perspectives}, ISSN={["1537-744X"]}, DOI={10.1155/2013/472431}, abstractNote={Agriculture is a diverse field that produces a wide array of products vital to society. As global populations continue to grow the competition for natural resources will increase pressure on agricultural production of food, fiber, energy, and various high value by-products. With elevated concerns related to environmental impacts associated with the needs of a growing population, a life cycle assessment (LCA) framework can be used to determine areas of greatest impact and compare reduction strategies for agricultural production systems. The LCA methodology was originally developed for industrial operations but has been expanded to a wider range of fields including agriculture. There are various factors that increase the complexity of determining impacts associated with agricultural production including multiple products from a single system, regional and crop specific management techniques, temporal variations (seasonally and annually), spatial variations (multilocation production of end products), and the large quantity of nonpoint emission sources. The lack of consistent methodology of some impacts that are of major concern to agriculture (e.g., land use and water usage) increases the complexity of this analysis. This paper strives to review some of these issues and give perspective to the LCA practitioner in the field of agriculture.}, journal={SCIENTIFIC WORLD JOURNAL}, author={Caffrey, Kevin R. and Veal, Matthew W.}, year={2013} }