Evaluating the energy use, economic and environmental sustainability for smoked fish production from life cycle assessment point of view (case study: Guilan Province, Iran)

The purpose of this study is to determine energy use patterns, evaluating the environmental impacts and economic evaluation of smoked fish production in the Guilan Province. The initial data were collected from seven smokehouses in the north of Iran through face-to-face questionnaire method, while the required data related to the background system were extracted from the Ecoinvent 2.2 database. The total input and output energy result showed the use is examined to be 98,143.29 and 60,048 MJ ton−1, respectively. About 79.31% of this was generated by fish, 7.7% from electricity, and 6.7% from wood chip. Life cycle assessment results showed that fish and salt emissions have the most notable effects. Among damage categories, the largest emissions were related to human health (37.77%). Climate change (30.35%), resource (28.78%), and ecosystem quality (0.92%) are next phases. The rates of nonrenewable, fossil in CExD method calculated 35,426.61 MJ ton−1. Economic analysis of production was carried out. Some economic indicators have been calculated, and the benefit to cost ratio was obtained as 3.09. Due to the justification of fisheries management, these issues merit further exploration.