Energy return on investment of Austrian sugar beet: A small-scale comparison between organic and conventional production

• This study calculates the EROI of sugar beet production in Austria.
• Three farms were studied, one organic and two conventional.
• The organic farm had an EROI of 11.3 and the conventional farms 14.1 and 15.0.
• Organic sugar beet can perhaps serve as inputs to ethanol production.

In near future it is essential for human society to switch its primary energy use from finite sources to renewable ones. Ethanol has been claimed to be a potential candidate to replace oil use to great extent. This study illustrates that ethanol production has the potential to rely on organic agriculture and thereby to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Case studies were carried out by examining three farms (2 conventional, 1 organic) in Austria who are mainly producing sugar beet. We found that organic sugar beet production provided an overall energy return on investment (EROI) of 11.3 whereas the conventional farming practice showed an EROI of 14.1 and 15, respectively. Our study indicates that organic sugar beet production shows potential to substitute conventional industrial sugar beet production to provide inputs to ethanol production. By using organically produced sugar beets as inputs to the ethanol production, fossil fuels can perhaps be avoided to a large extent in the production process, thus, it may be possible to mitigate some of the environmental impacts associated with ethanol production. Larger studies are however needed to better visualise such results.