An environmental life cycle assessment comparing Australian sugarcane with US corn and UK sugar beet as producers of sugars for fermentation

Renouf, Marguerite; Wegener, Malcolm K.; Nielsen, Lars K.

doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2008.02.012

Cited by 201 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Sugarcane is a valuable crop for bio-products because it produces sugar which has very high demand in the market and also bagasse which provides energy in the form of fuel for the generation of electricity and steam (Renouf et al 2008). Bagasse is used as input resource in 80 sugarcane producing countries (Botha and Blottnitz 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality and management of wastewater in sugar industry

Poddar

Sahu

2015

Appl Water Sci

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Wastewater from sugar industries is one that has complex characteristics and is considered a challenge for environmental engineers in terms of treatment as well as utilization. Before treatment and recycling, determination of physicochemical parameter is an important mechanism. Many different types of techniques are introduced and modified for the purpose, but depend upon the water quality parameters. The main aim of this study is to determine the physicochemical characteristics of sugar industry waste water by the standard method and minimize the fresh water consumption in sugar industry by water pinch methodology.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quality and management of wastewater in sugar industry

Poddar

Sahu

2015

Appl Water Sci

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“…has significant importance in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, especially due to the sugar and ethanol production. Recently, the sugarcane crop has drawn global interest as a raw material for the production of energy, since it presents highly positive energy and greenhouse gases balances (Macedo et al, 2008;Renouf et al, 2008;Smeets et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of sugarcane trash for agronomic and energy purposes in Brazil

Franco

Pimenta

Carvalho

et al. 2013

Sci. agric. (Piracicaba, Braz.)

108

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Due to new possibilities for using sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) trash for electricity generation, and the production of 2 nd generation ethanol and others chemicals, the interest for its recovery has increased. However, the question of how much trash can be removed from sugarcane field still needs to be clarified. This study evaluated the amount of dry matter, nutrients content, structural compounds and efficiency of the enzymatic hydrolysis of the hydrothermal pretreated materials for tops and dry leaves in samples from sugarcane varieties. Tops and dry leaves present differences in nutrients content and moisture. Therefore, the amount of trash to be collected should not be simply based on percentages, but also should take into account the different fractions of the crop residues. For instance, around 80 % of N, P and K were derived from tops. Therein, the environmental indicators of the entire chain of sugarcane could be benefited because more nutrients would be recycled and less mineral fertilizers might be used for sugarcane production if tops are left on the field. Further, the tops have seven times more moisture than dry leaves and higher amounts of extractives (organic compounds of low molecular weight). Moreover, as the result of yield obtained in the pretreatment steps for dry leaves were superior to the tops and the glucose yields obtained in the enzymatic hydrolysis step were similar, it can be predicted that for second generation ethanol production, it is more viable to recover parts of the dry leaves fraction, leaving the tops on the field.

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“…So far, many studies on the life cycle assessment of bioethanol as transport fuel focus on first-generation bioethanol, which is converted from conventional crops, such as corn, wheat, sugar cane, and sugar beet (Halleux et al 2008;Luo et al 2009b;Patyk and Reinhardt 2002;Shapouri and McAloon 2002). It has been signaled that producing energy from such crops is very land and water intensive (Nguyen and Gheewala 2008;Renouf et al 2008;Silalertruksa and Gheewala 2009). Global demand for food is expected to keep increasing in the future (Rosegrant et al 2001), and demand for transportation fuels is expected to increase even more rapidly (Energy Information Administration 2009), which implies a potential competition between land for food and land for energy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%