Environmental Sustainability of Waste Circulation Models for Sugarcane Biorefinery System in Thailand

Abstract

Sugarcane leaves and trash burning during harvesting, and vinasse management, are major challenges of the Thai sugarcane industry. Identification of the appropriate valorization pathways for both the biomass waste streams using the sugarcane biorefinery concept is necessary. This study aims to assess the environmental sustainability of five CE models, including (1) sugarcane trash for electricity, (2) sugarcane trash to biochar, (3) sugarcane trash as a soil conditioner, (4) vinasse as a bio-fertilizer, and (5) vinasse for power generation. Life cycle assessment has been conducted using the ReCiPE midpoint impact assessment method. The results revealed that all waste utilization scenarios can help reduce the environmental impacts compared to the base case. The utilization of sugarcane leaves and trash for electricity generation brings about the lowest environmental impacts due to the environmental credits from the substitution of Thai grid electricity. The utilization of sugarcane leaves can reduce impacts on climate change, terrestrial acidification, and ozone formation by about 20–104%, 43–61%, and 12–54%. Recycling vinasse as bio-fertilizer and for biogas production for electricity generation can reduce climate change impact by about 28–29%. There is a significant improvement of the avoidance of pre-harvesting burning of sugarcane in the Thai sugar industry, which has led to the big potential of sugarcane leaves biomass utilization. Recommendations to enhance the efficiency of using sugarcane leaves and vinasse are discussed. The integrated waste circulation scenarios on cane leaves and vinasses in the sugar-electricity-ethanol biorefinery shows advancement in the bio-circular-green economy (BCG) aspects for enhancing the environmental sustainability of the Thai sugarcane industry.

Advancing Energy Recovery from Sugarcane Leaf via Two-Stage Anaerobic Digestion for Hydrogen and Methane Production: Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Sustainable Energy Production

“…B is the percentage of burnt sugarcane per total sugarcane production (%), and P is the total sugarcane production in 2022/2023 [37] The BL (7.9 t/ha) and CC (64%) were chosen from the study conducted by Sornpoon et al (2014), who observed the actual burning in 13 sugarcane plantations to determine the BL and CC values [35] (Table 3). All EFs used in this study were from the suggested EFs in the previous studies [36,38]. Assuming that only 50% of the burnt SCL in 2022/2023 was utilized for TSAD, the most prevalent pollutants, CO 2 (2.6 Mt), CO (90.1 kt), PM 10 (12.7 kt), and PM 2.5 (9.3 kt), were, respectively emitted with about 2.88 Mt-CO 2 eq emission from SCL open-field burning (Table 4).…”

Toward Zero Agro-Waste: A Business Model for Sugarcane Leaves Management in Thailand

“…Sugarcane leaves were also employed for electricity generation. Silalertruksa et al [11] introduced the bio-circular-green economy (BCG) for sugarcane to maximize waste usage after harvest. The study assessed the environmental sustainability of five models: sugarcane leaves for electricity generation, biochar, and soil conditioner, and vinasse for bio-fertilizer and electricity generation, with sugarcane leaves used for electricity generation exhibiting the least environmental impact.…”

Balancing Agriculture and Industry through Waste Utilization for Sugarcane Sustainability

“…The impacts include soil salinity [13,14], disturbance in soil pH [15], groundwater contamination [16], the accumulation of heavy metals in soils [17], the inhibition of growth in terrestrial plants and aquatic organisms [18], alterations in soil microorganisms [19], and problems associated with regulatory compliance. In Thailand, the recent life cycle assessment shows that using these by-products as soil conditioners and biofertilizers could significantly reduce environmental impacts [20]. Nonetheless, the study on the current practices, farmer perception, and barriers to achieving the BCG goal has not yet been implemented.…”