Life cycle assessment of cane sugar production: The environmental contribution to human health, climate change, ecosystem quality and resources in México

Meza-Palacios, Ramiro; Aguilar-Lasserre, Alberto A.; Morales-Mendoza, Luis Fernando; Pérez-Gallardo, Jorge Raúl; Rico-Contreras, José Octavio; Avarado-Lassman, Alejandro

doi:10.1080/10934529.2019.1579537

Cited by 22 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The measurement of a PS with this approach, which is associated with mitigation and/or compensation measures, helps private and public organizations (e.g., Mexican electricity and O&G sector) to strengthen their adaptation and/or mitigation commitments for the intended nationally determined contribution (INDC). For 2015, Mexico's GHG emissions were 683 MtCO 2e , of which 21.6% (148 MtCO 2e ) were sequestered by forests [81]. This means that Mexico has an average as FCS of 0.75 tCO 2 /, which is similar to t reported by Mancini [50] of 0.73 tCO 2 /ha for forest ecosystems at the world level.…”

Section: Flow Requirementsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…This basic design of C3 plus FCS could be considered as a proxy of BECCS technology and, therefore, its performance in Mexico. Also, in a similar study, Meza-Palacios et al [81] found that the sugarcane growth and harvesting stage provides the most harmful environmental impact (52%) followed by electricity cogeneration (25.7%) from bagasse.…”

Section: Sink Capacity: Modelling Co 2 Emissions and Fcsmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…Meza-Palacios et al [81] found that the sugarcane growth and harvesting stage provides the most harmful environmental impact (52%) followed by electricity cogeneration (25.7%) from bagasse. This means, as stated by Gomiero [75], that BECSS would have net CO2 emissions and require extensive forest land area to mitigate the reduced percentage of CO2 generated by the hypercycle of the energy system.…”

Section: Appl Sci 2020 10 622 17 Of 25mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

An Integrated Approach to Determining the Capacity of Ecosystems to Supply Ecosystem Services into Life Cycle Assessment for a Carbon Capture System

Morales-Mora¹,

Bravo²,

Baril³

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, it is not possible to carry out an integrated sustainability analysis because the quantification of the biophysical capacity of the ecosystems to supply ecosystem services is not taken into account. This paper considers a methodological proposal connecting the flow demand of a process or system product from the technosphere and the feasibility of the ecosystem to supply based on the sink capacity. The ecosystem metabolism as an analytical framework and data from a case study of an LCA of combined heat and power (CHP) plant with and without post-combustion carbon capture (PCC) technology in Mexico were applied. Three scenarios, including water and energy depletion and climate change impact, are presented to show the types of results obtained when the process effect of operation is scaled to one year. The impact of the water–energy–carbon nexus over the natural infrastructure or ecological fund in LCA is analyzed. Further, the feasibility of the biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) from this result for Mexico is discussed. On the supply side, in the three different scenarios, the CHP plant requires between 323.4 and 516 ha to supply the required oil as stock flow and 46–134 ha to supply the required freshwater. On the sink side, 52–5,096,511 ha is necessary to sequester the total CO2 emissions. Overall, the CHP plant generates 1.9–28.8 MW/ha of electricity to fulfill its function. The CHP with PCC is the option with fewer ecosystem services required.

show abstract

Section: Flow Requirementsupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Sink Capacity: Modelling Co 2 Emissions and Fcsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Appl Sci 2020 10 622 17 Of 25mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An Integrated Approach to Determining the Capacity of Ecosystems to Supply Ecosystem Services into Life Cycle Assessment for a Carbon Capture System

Morales-Mora¹,

Bravo²,

Baril³

et al. 2020

Applied Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moreover, in the agricultural domain LCA was used on various crops such as wheat [8], rice [9], maize [10], sugarcane [11], and cotton [12], as well as fruits and vegetables such as apples, sweet berries, plums [13,14], peaches [15], grapes [16], tomatoes [17], and carrots [18]. In addition to the stepwise examination of environmental burdens due to agricultural activities/inputs [19], the LCA can also be used to develop climate change adaptation strategies under existing production methods by scientists, managers, and decision-makers as a decision-making tool [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Sustainable Farm Production System: A Case Study of Corn Farming

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Many recent studies show that most of the crop production systems in developing countries are not environmentally sustainable. This study uses the life cycle assessment (LCA) to investigate the potential impacts of corn production in Pakistan on global warming and human health damages and also suggests mitigation strategies to reduce environmental impacts towards sustainable crop production based on the results. Land-based, mass-based, and energy-based functional units were used. IMPACT 2002+ methodology—a combination of IMPACT 2002, Eco-Indicator 99, CML, and intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC)—is used for the impact assessment. The results demonstrated that the global warming potential of one-ton production of corn, one-hectare corn farm, and production of 1000 MJ energy were 354.18, 34,569.90, and 1275.13 kg CO2 equivalents, respectively. The off-farm and on-farm emissions of nitrogen-based chemical fertilizers were the hotspots in the most impact categories. Moreover, human health damages followed by global warming as environmental externalities were also associated with corn production. We also highlighted the production areas with light, medium and extreme environmental externalities with Toba Tek Singh and Okara districts in the Punjab province of Pakistan being the most and least contributing districts towards global warming, respectively. Results further indicated that a 5 to 100% reduction of chemical fertilizers would mitigate the environmental impacts of corn production by 4.38 to 87.58% and 2.16 to 43.30% in terms of aquatic acidification and global warming, respectively. Modern farming systems and conservation technologies were suggested to reduce emissions and improve the environmental performance of corn production. Furthermore, agricultural extension and the ministry of agriculture should pay more attention to farmers’ education on emissions from farming inputs and their impact on climate.

show abstract

“…The development of these sectors creates a growing demand for energy consumption, presenting serious climate changes and concerns about global warming, directing efforts towards the development of energy from renewable raw materials, such as hydro, wind, solar and biomass (Meza-Palacios et al 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental, field and impurity factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills

Carlucci

Lemos

Salgado

et al. 2021

Clean Techn Environ Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Graphic abstract This study aims to identify explanatory factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills. The relevance of Brazil and Australia for the sugar industry motivated the development this study based on the most important factors in both countries responsible for increasing the efficiency in sugarcane production. Thus, this study is designed to assess the hypothesis that there are a few explanatory variables that are deeply responsible for the agricultural efficiency in the sugar-energy sector. As a specific objective, it proposes a DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) model that seeks to optimize the production of Total Recoverable Sugar (TRS) by planted area, and simultaneously, minimizes mineral and vegetable impurities. The sample consists of 82 observations from 32 sugarcane mills. An agricultural efficiency study was performed using the two-stage DEA, in which the evaluated mills according to the level of efficiency in the proposed model. Then, a Multiple Linear Regression Analysis was performed to identify the variables with the greatest influence on the performance of the mills in terms of efficiency. The results revealed six relevant variables for increasing the agricultural performance in the production of sugarcane: rainfall (mm weekly), chopped cane delivery (%), delivery time (h), borer (%), air humidity (%), and rods in raw wine (× 10 5 /mL). Finally, semi-structured interviews with Brazilian and Australian experts in the sugar-energy sector allowed the identification of five other relevant complementary factors that were unavailable in the database: genetic variety, agricultural cultivation activities, edaphoclimatic factors, renewal of sugarcane fields and irrigation system. The results of this study were grouped into the dimensions of environment, yield, and impurities, providing quantification and better understanding of the identified explanatory factors and the agricultural performance in terms of production efficiency, offering fundamental information that enables managers to make decisions and prioritize the aspects that contribute more significantly to the increase in agricultural productivity of the planted area.

show abstract

Life cycle assessment of cane sugar production: The environmental contribution to human health, climate change, ecosystem quality and resources in México

Cited by 22 publications

References 25 publications

An Integrated Approach to Determining the Capacity of Ecosystems to Supply Ecosystem Services into Life Cycle Assessment for a Carbon Capture System

An Integrated Approach to Determining the Capacity of Ecosystems to Supply Ecosystem Services into Life Cycle Assessment for a Carbon Capture System

Towards Sustainable Farm Production System: A Case Study of Corn Farming

Environmental, field and impurity factors to increase the agricultural performance of Brazilian and Australian sugarcane mills

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About