DEVELOPMENT OF A TOOL FOR RAPID LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF SUGAR AND ASSOCIATED ENERGY PRODUCTS

NEW MARKET DRIVERS are currently being implemented to stimulate additional investment in technologies and energy sources which result in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. In addition there is a rising demand from stakeholders and customers for information about the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of products (carbon footprint). This paper describes the development and use of a software tool that significantly reduces the time and effort required to undertake a detailed carbon footprint, based on life cycle assessment (LCA), for sugar and energy products from sugar milling co-processes. The tool takes the form of an EXCEL-based template into which data relating to the production of raw sugar, refined sugar, electricity and ethanol, is entered. The template is used to undertake material and energy balance calculations to produce data that can be used to conduct a full carbon footprint using commercially available LCA software. The tool enables a rapid and consistent LCA evaluation of multiple scenarios relating to farming, harvest and transport practice, factory configuration, co-process integration strategies and the impact of extraneous fuels on the embodied emissions of cane products. The results of case studies undertaken using this tool for two contrasting cane production regions and co-processes are reported.