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What is the best use of sugar crops? Environmental assessment of two applications : biofuels vs. bioproducts
Belboom, Sandra; Léonard, Angélique
2012In [avniR] editions (Ed.) LCA Conference 2012 - Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on life cycle approaches
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Keywords :
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); Bioethanol; Sugar Cane; Sugar Beet; Bioethylene
Abstract :
[en] Agricultural crops became through years a possibility to increase European energy independence. Brazil has taken this opportunity since the seventies by using sugar cane bioethanol as vehicle fuel. The development of biofuels production is more recent in Europe. Due to temperate climates, bioethanol production is mostly based on wheat and sugar beet, this latter being considered as the ‘equivalent’ sugar crop to sugar cane for Europe. Biofuel is the most common application of bioethanol but its transformation into bioethylene through a dehydration step can be an alternative as already found in Brazil. This paper will consider both potential uses and compare them using Life Cycle Assessment methodology. Common boundaries of the systems comprise the cultivation step for both crops, i.e. sugar cane and sugar beet, with all associated energetic and fertilizer consumptions, the transportation step from field to the industrial plant, the sugar crops transformation into hydrate bioethanol and the by-products valorisation. For the biofuel scenario, a dehydration step using molecular sieve is added to get anhydrous bioethanol. For the bioethylene scenario, an industrial dehydration step is added. Direct comparison between both scenarios is not possible due to different products uses. The comparison was then performed for both scenarios between the bio-based product and its fossil equivalent. ReCiPe 2008 method was used to get the environmental impacts. As expected, the impact of bio-based products in climate change and fossil fuel depletion categories decreases compared to the fossil counterparts. For other categories, difference is less significant and results are often better for fossil products. Land use change category was implemented to assess its importance. Depending on assumptions, the greenhouse gas emissions from crop implementation on a natural land can counteract the previous mentioned benefits. This study shows the importance of assumptions, especially in the agricultural field, on the obtained results.
Disciplines :
Chemical engineering
Engineering, computing & technology: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Biotechnology
Author, co-author :
Belboom, Sandra ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Génie chimique - Procédés et développement durable
Léonard, Angélique  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie appliquée > Génie chimique - Procédés et développement durable
Language :
English
Title :
What is the best use of sugar crops? Environmental assessment of two applications : biofuels vs. bioproducts
Publication date :
November 2012
Event name :
Congrès ACV : un outil au service de la pensée stratégique
Event organizer :
[Avnir] Plateforme pour l'Analyse du Cycle de Vie
CD2E
Event place :
Lille, France
Event date :
du 6 au 7 novembre 2012
Audience :
International
Main work title :
LCA Conference 2012 - Proceedings of the 2nd international conference on life cycle approaches
Editor :
[avniR] editions
ISBN/EAN :
978-2-9543432-0-4
Pages :
234-238
Peer reviewed :
Peer reviewed
Available on ORBi :
since 12 October 2012

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