Environmental and economic analysis of bioethanol production from sugarcane molasses and agave juice.

In this article, sugarcane molasses and agave juice were compared as potential feedstocks for producing bioethanol in Mexico in terms of their environmental impact and economic factors. Life cycle assessment (LCA) using SimaPro was carried out to calculate environmental impacts by using a cradle-to-gate approach. A preliminary economic analysis was performed to determine the economic feasibility of the studied options. Also, capital goods costs were obtained using the Aspen Plus economy package. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis was involved to compare the environmental and economic viability of producing bioethanol from sugarcane molasses and agave juice. LCA results revealed that cultivation and fermentation were the most harmful stages when producing bioethanol from sugarcane molasses and agave juice, respectively. Furthermore, when it was derived from agave juice rather than sugarcane molasses, it had more environmental benefits. This was ascribed to the lower consumption rate of fertilizers, pesticides, and emissions given off from the former. Regarding financial aspects, the preliminary analysis showed that producing bioethanol was not economically viable when grid energy alone was used. However, if power from the grid is partially replaced with renewable energy, producing bioethanol becomes economically feasible, and sugarcane molasses is the most suitable feedstock.

Olive pomace versus natural gas for methanol production: a life cycle assessment.

Increasing demand for methanol production and global competition for the use of natural resources are key issues in finding new and environmentally routes for methanol production. In this work, life cycle assessment was performed using the software SimaPro v9 to analyze the environmental impact of methanol production process from olive pomace and compare with natural gas route. The main stages considered in the methanol production from olive pomace were olive production, olive oil extraction, and methanol production. In addition, the methanol production in turn can be divided in three main processes: olive pomace gasification, syngas purification, and methanol production which were also evaluated individually. Finally, the global environmental impacts associated with the methanol production from olive pomace were compared with a conventional methanol production from natural gas. This assessment determined that the production of methanol from the olive pomace had a greater environmental impact for all the categories studied except the one related to the shortage of fossil fuels. These results were directly related to the technical performance of the processes.