Desempenho ambiental da cana-de-açúcar utilizando a avaliação do ciclo de vida

Abstract

Faced with climate change that has been occurring with greater intensity over the last few years, due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, actions to achieve sustainable production are essential. With the incentives to increase the use and production of biofuel, in view of this, the present work aims to evaluate the environmental impacts of a sugarcane ethanol production system. Information was collected from a company located in the Midwest. The defined functional unit was a ton of sugarcane. In the agricultural phase, the following categories were evaluated: GHG emissions, terrestrial acidification and water eutrophication. In the industrial phase, GHG emissions were evaluated. Emissions of 134.9 kg of CO2 eq were obtained. Mg cane-1, with 75% of emissions originating from the management stage, that is, the stage where there is a greater consumption of agricultural inputs. For the terrestrial acidification category, 0.67 kg of SO2 eq. Mg cane-1 and 0.22 kg of PO4 eq. Mg cane-1 in the eutrophication category. Among the categories evaluated in the industrial phase, the ones that most affect are: Purchased goods and services (72%), Stationary combustion (11%) and mobile combustion (11%). The total emission of all categories is 6.1 t CO2 eq hectare year-1. The results show the importance of developing new studies to value the biofuel production system. KEYWORDS: Biofuel. Agricultural. Environmental impact.