Life cycle assessment of bagasse waste management options

Journal Article · Fri May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Waste Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2008.12.006· OSTI ID:21217165

Kiatkittipong, Worapon ^[1]; Wongsuchoto, Porntip ^[2]; Pavasant, Prasert ^[2]

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1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom 73000 (Thailand)
2. National Center of Excellence for Environmental and Hazardous Waste Management, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 (Thailand)

Bagasse is mostly utilized for steam and power production for domestic sugar mills. There have been a number of alternatives that could well be applied to manage bagasse, such as pulp production, conversion to biogas and electricity production. The selection of proper alternatives depends significantly on the appropriateness of the technology both from the technical and the environmental points of view. This work proposes a simple model based on the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of various alternatives for dealing with bagasse waste. The environmental aspects of concern included global warming potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential and photochemical oxidant creation. Four waste management scenarios for bagasse were evaluated: landfilling with utilization of landfill gas, anaerobic digestion with biogas production, incineration for power generation, and pulp production. In landfills, environmental impacts depended significantly on the biogas collection efficiency, whereas incineration of bagasse to electricity in the power plant showed better environmental performance than that of conventional low biogas collection efficiency landfills. Anaerobic digestion of bagasse in a control biogas reactor was superior to the other two energy generation options in all environmental aspects. Although the use of bagasse in pulp mills created relatively high environmental burdens, the results from the LCA revealed that other stages of the life cycle produced relatively small impacts and that this option might be the most environmentally benign alternative.

• OSTI ID: 21217165
• Journal Information: Waste Management, Journal Name: Waste Management Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 29; ISSN WAMAE2; ISSN 0956-053X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
BAGASSE
COMBUSTION
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
LANDFILL GAS
LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT
METHANE
POWER GENERATION
SANITARY LANDFILLS
SLURRIES