Life cycle assessment of electricity genaration from sugarcane bagasse and molassess | |
| Author | Penumatsa, Lohit |
| Call Number | AIT RSPR no.JNTUK-16-03 |
| Subject(s) | Bagasse Sugarcane Energy crops Electric power Sugar--Environmental aspects |
| Note | A research submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering and Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The population on the earth has been increasing rapidly and it has been observed that the population of world has increased from 5.2 to 7.2 billion in just 100 years leading to lack of resources. Sugarcane has emerged as an important alternative for meeting those needs in this scenario where an alternate solution is being researched for meeting the energy needs. Generating electricity from the byproducts of sugarcane and the impacts associated were researched considering Kebon Agung sugar company for case study which is located in East Java province, Indonesia. This research study presents the finding of a Life cycle assessment (LCA) of electricity generated from the combustion of sugarcane bagasse and ethanol from sugarcane molasses. It presents emission inventory based on burning sugarcane bagasse and ethanol from molasses. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied to know the impact of electricity generation from sugarcane by-products. The ReCiPe method and SimaPro software of version 8.0.5.13wereused to evaluate the environmental impacts with the functional unit of 1 MWh. The concluding results of the study depicts that major substances contributing to the environmental impacts in the LCA of this study were CO2 and particulate matter, which will be emitted during the combustion of bagasse in the process of electricity generation from bagasse and during the fermentation process in which CO2 will be evolved as a by-product and combustion of ethanol in the process of generation of electricity from molasses. The negative score assigned to a component mean the component is positively impacted and vice versa. In the overall context of the current study, as per the endpoint characterization of electricity from bagasse, it was identified that human health (2.207E-04 DALY) and ecosystem(254.399 species∙yr) were negatively impacted while the component of resources (-44.401 $)was impacted positively. Likewise, it was revealed through endpoint characterization of electricity from molasses that climate change and fossil depletion were the major impacts to human health (3.989E-04 DALY), ecosystems (1.193E-06 species∙yr), and resources (-45.704 $).The Normalization stage at endpoint level conveys that human health, ecosystems, resources were the three main factors that were impacted. The endpoint scores of electricity from bagasse revealed that human health (0.0109 DALY/p/yr), ecosystems (-0.00039species.yr/p/yr), and resources (-0.146 $/p/yr) were impacted while the end point scores of electricity from molasses conveys that human health (0.0197 DALY/p/yr), ecosystems (0.00659species.yr/p/yr), and resources (-0.148 $/p/yr) were impacted. The single score conveyed that the total emission covering cradle to gate with 1MWh as functional unit was -24.9 Pt from bagasse and -19 Pt from molasses in Kebon Agung Sugar Company. |
| Year | 2016 |
| Type | Research Study Project Report (RSPR) |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Previous Degree Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kainada, India (JNTUK) |
| Chairperson(s) | Annachhatre, Ajit P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh;Bohez, Erik; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship; |
| Degree | Research Studies Project Report (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2016 |