CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Agricultural resources for energy purposes increased sharply in recent years. In Argentina, the legislation has imposed, like in other countries, the use of biofuels in blend with gasoline. The aim of this work is the identification of the life cycle points critical to the total environmental impact of anhydrous ethanol production in the Province of Santa Fe, which heads the corn yields in the country. A ―cradle to gate‖ analysis taking into account a valorization of co-products is performed. All the activities from the extraction of raw materials (farming subsystem ? S1) to ethanol production (refinery subsystem- S2) are included, taking into account the use of DDGs as animal feed. An LCA study of corn-based ethanol corresponds to a country-specific approach is provided. As the global process is divided into two subsystems, two functional units are chosen: 1 kg of corn for S1 and 1 Mj of anhydrous ethanol for S2. Life Cycle assessment (LCA) is the methodology chosen through two LCIA methods: Eco-indicator 99 and Recipe 2008. Corn production, supplied energy in biorefinery subsystem and valorization of DDGs are the most relevant processes. Sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate first the influence of the perspectives of the methods (hierarchical, egalitarian and individualist), and second the effects of deforestation, corn yield, transportation and energy matrix. The most relevant processes remain the same in three perspectives for both methods. It was observed a great environmental impact considering deforestation, particularly in human health and ecosystem endpoint categories. However, it is necessary a ―cradle to grave‖ analysis considering the use of biofuel in vehicles for a complete evaluation, which will be performed in a future work.

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