Integrating life cycle assessment and input-output analysis for the assessment of ethanol production technologies in Brazil

• Grant number: 12/23175-8
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Effective date (Start): April 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): September 30, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal researcher: Antonio Maria Francisco Luiz Jose Bonomi
• Grantee: Marcos Djun Barbosa Watanabe
• Supervisor abroad: W. Michael Griffin
• Home Institution: Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovações (Brasil). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/15359-1 - Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment as a tool for Virtual Sugarcane Biorefinery, BP.PD

Abstract

The Virtual Sugarcane Biorefinery (VSB) is a novel framework under construction at the Brazilian Bioethanol Science and Technology Laboratory (CTBE) which integrates computer simulation platforms with economic, social and environmental evaluation tools to assess technical and sustainability indicators of different sugarcane biorefinery alternatives. Currently, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Input-Output Analysis (I-O) are methods used separately in the VSB; LCA is applied to provide environmental indicators of different sugarcane biorefinery alternatives whereas I-O is important to assess its economic impacts. This project aims at studying the integration of LCA and I-O methods to evaluate different ethanol production technologies according to the Environmental Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) approach, which allows expanding the boundaries of LCA studies to the country's economy without losing important information provided in the life cycle inventory. The host institution is the Green Design Institute (GDI) of Carnegie Mellon University whose researchers operationalized the EIO-LCA approach based on Wassily Leontief's method. Considering that GDI has published several research results on the topics of biofuel and ethanol production, the exchange of information on EIO-LCA will significantly contribute to the improvement of the Virtual Sugarcane Biorefinery. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

WATANABE, MARCOS D. B.; CHAGAS, MATEUS F.; CAVALETT, OTAVIO; GUILHOTO, JOAQUIM J. M.; GRIFFIN, W. MICHAEL; CUNHA, MARCELO P.; BONOMI, ANTONIO. Hybrid Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment of First- and Second-Generation Ethanol Production Technologies in Brazil. JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, v. 20, n. 4, p. 764-774, AUG 2016. Web of Science Citations: 12.