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Environmental Comparison of Conventional and Organic Technological Routes for Sugar Obtaining concerning to Environmental Sustainability
Luiz Kulay,* Centro Universitário SENAC
Emilia Satoshi Myiamaru Seo, Centro Universitário SENAC
Marcelo Costa Almeida, CENBIO - Centro nacional de Referência em Biomassa
Charles Prado Monteiro, Centro Universitário SENACEconomic sugar obtaining occurs in more than a hundred countries worldwide. In 2007, Brazil obtained the largest sugar production in the history – about 31 million tons – maintaining world leadership in this sector(1). Even achieving high performance levels, the technological practices conventionally applied by Brazilian producers, mainly during the agricultural stages of cultivation and harvesting of sugarcane, brings serious environmental damages. That’s the case of sugarcane burnt, the use of chemical for land fertilization, and herbicides, fungicides and insecticides application in order to make plague control.
Afraid about negative consequences of such procedures on the agribusiness some Brazilian decided to explore alternative productive technologies, from which was created the so-called organic sugar.
According to Instituto Biodinâmico (IBD)(2) – a certifier institution that leads influence in the organic scene in Brazil and Latin America – organic sugar need to be obtained without any chemical addictives either in agricultural or industrial phases. On this approach land nutrition is carried on by manure and effluent of industrial stage recycling, and more resistant agricultural species plus natural predators, substitutes chemical for diseases or plague control.
This study presents a comparison between conventional and organic routes used for sugar production in Brazil. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was adopted to do it so, because of its systemic approach and focus on product’s function features. Reference flow (RF) defined to the comparison consists of the amount of energy – furnished exclusively by sugar – to satisfy all the organic necessities of an adult human been during one year. Such initiative comprehended, in both cases, unit process associated to the agricultural and industrial stages of the processes, and EcoIndicator 99 model was used for impact assessment.
Preliminary results indicate that organic sugar route has less Global Warming Potential (GWP) than the conventional sugar technology, mainly because in this technology there is no burnt previously sugarcane harvest. Regarding Land Use Potential it’s possible to conclude that both routs are almost equivalent. Finally, must be highlighted the energy saving once more in any of the process, achieved by the use of bagass in substitution of fossil fuels.
(1) Brasil. Ministerio da Agricultura Pecuaria e Abastecimento. MAPA. Anuario Estatistico 2008. Brasilia. 2008
(2) Associacao de Certificacao Instituto Biodinamico. IBD. Diretrizes para Padrao de Qualidade Organico IBD. 14 ed. 2007. Botucatu. 2007
* corresponding author: luiz.akulay@sp.senac.br