Life cycle assessment of strategic locations to establish molasses based bioethanol production facility in India

Abstract Molasses-based bioethanol is an alternative to fossil fuels and is of immense strategic significance to India for its energy security. The sustainability of a bioethanol project depends on a detailed assessment of biomass availability, infrastructure for processing the raw materials and environmental implications. The present article is focused on the demand for infrastructures for surplus molasses (i.e., molasses generated at the sugar industry however not processed to ethanol) in the top three sugarcane producing states of India using geospatial tools for two timelines, i.e., present and future. The previous study has shown that along the entire supply chain of bioethanol; there is a severe shortage of distillation facility. Therefore, this study had identified the locations to erect the distillation facilities to minimize the carbon penalty on the bioethanol production system in India. Furthermore, life cycle assessment (LCA) was done to determine the environmental impact of the bioethanol supply chain in three different scenarios with different processing routes. The study showed that GHG emissions varied from 820 to 1230 ​kg CO2-eq for one ton of bioethanol production under different scenarios. The quantification of GHG emission, energy consumption, and impact on health during the process was also evaluated to quantify the impact of bioethanol production and generate data to support bioethanol policy formulation in India.