Life cycle assessment of sugar industry: A review

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a very important tool for the analysis of a process/system from its cradle to grave. This technique is very useful in the estimation of energy usage and environmental load by a product/system. The demand of sugar is very high in the world market. So sugar industry is the leading industry, which produces sugar with the help of sugarcane mostly. In sugar industry, different sizes of sugar crystals and also some by-products such as bagasse, molasses, filter cake and ash are produced. Out of these, some are used an input resource in other plants like power plant and distillery for optimal utilization of waste produced in sugar industry. The outputs of power plant (electricity and steam) used in mills, distilleries, residences of sugar industry and supply to grid for sell. The molasses is the waste of sugar which is used for the production of ethanol, so molasses is a by-product of sugar industry. LCA and waste management methods are very helpful to analyse and reduce the environmental effects.