Emergy and LCA evaluation of sugar industry in Veracruz, Mexico

Abstract

The sugar industry in Veracruz Mexico participates with 37,3 % of the national production of sucrose and integrates agricultural activities as growing, harvesting and transportation of sugarcane with industrial production in sugar mills. However, it faces challenges related to the fall in agricultural productivity practices derived from conventional crop management, the climate change and other socio-economic issues that threaten the conversion and diversification of sugar industry. So it requires innovative methodologies of analysis to determine critical points that threaten the environmental and economic sustainability. The goal of this term paper was to evaluate the production of the sugarcane in the supply areas of Veracruz Mexico by emergy analysis and LCA by analyzing several non-renewable and natural inputs related to the production of sugarcane per hectare. It was determined that the environmental and economic inputs for sugarcane system in Veracruz demand is high for nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer with a percentage of 27,2 %, labor 12,1 % and services 40,78 % of the total. The remaining 19,92 % is in order of the importance to fuels and operation of agricultural machinery in the process of planting and management, pesticides and potassium fertilization, and the stage of harvesting and transportation are the most significant with 64,65 % of total CO2 emissions which establishes the need of restructuring the sugarcane crops field to reduce production costs and environmental impacts to increase profitability.