ANNOUNCEMENTS
India needs to grow at a sustainable path of development. Globally, it has been accepted that there arises a need to shift in the regime towards resource-use sustainability. For a nation to grow, energy has a vital role to play. Biofuels have been recognized as most important renewable source of energy since these are produced from the co-products of sugarcane. In the recent years, Government of India, have proposed 5% mandatory-blending of ethanol with transport fuels (as this does not require modification in transport-engine). The thesis is an attempt to evaluate whether the sugarcane value chain is environmentally sustainable in India. The study is a value addition as it dissects the value added by material and energy input-output in terms of carbon dioxide emissions at different stages in the chain. That is, stage by stage, sustainability has been measured. The chain here involves various stakeholders at each stage classified as: sugarcane farming, transportation of biomass, sugarcane processing at sugar factory, ethanol production at distillery. The multi-functionality problem to allocate environmental burdens at mill-level between sugar and its co-products has been solved through system expansion and economic allocation. Carbon emissions used as a sustainability indicator has be employed to estimate whether there is net carbon output (net sequestration) or net carbon input (net emissions) at each stage. Based on the allocation ratio between sugar and molasses of 27.56 and conversion efficiency factor for electricity generation of 0.25, there was net carbon sequestration at farm-level as well as at sugar factory of 41,248.95 kgCO2/ acre and 1499.08 kg CO2/ 1000kgs cane processed. Most influential factors have been recognized as trash burning, nitrogen-fertilizer, transportation of biomass and irrigation through water pumps. However, at distillery there were net carbon emissions indication it to be unsustainable. Herein, the market value of molasses plays a vital role. Also, a comparison between fuel versus food crops has been performed to analyse whether increase in land area under cane affected area under food crops. Policy suggestions have been made to overcome the ‘inefficient’ spots so as to improve value addition across the chain.
Key words: Carbon emissions · value chain· stages· sugarcane farming· sugar mill· ethanol· molasses · bagasse
