LCA FOR ENERGY SYSTEMS AND FOOD PRODUCTS Life cycle assessment of sugarcane ethanol production in India in comparison to Brazil Ioannis Tsiropoulos & André P. C. Faaij & Joaquim E. A. Seabra & Lars Lundquist & Urs Schenker & Jean-François Briois & Martin K. Patel Received: 28 October 2013 /Accepted: 23 January 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract Purpose India’ s biofuel programme relies on ethanol produc- tion from sugarcane molasses. However, there is limited in- sight on environmental impacts across the Indian ethanol production chain. This study closes this gap by assessing the environmental impacts of ethanol production from sugarcane molasses in Uttar Pradesh, India. A comparative analysis with south-central Brazilian sugarcane ethanol is also presented to compare the performance of sugarcane molasses-based etha- nol with sugarcane juice-based ethanol. Methods The production process is assessed by a cradle-to- gate life cycle assessment. The multifunctionality problem is solved by applying two variants of system expansion and economic allocation. Environmental impacts are assessed with Impact 2002+ and results are presented at the midpoint level for greenhouse gas emissions, non-renewable energy use, freshwater eutrophication and water use. Furthermore, results include impacts on human health and ecosystem qual- ity at the damage level. Sensitivity analysis is also performed on key contributing parameters such as pesticides, stillage treatment and irrigation water use. Results and discussion It is found that, compared to Brazilian ethanol, Indian ethanol causes lower or comparable green- house gas emissions (0.09–0.64 kgCO 2eq /kg ethanolIN , 0.46– 0.63 kgCO 2eq /kg ethanolBR ), non-renewable energy use (-0.3– 6.3 MJ/kg ethanolIN ,1–4 MJ/kg ethanolBR ), human health impacts (3.6·10 -6 DALY/kg ethanolIN , 4·10 -6 DALY/kg ethanolBR ) and ecosystem impairment (2.5 PDF·m 2 ·year/kg ethanolIN , 3.3 PDF·m 2 ·year/kg ethanolBR ). One reason is that Indian ethanol is exclusively produced from molasses, a co-product of sugar production, resulting in allocation of the environ- mental burden. Additionally, Indian sugar mills and distill- eries produce surplus electricity for which they receive credits for displacing grid electricity of relatively high CO 2 emission intensity. When economic allocation is ap- plied, the greenhouse gas emissions for Indian and Brazilian ethanol are comparable. Non-renewable energy use is higher for Indian ethanol, primarily due to energy requirements for irrigation. For water use and related im- pacts, Indian ethanol scores worse due groundwater irriga- tion, despite the dampening effect of allocation. The vari- ation on greenhouse gas emissions and non-renewable energy use of Indian mills is much larger for high and low performance than the respective systems in Brazil. Conclusions Important measures can be taken across the pro- duction chain to improve the environmental performance of Indian ethanol production (e.g. avoiding the use of specific pesticides, avoiding the disposal of untreated stillage, transi- tion to water efficient crops). However, to meet the targets of Responsible editor: Niels Jungbluth Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11367-014-0714-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. I. Tsiropoulos (*) : A. P. C. Faaij Energy and Resources, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS Utrecht, Netherlands e-mail: i.tsiropoulos@uu.nl J. E. A. Seabra Department of Energy, Faculty of Mechanical Energy, University of Campinas, Rua Mendeleyev 200, Cidade Universitária “Zeferino Vaz”, Campinas 13083-860, SP, Brazil L. Lundquist : U. Schenker Nestlé Research Center, Lausanne, Nestlé LTC, Vers-chez-les-Blanc, 1000 Lausanne 26, Switzerland J.<F. Briois Nestlé Waters Management and Technology, PTC Water, B.P. 101, 88804 Vittel Cedex, France M. K. Patel Energy Group, Institute for Environmental Sciences and Forel Institute, University of Geneva, 1227 Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland Int J Life Cycle Assess DOI 10.1007/s11367-014-0714-5