Abstract
Ethanol production via sugar juice fermentation has a serious problem related to the quantities and high organic content of its main residue i.e. vinasse or stillage. Awareness of the impact of vinasse disposal by fertirrigation caused the environmental agencies in Brazil to implement more rigorous conditions regarding this practice. In this paper, as possible disposal alternatives, the following were defined: conventional fertirrigation (base reference case); vinasse biodigestion and biogas use as fuel in factory boilers, vinasse dewatering up to 40–50% and its direct combustion in boilers; vinasse dewatering up-to 60% before fertirrigation in order to reduce transport costs. At the same time, environmental impacts characterization and weighting of the vinasse fertirrigation life cycle and the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative are presented. Graphs of normalized environmental effects for the evaluated alternatives are also presented.
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