Evaluating the Energy Flow and Environmental Effects of Cake Production in Guilan Province by Life Cycle Assessment Approach

In this study, the energy consumption and environmental emissions for cake production were studied using life cycle assessment in Guilan Province. Necessary data using questionnaires and interviews was gathered from 21 factories of cake production. Equivalent energy of inputs and outputs was obtained using coefficients of energy. The results of this study showed that 62670.57 MJ of energy was consumed for the production of one ton of cake. The highest share of energy consumption allocated to natural gas with 30931 MJ. Evaluation of energy indices showed that energy efficiency in the production of cake in Guilan is 0.2872. The results of life cycle assessment showed that in cake production 13099.49 kg CO2 eq.  is released into the air that about 86 percent of that was related to activities outside of the factory and the rest was related to the combustion of natural gas for cooking cake.