Investigation of environmental impact of bioethanol production from potato waste

Concerns about increasing environmental pollution and increasing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels have led researchers to use renewable energy. In this research, the environmental impacts of bioethanol production from potato waste were investigated from the agricultural stage to the production stage of bioethanol (crushing and malt production, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation and dehydration). Investigation of environmental impact of the data collection was done using a life cycle assessment method in the form of 15 impact groups and 4 final indicators, and its functional unit was considered to produce 1 kg of bioethanol. The results obtained from the impact groups in two stages of agriculture and bioethanol production showed that the agricultural stage in all the affected groups except the carcinogenicity group had higher values than the stages of bioethanol production (malt production, hydrolysis, fermentation and dewatering). Also the results showed that the highest contribution to creating different impact groups is related to energy consumption of electricity, steel, agricultural machinery, nitrogen, phosphate and direct emission of pollutants from the field and manufactory. The comparison between different environmental endpoints indicator shows that the human health index is 9.90 times higher than ecosystem quality, 1.28 times higher than climate change and 1.48 times higher than that of resources with destructive effects on bioethanol fuel production.