Revisión de la aplicación de las Técnicas de Análisis de Ciclo de Vida a la industria azucarera

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology used to study, analyze and determine the environmental aspects and impacts that could affect the environment and cause harmful effects on the human beings associated to the life cycle of a product or process. Due to the interest of the sugar industry and its importance for the economy of the producer countries (since it represents a dynamic source based on a social, economic and political nature), it appears logical and even a justifiable trend from the point of view of strategy, the development and application of environmental improvement techniques in the transformation of sugarcane process and its production processes. This will allow to improve the efficiency in the use of natural resources and will increase their economic impact. This paper presents a review of the application of the LCA to the sugar industry. This implementation will allow obtaining data; its subsequent analysis will determine the environmental problems of the industry at all stages of the process by identifying opportunities to improve the environmental performance of products in the different stages of their life cycle and then proceed to propose sustainable improvements.