Carbon footprint in the sugar industry. Case study

Abstract

Carbon footprint allows quantifying the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent that are released to the atmosphere as a result of the development of any activity. In this paper, the carbon footprint in sugar production is estimated, and the sugar mill "Argeo Martínez", located in the province of Guantanamo, is selected as the object of study. The methodology established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was based on the use of emission factors published by different sources for the inventory of the emissions corresponding to the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 harvests. As a result, the estimated greenhouse gas totals were obtained for the analyzed periods of 8 126, 09 tCO₂eq and 5 099, 76 tCO₂eq. Carbon footprint was determined at 0,27kgCO₂/kg sugar and 0,26kgCO₂/kg sugar respectively. These values can be compared with other plants in the country.