Sustainable Valorization of Waste and By-Products from Sugarcane Processing

Nicoleta Ungureanu, Valentin Vlăduț () and Sorin-Ștefan Biriș ()
Additional contact information
Nicoleta Ungureanu: Department of Biotechnical Systems, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 006042 Bucharest, Romania
Valentin Vlăduț: Department of Biotechnical Systems, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 006042 Bucharest, Romania
Sorin-Ștefan Biriș: Department of Biotechnical Systems, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 006042 Bucharest, Romania

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-27

Abstract: Sugarcane is a lignocellulosic crop and the juice extracted from its stalks provides the raw material for 86% of sugar production. Globally, sugarcane processing to obtain sugar and/or ethanol generates more than 279 million tons of solid and liquid waste annually, as well as by-products; namely, straws, bagasse, press mud, wastewater, ash from bagasse incineration, vinasse from ethanol distillation, and molasses. If not properly managed, this waste will pose risks to both environmental factors and human health. Lately, valorization of waste has gained momentum, having an important contribution to the fulfillment of policies and objectives related to sustainable development and circular bioeconomy. Various technologies are well-established and implemented for the valorization of waste and by-products from sugarcane processing, while other innovative technologies are still in the research and development stage, with encouraging prospects. We propose a sustainable sugarcane processing flow and present an analysis of the physico-chemical characteristics of generated wastes and by-products. We emphasize the available possibilities of valorizing each waste and by-product, considering that they are important biomass resources for obtaining biofuels and a wide range of other products with added value, which will contribute to the sustainability of the environment, agriculture, and human health worldwide.

Keywords: biomass; pretreatment; cogeneration; bioethanol; bio-hydrogen; compost; fertilizer; wastewater (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/17/11089/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/17/11089/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:17:p:11089-:d:907128

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().