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Few valorization pathways have been implemented as alternatives to reduce the orange peel waste (OPW) disposal in landfills. OPW can be a source of income or economic savings in juice production factories since this waste is a potential source of value-added products (e.g., bioactive compounds) and energy vectors (e.g., biogas). Valorization alternatives should be based on (i) orange peel chemical composition, (ii) market analysis, and (iii) availability. Nevertheless, few literature papers have highlighted the chemical composition change caused by the different juice production schemes as a potential opportunity to obtain different value-added products and biorefinery schemes. Thus, the aims of this review paper are related to (i) reviewing different orange fruit processing pathways, (ii) analyzing several OPW chemical compositions reported in the open literature, (iii) providing a summary of OPW extraction pathways for bioactive compounds production, and (iv) evaluating the effect of applying different extraction methods on bioactive compound extraction performance. This review includes a description of the OPW matrix, market insights, packaging, physicochemical characterization, processing technologies, and suggested biorefinery approaches. Finally, different extraction methods for obtaining bioactive compounds from OPW are compared. As a result, the supercritical fluid extraction process has the highest extraction performance and selectivity since this method extracted a high amount of hesperidin (8.18 g/kg OPW db.). In conclusion, OPW is a source of bioactive compounds and valuable products that can be introduced in juice-producing factories to increase product portfolio or economic savings by changing the energy matrix.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a widely applied technology for renewable energy generation using biogas as energy vector. The existing microbial consortium in this technology allows for the use of several types of biomass as substrates. A promising alternative for the production of high-value products (e.g., mixed volatile fatty acids–VFAs, hydrogen) is the use of modified AD. There are several techniques to achieve this objective by modifying the operating conditions of the process. The literature has described the best AD routes for generating renewable energy or high-value products based on specific substrate types and operating conditions. Few studies have reported the integral fraction valorization of the AD process applying the biorefinery concept. This article provides an analysis of the different routes that favor the production of energy carriers and high-value products involving key issues related to operating conditions and substrates. Moreover, AD is addressed through the biorefinery concept. Finally, a case study is presented where renewable energy and mixed VFAs are generated by applying the biorefinery concept in a number of proposed scenarios using organic kitchen food waste (OKFW) as feedstock. The case study involves an experimental and simulation stage. Then, the economic feasibility of the proposed scenarios is evaluated. In conclusion, AD is a promising and economically feasible technology to produce valuable products from several types of waste materials.

This work evaluates the sustainability of small-scale biorefineries as a potential enterprise alternative to be introduced in rural areas based on experimental and simulation data. Four scenarios were evaluated: the first scenario involves the production of guacamole, the second involves the production of animal feed, and the third and fourth scenarios involve the extraction of bioactive compounds and the production of avocado oil or animal feed, respectively. In addition, all scenarios produce biogas and fertilizer. Each of the scenarios were evaluated considering the technical, economic, environmental, and social aspects. As a main result, the first scenario showed the lowest operating and investment costs, as well as the lowest economic profitability (profit margin 35%). On the other hand, the third and fourth scenarios present the highest investment and operating expenses (OpEx USD 6.2 million per year and CapEx USD 1.0 million), but their profit margins are in the 60–70% range. Furthermore, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out and allows inferring that the transformer link presents the highest environmental impact of the entire value chain and that the carbon footprint for all scenarios ranges between 1.01–2.41 kg CO2 eq per kg avocado. Similarly, the social impact methodology shows that the proposed scenarios do not present any social risk. Thus, the biorefinery for animal feed, bioactive compounds, biogas, and fertilizer was selected as the best option to be implemented in Caldas.

The use of chemical fertilizers is essential for agricultural development when soils do not have the nutritional balance required for plants. The continuous use of chemical fertilizers has changed the soil physicochemical and biological properties. Biofertilizer production has been considered as an alternative to reduce chemical fertilizers dependence and the environmental impact. The aim of this study is the evaluation of three technologies for the production of biofertilizers and bioenergy at technical, economic, environmental, and social levels. Ammonium sulfate and digestate-based biofertilizers were obtained via anaerobic digestion; biochar was produced via gasification; and amino acids as plants biostimulants were obtained via protein hydrolysis. Different indicators were calculated for elucidating the sustainability of the processes. Technical, economic, environmental, and social analysis is performed for each of the biorefineries processing stage (complex and stand-alone) without considering the agronomic stage or other value chain links. Scenario 1 presented a positive impact on the economic, environmental, and social aspects since this process has a payback period of 10 years, a carbon footprint of 0.67 kg CO2-eq/kg product, and a potential to generate nine jobs in the Colombian context due to the products portfolio, in contrast with scenario 2 and 3. As conclusion, the integration of biofertilizers and bioenergy in biorefineries have the potential to expand the range of bioproducts and to increase the process sustainability.

Pretreatment technologies are proposed to break the crosslinked biomass matrix and facilitate bioconversion processes or chemical agent attacks in reaction schemes. However, most of the pretreatments are studied in single-step schemes, limiting the integral valorization of the feedstock composition. Therefore, sequential pretreatments could maximize this valorization by isolating more biomass fractions or removing unwanted compounds. This work focuses on proposing and assessing different sequential pretreatments for the isolation of lignocellulosic fractions. After a pretreatment screening, ten technical and economic indicators were assessed through a heuristic analysis. Data from the literature were used to evaluate five operational indicators and as the specification of processing units in simulation schemes to also evaluate five techno-energetic and economic indicators. As a main result, it was concluded that the sequential pretreatments of dilute acid (DA) with wet air oxidation (WAO) could be the most optimal for cellulose isolation, steam explosion (SE) with DA for hemicellulose fractionation, and DA with kraft process for lignin solubilization. Additionally, the DA and WAO sequence may be the most efficient in biorefinery designs since it maximizes biomass fractionation, producing two hydrolyzed liquors, one rich in sugars and the other in soluble lignin, as well as a cellulose-rich solid.

Many plant species characterize tropical forests, and a small fraction has been studied to favor small communities in the food and medicinal fields. The high biodiversity of these regions allows for the proposed alternatives for the valorization of exotic fruits due to their rich content of value-added compounds that benefit human health. This work focuses on improving the nutritional characteristics of the açai production chain by mixing it with noni and araza. As a main result, it was possible to enhance the organoleptic and nutritional characteristics of the fruits after freeze-drying. Then, the seeds and peels of the fruits were valorized by the extraction of bioactive compounds with conventional methods and biogas production by anaerobic digestion. The best compositions of antioxidant capacity and total phenolic compounds were obtained for the extracts based on the araza peel, with values of 116.4 µmol and 276.6 mg of gallic acid per 100 g of raw material, respectively. Regarding biogas production, the anaerobic digestion performance was influenced by the C/N ratio. The experimental results were used as input to simulate small-scale processes. From a technical point of view, the scheme of açai, noni, and araza mixture (Sc. 4) showed the highest mass yields (0.84 kg products/kg RM) and energy requirement (2.54 kW/kg RM). On the other hand, the processing of single açai (Sc. 1) presented the lowest capital costs (1.37 M-USD) and operating costs (0.89 M-USD/year). However, all scenarios showed techno-economic feasibility and demonstrated the potential of these fruits to valorize the açai market.

Biorefineries have been defined as complex systems where biomass is integrally processed to obtain value-added products and energy vectors, involving recent research advances, technological trends, and sustainable practices. These facilities are evolving since new pathways and challenges for biomass upgrading appear constantly aimed at increasing process sustainability. Nevertheless, few literature papers summarize how these new trends can improve biorefinery sustainability and boost the transition to renewable resources. This paper reviews several challenges and future perspectives before biorefinery implementation at the industrial level. Challenges related to waste stream valorization, multifeedstock use, biorefinery energy matrix diversification, and new products based on new biomass conversion pathways are reviewed. Thus, this paper provides an overview of the most recent trends and perspectives for improving biorefinery sustainability based on waste stream minimization, integral use of raw materials, and high-value bio-based compound production. A case study is discussed to show how integral biomass upgrading can improve the economic and environmental performance of existing processing facilities. Carbon dioxide capture, storage, and conversion, as well as energy matrix diversification, have been identified as the most important aspects of improving the environmental performance of biorefineries (decarbonization). Moreover, multifeedstock biorefineries are profiled as promising options for upgrading several biomass sources in small-scale and modular systems to produce value-added products for boosting rural bioeconomies. Finally, new ways to produce more bio-based products must be proposed to replace existing oil-based ones.

Food losses (FL) and waste (FW) occur throughout the food supply chain. These residues are disposed of on landfills producing environmental issues due to pollutants released into the air, water, and soil. Several research efforts have focused on upgrading FL and FW in a portfolio of added-value products and energy vectors. Among the most relevant research advances, biotechnological upgrading of these residues via fermentation has been demonstrated to be a potential valorization alternative. Despite the multiple investigations performed on the conversion of FL and FW, a lack of comprehensive and systematic literature reviews evaluating the potential of fermentative processes to upgrade different food residues has been identified. Therefore, this article reviews the use of FL and FW in fermentative processes considering the composition, operating conditions, platforms, fermentation product application, and restrictions. This review provides the framework of food residue fermentation based on reported applications, experimental, and theoretical data. Moreover, this review provides future research ideas based on the analyzed information. Thus, potential applications and restrictions of the FL and FW used for fermentative processes are highlighted. In the end, food residues fermentation must be considered a mandatory step toward waste minimization, a circular economy, and the development of more sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Biorefinery feasibility is highly influenced by the early design of the best feedstock transformation pathway to obtain value-added products. Pretreatment has been identified as the critical stage in biorefinery design since proper pretreatment influences subsequent reaction, separation, and purification processes. However, many pretreatment analyses have focused on preserving and valorizing six-carbon sugars for future use in bioconversion processes, leaving aside fractions such as hemicellulose and lignin. To date, there has been no pretreatment systematization for the removal of lignocellulosic fractions. This work defines pretreatment efficacy through operational, economic, environmental, and social indicators. Thus, using the data reported in the literature, as well as the results of the simulation schemes, a multi-criteria weighting of the best-performing schemes for the isolation or removal of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin was carried out. As a main result, it was concluded that dilute acid is the most effective for cellulose isolation and hemicellulose removal for producing platform products based on six- and five-carbon sugars, respectively. Additionally, the kraft process is the best methodology for lignin removal and its future use in biorefineries. The results of this work help to elucidate a methodological systematization of the pretreatment efficacy in the design of biorefineries as an early feasibility stage considering sustainability aspects.

Agricultural and forest crops are characterized by the production of a high amount of residues during their processing. The disposal of this biomass can mitigate the environmental impact through its integral use in the biorefinery context. In this work, the processing of Eucalyptus spp. chips, avocado seed and, plantain pseudostem distributed in five biorefineries scenarios were analyzed. The best three schemes were chosen based on chemical composition and their potential to obtain products as phenolic compounds considering a robust economic allocation. These three biorefinery configurations were assessed in economic and environmental terms. The Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) methodology was used to determine the environmental impacts associated. As a main economic result, all scenarios did not present economic viability for the selected processing scale, with losses higher than 3.3 M USD/y. From the environmental perspective, the significant steam demand influenced the different impact categories. However, the food waste-based biorefinery showed less environmental impact. This scheme presented positive impacts on wastewater treatment; the fertilizer concentration stage prevents the production of high amounts of liquid streams to be generated in the process.

The joint analysis of economic, environmental, and social aspects of biorefineries has been boosted in recent years. The sustainability assessment of biorefineries is considered a fundamental approach to determine the possible implementation of processes due to the inclusion of different stakeholders in the analysis. Few studies related to the sustainability of biorefineries have been reported due to the difficulty of including social aspects. Most of the studies related to the sustainability assessment of biorefineries do not report a sustainability framework. This fact decreases the comparison and reproducibility of the reported results. This paper gives some perspectives related to the sustainability assessment of biorefineries based on a short literature review. A methodological approach to define the sustainability framework to assess the three dimensions of sustainability is given as a tool to evaluate biomass upgrading processes and biorefineries. This proposed approach was applied to a case of study to valorize rejected unripe plantains in the Montes de Maria region, Colombia. The results show the sustainability of the sequential production of plantain flour and bioethanol using the whole unripe plantain (pulp + peel). A payback period of 3.5 y and the possibility to create more than 50 employees boost this process as a potential entrepreneurship alternative to be studied in a detailed way. However, the only production of plantain flour is recommended to decrease the environmental impact caused by the ethanol production process.

Biomass has been considered a potential source of value-added products and energy vectors. Most biomass studies have researched the best pathways or processes to upgrade this renewable raw material through stand-alone processes or biorefineries. The biomass supply chain is a crucial aspect in the economic analysis of biomass upgrading since most of the raw materials need to be transported. A supply chain analysis gives an idea about the availability, real costs, and storage conditions of the raw material to guarantee an accurate feasibility analysis and a standardized production process. Calendula (Calendula Officinalis) is an aromatic plant used to produce valuable extracts in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. Nevertheless, high amounts of exhausted biomass (more than 95% w/w) are produced and wasted. Theseresidues represent an environmental issue to be solved through the implementation of valorizing options. This paper analyses the supply chain and environmental impact of essential oil production using Calendula (Calendula Officinalis) as a raw material in the Colombian context. The case study comprises a single-objective optimization of the calendula supply chain to produce essential oil and the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the process through a cradle-to-gate approach in the Colombian context. The results showed the best locations to upgrade Calendula in Colombia (i.e., Manizales and Bucaramanga), supplying 1.1 % of the total product demand. The optimal product flow to customers was 0.32 tons/year, and the required feedstock from suppliers was 162 tons/year. The agricultural stage of essential oil production represented the highest environmental impact of the supply chain. In particular, plastic sheets, organic fertilizers, and chemical fungicides were the main contributors to this impact.

Biodiesel is a promising alternative to petroleum diesel and its production from various generations of feedstocks by using different technologies has been constantly growing globally. However, in spite of such large scale of production, serious considerations should be taken into account to ensure the long-term sustainability of biodiesel production. This issue becomes more of concern given the fact that some generations of feedstocks used for biodiesel production are in clear conflict with food security. The concept of biorefinery has been at the center of attention with an aim to address these challenges by promoting an integral use of biomass to allow the production of multiple products along with biodiesel. Such implementation has been extensively studied over the last years and is expected to lead to economic, environmental, and social advantages over individual processes. The current review first presented an overview on biodiesel, its different feedstocks, and production technologies. Subsequently, the biorefinery concept and its correct implementation was technically discussed. Biodiesel production under the biorefinery scheme was also presented. Finally, techno-economic analysis of biodiesel production under the biorefinery concept by considering palm oil-based biorefinery as case study was investigated.

Este estudio se enfoca en la modificación por hidrólisis enzimática de materiales amiláceos y lignocelulosicos. Maíz, yuca, bore y bagazo de caña de azúcar fueron usados para evaluar la influencia de la hidrólisis enzimática sobre las propiedades estructurales y térmicas de estos materiales. Calorimetría de barrido diferencial (DSC) fue usado para evaluar estabilidad térmica y cristalinidad, mientras métodos como Microscopia electrónico de barrido (SEM), difracción de rayos X (XRD) y Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) fueron usados para análisis estructurales y morfológicos. El maíz presento el rendimiento (g de almidón/g de materia prima) más alto con 40.4%. Para todos los materiales usados, la cristalinidad aumento debido a la hidrolisis enzimática sugiriendo que las zonas amorfas son atacadas primero. La temperatura de gelatinización de los almidones incremento conforme aumento la cristalinidad. Los gránulos y fibras, excepto para el bore, no cambiaron su tamaño con el tratamiento enzimático y el área superficial no incremento significantemente con la hidrolisis enzimática.

Olive leaves is derived from the olive oil production with limited practical applications. This raw material can be used to obtain added-value products through its processing applying the biorefinery concept. Therefore, The aim of this work is to evaluate from a techno-economic and environmental perspective the production of antioxidants, lignin and ethanol using olive leaves as raw material through the use of experimental data and process simulation. For this, a biorefinery scheme composed by an acid extraction stage, organosolv pretreatment and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation process was simulated. This process was performed using experimental data obtained from the main conversion blocks of the proposed scheme assuming a linear scaling. Moreover, the separation and purification of the products were performed using conceptual process design tools. Then, the techno-economic assessment was carried out considering economic indicators of the Spain context for an operating facility with a 10 y life-time. Finally, the environmental evaluation was based in the specific solid, liquid and gaseous emissions calculation. The results showed that 100 g of feedstock can produce 38.24 g of antioxidant extract (phenolic compounds>10 %), 11.82 g of lignin and 3.65 mL of bioethanol. In addition, the techno-economic assessment showed that the proposed biorefinery is profitable when 30,000 t/y are processed with a total project cost of 49.1 M USD, an internal rate of return of 15.22 % and a payout period of 7.27 y. As conclusion, the application of the biorefinery concept to upgrade olive leaves in added-value products is feasible from a techno-economic point of view and the implementation of small scale biorefineries in Jaén (Andalusia, Spain).

Chemical process plants can be interpreted as networks where energy mass and momentum are exchanged. Therefore, they can be represented as such using graph theory. This work presents a decomposition methodology that allows to conceptually deconstruct chemical process plants and their models to be represented by networks. By the selection of minimum constituent units of the plant, it is possible to describe the interdependencies among those minimum units. This procedure allows the correct representation of process plants as networks along with a detailed analysis of them. Using network metrics such as centrality measures, it was possible to analyze, as an example, the HDA process plant under two selected plantwide control strategies, allowing the identification of its more important units and controllers. This permitted an insight of how plantwide control strategies responded to perturbations from a qualitative point of view. It was also possible to establish the main coincidences and discrepancies between the selected plantwide control strategies.

Los residuos de la agroindustria presentan un gran potencial como fuente de compuestos de valor agregado. El presente estudio evalúa la caracterización química de residuos generados en el cultivo (sarmientos) y en la producción (i.e. semillas, hollejos y escobajos) de pulpa de uva Isabella. La caracterización se realiza cuantificando los compuestos fenólicos totales y la actividad antioxidante. Los resultados mostraron que los escobajos y las semillas presentan mayor concentración de compuestos fenólicos totales (22,08 ± 0,20 y 10,62 ± 0,17 mg de equivalente de ácido gálico/g) y mayor actividad antioxidante (0,29 ± 0,01 y 0,63 ± 0,01), respectivamente. Como conclusión, los escobajos y las semillas tienen potencial como materia prima para la obtención de compuestos con actividad antioxidante que podrían ser empleados en la formulación de: cremas, alimentos funcionales y alimentos enriquecidos. Sin embargo, las bondades de los componentes con actividad antioxidante de las semillas son más conocidas y reconocidas que las de los escobajos. Por tanto, el reto para aprovechar el potencial de las semillas está enfocado en cómo realizar la extracción industrialmente. De otro lado, se necesitan más investigaciones para entender las bondades y aplicación de los compuestos fenólicos de los escobajos

El dióxido de carbono (CO2) es considerado uno de los principales gases causantes del efecto invernadero, responsable de los fenómenos de calentamiento global y cambio climático; por ello se han propuesto distintas estrategias de captura y almacenamiento físico o químico de CO2, especialmente en las emisiones provenientes de corrientes de combustión. Este documento presenta, en primer lugar, una revisión de los procesos de captura de CO2 en procesos de combustión, y, luego, dos escenarios de estudio para la captura de CO2 en un proceso de poscombustión usando metanol como combustible. En el primer escenario se separa el CO2 utilizando absorción con monoetanolamina, y en el segundo se utiliza destilación. Los resultados indican que ambas tecnologías son apropiadas, pero que el rendimiento es mayor con la destilación.

Influence of bioreactor stability regions in the efficient production of fuel ethanol Título corto: Influencia de las regiones de estabilidad en la producción de alcohol carburanteResumen Colombia ha desarrollado un proyecto ambicioso en la producción de alcohol carburante, y actualmente es uno de los países líderes de América Latina en la producción de biocombustibles. No obstante, algunas de sus plantas industriales productoras de etanol presentan problemas durante el arranque y la operación de los fermentadores, que afectan adversamente la productividad del proceso global. Estudios teóricos y experimentales demuestran que el comportamiento dinámico del proceso depende de los fenómenos de estabilidad que exhibe el sistema. En este trabajo se muestra la influencia de las regiones de estabilidad sobre la eficiencia del proceso tomando como criterios de evaluación índices de impacto económico y ambiental. Para esto, se realizó un análisis de estabilidad donde se tomó como parámetro de operación principal la velocidad de dilución. Se empleó un programa propio desarrollado sobre Matlab® para generar diagramas de bifurcación y de fase. El algoritmo de reducción de residuos (WAR) desarrollado por la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de los Estados Unidos, y el software SuperPro Designer®, fueron utilizados respectivamente para hacer la evaluación ambiental y económica del proceso. Como resultado, se evidenció que los procesos continuos de fermentación se pueden llevar a cabo en diferentes regiones de estabilidad, y que las variables de respuesta, tales como el rendimiento, dependen de la región de operación seleccionada. Finalmente, se llegó a la conclusión de que la evaluación de la estabilidad de los procesos de fermentación debe incluirse en las etapas de diseño de bioprocesos para garantizar su buen desempeño. Palabras clave: bioetanol, fermentación, análisis de estabilidad, impacto económico, impacto ambiental. Abstract Colombia has developed an ambitious project to produce fuel ethanol. Nowadays, Colombia is one of the leading countries in Latin America for the biofuels production. However, some of its industrial plants producing ethanol present problems during the startup and the operation of fermenters, which adversely affects the productivity of the global process. Theoretical and experimental studies show that the process’ dynamic behavior depends on the stability phenomenon exhibited by the system. This work shows the influence of the stability regions on the process’ efficiency. For this, economic and environmental index were used. A stability analysis was carried out. The dilution rate was selected as the main operating parameter. An own program developed on Matlab® was used to generate bifurcation diagrams and phase diagrams. The Waste Reduction Algorithm (WAR) developed by the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, and the SuperPro Designer® software were used for estimating the environmental and economic assessment of the process. As a result, it was shown that continuous fermentation processes can be carried out in different stability regions. Likewise, it was shown that the response variables, such as the yield, depend on the selected operating region. Finally, it was concluded that the evaluation of fermentation processes’ stability must be included in the stages for designing of bioprocess in order to ensure a good performance.Key words: Bioethanol, fermentation, stability analysis, economical impact, environmental impact.

The environmental performance of ethanol production from maize and sugar cane was evaluated. Process simulation was initially conducted using the commercial process simulator Aspen Plus. After mass and energy balances, analysis of the environmental impact was carried out using the waste algorithm reduction (WAR), which evaluates the environmental friendliness of each process. It was found that ethanol production from maize shows a lower potential environmental impact than that from sugar cane. The larger environmental impact of both processes occurs in the aquatic toxicity category, primarily due to high organic charge of the stillage produced.

En el presente trabajo se caracterizaron, clasificaron y acondicionaron los residuos orgánicos de la plaza de mercado de Manizales (Caldas), analizándose los posibles tratamientos para su conversión en productos de valor agregado. Se eligió transformar el almidón y la celulosa presentes en los residuos. Se establecieron las mejores condiciones de temperatura, pH y dosificación de enzima para transformar los polisacáridos en azúcares reductores. Para la transformación del almidón y la celulosa se utilizaron glucoamilasa y celulasas comerciales. La conversión de almidón alcanzó valores del 60% a 50 °C, y un pH de 6,0. La conversión de celulosa fue de un 4% a 60 °C y un pH de 4,0. Se llevó a cabo el estudio cinético de la hidrólisis de almidón con base en el modelo de Michaelis-Menten. A partir de la nueva materia prima (azúcares reductores) se obtuvo etanol. Igualmente se evaluó la producción de biogás y compost a partir de los residuos sólidos estudiados. En la producción de biogás se determinó que por cada kilogramo de residuos tratados se producen, en el rango de temperatura mesofílica, aproximadamente 4 L de biogás. A pesar de los valores relativamente bajos de la relación C/N para los residuos vegetales, se evidenció la posibilidad de llevar a cabo un proceso de compostaje para este tipo de desechos. Palabras clave: hidrólisis enzimática, etanol, biogás, compostaje, almidón.

La industria creciente de los biocombustibles genera grandes cantidades de residuos que tienen alto potencial para la obtención de productos con alto valor agregado. En el presente documento se lleva a cabo el análisis de ciclo de vida (ACV) para el glicerol y el bagazo de caña de azúcar durante su producción y para su uso como materia prima en cuatro procesos diferentes. El objetivo fue determinar el impacto ambiental de los cuatro procesos, por medio de la cuantificación de gases de efecto invernadero (GEI) asociados al ciclo de vida. Los resultados indican que las emisiones de GEI asociadas a los procesos que utilizan el glicerol como materia prima son mayores que las emisiones de GEI para los procesos que involucran bagazo de caña de azúcar, pero que el aprovechamiento del glicerol podría considerarse más eficiente, ya que las emisiones por unidad de masa en el uso del glicerol son 75% inferiores a las emisiones calculadas para los procedimientos utilizando bagazo de caña como materia prima.