Environmental and economic impacts associated with the use of boilers of a steam generator system at a tobacco manufacturing industry

To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first attempt to apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determinate the environmental impacts associated with the use of a steam generator system (boilers) at a tobacco manufacturing unit and to evaluate the possible costs associated with the operation of these boilers using diesel and two alternative energy sources. The LCA methodology was applied using the SimaPro 8.04 software, database of the Ecoinvent 3.1 and the Impact 2002+ method. The inventory considered the inputs of the process (water and electric energy consumption and consumption of diesel and of chemicals bought from the NALCO Water Company) as well as outputs of effluents, waste, and emissions of CO2 and particulate matter. The obtained results point global warming, non-renewable energies and carcinogens among the most impacting categories. The corresponding values of the categories appear in the Characterization step with 74.4 tons of CO2 eq., 10.9 GJ of non-renewable energy and 158.12 kg of inhalable inorganic. The highest environmental and economic impacts were associated to the consumption of diesel and electricity. Results of prognosis scenarios using eucalyptus wood and biodiesel showed to considerably lower environmental burdens in comparison to diesel. Nevertheless, as demonstrated in our study biodiesel produced with soybean still lacks economic competitiveness while the costs associated with eucalyptus wood, were almost 29 and 24 times lower, respectively. Future studies should consider the use of other raw materials to produce biodiesel.