ABSTRACT
Regarding the effect of scale on the environmental impacts of ethanol, several studies have presented sustainability impacts of ethanol production systems considering different scales and technologies. In this sense, a comprehensive and structured assessment of economic and environmental sustainability as a function of scale of production is considered particularly important for the planning expansion of biofuel production in several countries of the world. The chapter aims to assess the sustainability impacts of the sugarcane biorefineries as a function of the scale and technological level of the industrial plants and sugarcane production systems. The sugarcane production system in the microdistillery scenarios consider semi-mechanized planting and manual harvesting of unburned sugarcane. Regarding environmental impacts, larger crushing capacities lead to slightly higher environmental impacts due to larger distances for sugarcane transportation. The evaluation of environmental impacts is performed by using the life cycle assessment methodology.
