ABSTRACT
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Sugar production (cane production in the field and sugar processing in the factory) is an intensive energy-requiring process (Corpuz and Aguilar 1992; Mendoza and Samson 2000; Mendoza et al. 2004). All of the operations, processes, and inputs that are used, directly and indirectly, involve burning of a large amount of fossil fuel. Growing and hauling canes to the mill use machines ( tractors, trucks) that burn oil. The manufacture and transport of agrochemical inputs (fertilizer, herbicide) also use fossil fuel (natural gas). Certain field practices such as cane burning directly emit CO2 and other greenhouse gases (GHG) (e.g., methane, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide), which have powerful global warming potential (GWP) relative to CO2 (Weier 1998; Mendoza and Samson 2000). Factory operations for converting sugarcane to raw sugar and its co-products consume electricity that is sourced from burning certain fuels, which, in turn, contribute to carbon emission. More so, the construction of the whole factory has equivalent carbon emission. Collectively, when all these GHG are added together, they represent the carbon footprint (CF) of sugar. Does sugar production from sugarcane have a net carbon emission?
