ABSTRACT
In order to assess the broader impacts of different sugarcane technologies, this chapter analyzes the economic, social and environmental aspects of manual- and mechanical-based sugarcane production systems in Brazil, as well as their effects on the ethanol production system when a vertically integrated production model is considered. It aims at identifying strengths and weaknesses of these technologies and enlightens decision-making processes in other countries with substantial potential for sugarcane production expansion for bioenergy, such as Mozambique, Colombia and Guatemala, among others. The Virtual Sugarcane Biorefinery (VSB) was used to perform the simulations which give support to the technology assessments. Environmental analysis was performed using the environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The social assessment in this study was performed using the social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) methodology. One of the features of the S-LCA is the estimation of social effects of changes considering present and future scenarios.
