Environmental Benefit of Using Bagasse in Paper Production - A Case Study of LCA in Iran

Abstract

World paper and paperboard demand is expected to grow by about 2.1% till year 2020 and the growth will be fastest in Eastern Europe, Asia (except Japan) and Latin America [1]. There are two kinds of paper production: (a) using wood (virgin) as raw materials and (b) using non-virgin material like kanaf and bagasse [1]. There are several studies that applied LCA in pulp and paper products (Merrild et al.,2008; Murphy & Power.,2007; Schmidt et al.,2007; Holmgren and Hening,2005; Dias,2007;Wiegard,2001; Fu et al.,2005 and Dias et al.,2002). In their research they discovered that energy and water consumption, Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and methane emissions, chlorine and raw materials used for non-virgin papers is less than virgin material. This study focused on LCA of non-virgin material (baggasse) in paper factory in Iran. The Pars Paper Factory is a government owned factory and is located in Southwest Iran and is 500 m from Hafttapeh Sugarcane factory. It was established in 1963 with a production capacity of 35,000 metric tonne per year. Nowadays, the production of this factory has reached 40,000 metric tonne per year. Hafttapeh Sugarcane factory was supplying bagasse to the paper factory. Water for this process is provided from the Dez River which is also near the factory. Source of energy for this factory is hydroelectricity and mazut. Mazut is a brownish-black petroleum fraction consisting largely of distillation residues from asphaltic- type crude oils, with a relative density of about 0.95