Few studies address how to measure the impacts of the sugar-energy industry on the environment and human health. Thus, in this paper, an index (Iepa) to evaluate the impacts of the sugar-energy manufacturing process on the well-being of ecosystems and human society is proposed. The proposed index was developed from: (1) the environmental impact potential of each waste/by-product; (2) the relative weighting of its impact potential; (3) the relative amount of the waste/by-product produced over a given period of time; (4) the relative geographic coverage (spatial dispersion) of each waste/by-product; and (4) the appropriateness of the disposal of each waste/by-product generated. For validation, the index was used to evaluate the environmental performance of a large Brazilian sugar and ethanol company. It was determined that vinasse accounted for more than half of the relative mass of the waste/by-products generated by the company and that it contributed significantly (93.23%) to the Iepa value. The final Iepa value was 73.73%, which means that the disposal of 73.73% of the waste/by-products generated by the company was determined to be “environmentally adequate.” The waste whose disposal was assessed to be “inadequate” consisted of the gases from the bagasse burning and those produced in the fermentation process. The latter accounted for only 1.3% of the total emissions, while the former accounted for 20% of the total emissions. CO₂ was the main constituent of both types of waste. However, it should be noted that sugarcane is a renewable form of energy that captures more CO₂ from the atmosphere than any other crop.

中文翻译：

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制定评估糖能生产厂环境绩效的指标

很少有研究涉及如何衡量糖能源行业对环境和人类健康的影响。因此，在本文中，索引（Iepa）评估糖能源生产过程对生态系统和人类社会福祉的影响。拟议的指标来自以下方面：（1）每种废物/副产品对环境的潜在影响；（2）其影响潜力的相对权重；（三）一定时期内产生的废物/副产品的相对量；（4）每种废物/副产品的相对地理覆盖范围（空间分布）；（4）处置产生的每种废物/副产品的适当性。为了进行验证，该指数用于评估巴西一家大型糖和乙醇公司的环境绩效。经确定，酒糟糟占公司产生的废物/副产品相对质量的一半以上，并且对酒糟产生了显着贡献（93.23％）。Iepa值。Iepa的最终值为73.73％，这意味着该公司产生的73.73％的废物/副产品的处置被确定为“环保”。被评估为“不足”的废物包括甘蔗渣燃烧产生的气体和发酵过程中产生的气体。后者仅占总排放量的1.3％，而前者仅占总排放量的20％。CO ₂是两种废物的主要成分。但是，应该指出，甘蔗是一种可再生能源，比任何其他农作物都能从大气中吸收更多的CO ₂。