In Mexico, the possibility to exploit orange peels or sugarcane straw to generate heat has not been fully explored, even though they are major agronomic wastes generated in Mexico. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the heat generation’s environmental and economic performance from these feedstocks in a fruit-processing facility located in Veracruz, Mexico. The environmental performance was assessed through the life-cycle assessment methodology, while the economic performance was estimated through the total levelized cost of energy (TLCE) considering two scenarios: (1) a base scenario where orange peels are burnt to produce process steam, and (2) a second scenario where sugarcane straw is co-fired with it. Both scenarios assume to partially displace heavy-fuel–oil (HFO) for steam generation. Results indicate that the impacts of the use of residual biomass-based heat on the potential global warming, ozone layer depletion, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, and cumulative energy demand are 34–63% lower than when using HFO and decrease the TLCE by 18–21%. However, there is also an increase in other environmental impact categories such as human toxicity, photochemical oxidation, or eutrophication. The use of orange from organic farms improves the environmental results in some of these categories. The drying and combustion of the biomass, as well as the waste treatment, are the major contributors to the environmental impacts. On the other hand, capital and fuel costs are the major contributors to TLCE. Overall, the use of orange peels and sugarcane straw to generate heat is attractive from the environmental and economic point of views.

在墨西哥，利用橙皮或甘蔗秸秆产生热量的可能性尚未得到充分探索，尽管它们是墨西哥产生的主要农业废弃物。因此，本文旨在评估这些原料在位于墨西哥韦拉克鲁斯的水果加工设施中产生的热量的环境和经济绩效。环境绩效通过生命周期评估方法进行评估，而经济绩效通过考虑两种情景的总平准化能源成本 (TLCE) 进行评估：(1) 燃烧橙皮以产生工艺蒸汽的基本情景，以及(2) 甘蔗秸秆与其共烧的第二种情况。这两种情况都假设部分取代重油 (HFO) 以产生蒸汽。结果表明，使用剩余的基于生物质的热量对潜在全球变暖、臭氧层消耗、海洋水生生态毒性和累积能源需求的影响比使用 HFO 时低 34-63%，并将 TLCE 降低 18-21 %。然而，其他环境影响类别也有所增加，例如人类毒性、光化学氧化或富营养化。使用来自有机农场的橙子改善了其中一些类别的环境结果。生物质的干燥和燃烧以及废物处理是造成环境影响的主要因素。另一方面，资本和燃料成本是 TLCE 的主要贡献者。总的来说，从环境和经济的角度来看，使用橙皮和甘蔗秸秆来产生热量是有吸引力的。