Economic and environmental evaluation of rice straw processing technologies for energy generation: A case study of Punjab, India

To find a sustainable approach to surplus rice straw utilization a comparative study of various technologies with simultaneous economic and environmental evaluation is essential. In this article Life cycle assessment (LCA) tool is applied for processing of surplus rice straw considering various advanced techniques: incineration, gasification, anaerobic digestion (AD), fermentation and integrated operation of fermentation and AD. Considering the virtual performance of the existing plants for electricity and ethanol production in India the simultaneous economic and environmental evaluation of each technique is presented. Global warming, acidification, photochemical oxidation and eutrophication categories are considered for environmental impact assessment. The conceptual analysis depicts that gasification has a maximum tendency to reduce the overall environmental impact followed by AD, incineration, integrated operation and fermentation. The integrated operation shows the maximum economic benefit of INR 1525.57/tonne ($ 23/tonne) followed by fermentation, gasification, incineration and AD. The use of surplus rice straw for electricity and ethanol production can reduce the environmental pollution and can contribute to the economic growth of the nation. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.