Comparative assessment of selected sugarcane biorefinery-centered systems in Brazil: A multi-criteria method based on sustainability indicators

This work proposes a new sustainability assessment framework aiming to compare selected options of biorefineries subject to provide the same services to a community. At this end, a concept of biorefinery-centered system helps to develop a joint resources and policy-oriented comparison. When an option of biorefinery cannot provide the given amounts of certain services from its own production, it complements its supply portfolio by purchasing the lacking amounts from complementary and conventional production systems. The proposed sustainability assessment framework includes a multi-criteria method used to compare the selected biorefinery options resulting in identifying their respective weaknesses and strengths against categories of criteria. Finally, the methodology helps finding the non-dominated option. Application to selected sugarcane-based biorefineries shows promising results that match with those obtained in a previous work. However, the new methodology allows extended and richer analyses. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.