The Role of Sustainability Analysis in the Revalorization of Tequila Residues and Wastes Using Biorefineries

This work shows the role that sustainability analysis may play in the revalorization of agroindustrial residues and wastes. The tequila industry in western Mexico is taken as case study, since residues and wastes from this industry are the source of serious environmental problems in the tequila-producing regions. The proposed solution uses these residues and wastes as feedstock of an integrated multi-feedstock biorefinery for the co-production of second generation bioethanol and electricity. The sustainability analysis employed in this work considers the environmental and economic domains and monetizes their indicators on the same basis, thus highlighting the contribution of environmental aspects that might otherwise be overlooked using standard techno-economic analysis approaches. This solution is compared against alternative designs using separate facilities handling these residues and wastes. Results show that the proposed solution may be attractive since the monetized environmental impact of treating the tequila residues and wastes is only one third of the economic cost of operating the proposed biorefinery, besides solving the environmental problem. Graphic Abstract