Date: March 20, 2013
Life Cycle Associates, LLC successfully registered Pantaleon’s Guatemalan Molasses-to-ethanol pathway under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). The California Air Resources Board has approved the Pantaleon fuel pathway under the CA LCFS and posted the pathway to the LCFS website today.
Pantaleon Sugar Holdings contracted with Life Cycle Associates to register its alternative fuel pathway. Under the contract, Life Cycle Associates conducted a life cycle analysis that calculates the carbon intensity (CI) resulting from the production of ethanol from molasses from Pantaleon’s Guatemalan sugar mill. Life Cycle Associates followed the LCFS procedure and submitted all supporting documentation to the California Air Resources Board. With approval of its molasses-to-ethanol pathway, Pantaleon is now registered to sell fuel in California. The feedstock for the ethanol produced under this pathway is a co-product of the sugar industry. The production of raw sugar from sugarcane juice yields molasses as an unavoidable byproduct. Molasses is transported from the sugar refinery to an ethanol distillery where it is converted into anhydrous ethanol. Molasses is a low-value byproduct that is used as a livestock feed supplement, primarily to China, and cannot be upgraded to a food-grade product. Click here, to see the full pathway report.
Life Cycle Associates calculated the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions associated with ethanol production from molasses using the CA-GREET model. The CA-GREET model is a California-specific version of Argonne National Laboratory’s GREET life cycle model, revised by Life Cycle Associates and ARB staff. Life Cycle Associates develops custom overlays to the CA-GREET model that allow for the preparation of fuel pathway calculations for the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard.