Bioindicators for the Sustainability of Sugar Agro-Industry.

The worldwide sugar industry presents a productive inertia and a fragile sustainability due to there are marginal advances in the productivity, productive diversification, and reduction of the environmental impact in cane crop fields, sugar factories, distilleries, and non-centrifuged sugar production. The complexity of sustainability evaluation in sugar industry is highlighted by the incorporation of many criteria including both quantitative and qualitative issues, measured by different units or at least the development of standards for benchmarking. The key to successful sustainability will ultimately depend on the progress in sugarcane productivity without increasing the cultivated area and decreases the environmental impacts without the lack of coordination between public policies, stakeholders, and markets which would have benefits and wellness on social, economic, and environmental aspects. The aim of this research was to carry out a review about the sustainability frameworks, indicators, constraints, and barrier to transit the sugar industry to sustainability. The results present opportunities and strengths of sugar industry related to 2030 agenda for sustainable development and circular economy as an useful guidance to formulate strategies to maximizing the potential of the sugar industry to a sustainable biofactory.

Atmospheric dispersion of methane emissions from sugarcane burning in Mexico.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas whose atmospheric dispersion may have different implications at distinct scales. One significant contributor to methane emissions is sugarcane farming in tropical areas like in Mexico, which has the sixth highest production level in the world. A consequence of the industrial use of this resource is that sugarcane preharvest burning emits large quantities of methane and other pollutants. The objective of this research is to estimate the methane emissions by sugarcane burning and to analyze their atmospheric dispersion under the influence of meteorological parameters, according to different concentration scenarios generated during a period. The methane emissions were investigated using the methodology of Seiler and Crutzen, based on the stage production during the harvest periods of 2011/2012, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014. Average of total emissions (1.4 × 103 Mg) at the national level was comparable in magnitude to those of other relevant sugarcane-producing countries such as India and Brazil. Satellite images and statistical methods were used to validate the spatial distribution of methane, which was obtained with the WRF model. The results show a dominant wind circulation pattern toward the east in the San Luis Potosi area, to the west in Jalisco, and the north in Tabasco. In the first two areas, wind convergence at a certain height causes a downward flow, preventing methane dispersion. The concentrations in these areas varied from 9.22 × 10-5 to 1.22 × 102 ppmv and 32 × 10-5 to 2.36 × 102 ppmv, respectively. Wind conditions in Tabasco contributed to high dispersion and low concentrations of methane, varying from 8.74 × 105 to 0.33 × 102 ppmv. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas for which it is essential to study and understand their dispersion at different geographic locations and atmospheric conditions.

What Has Been the Focus of Sugarcane Research? A Bibliometric Overview.

Sugarcane is one of the main crops worldwide, and it has an important impact on environmental issues. A bibliometric mapping analysis of the research on sugarcane was carried out, using data on the titles, abstracts, and keywords of articles published in leading journals and other peer-reviewed documents available in the SCOPUS database from 1858 to 2019 (27 August), and this was subsequently analyzed with the software VOSviewer. The three most important countries that publish research and were most-cited regarding sugarcane were Brazil, the USA, and India. The analysis of the co-occurrence of terms shows that the main research areas were sugarcane bagasse and terms related to bioenergy, and on a second level of relevance agronomy topics related to increasing crop yields. This first attempt to visualize the abundance of publications regarding sugarcane in their totality is in itself a good starting point for further scientific discussion.