Multi-Objective Design for the Consequential Life Cycle Assessment of Corn Ethanol Production

Sustainable process design involves the simultaneous consideration of economic, environmental, and social factors. This approach is demonstrated in the production of corn ethanol by using a life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The system boundaries considered are corn farming and transportation, and ethanol production and distribution. The analysis is extended to studying the impact of alternative processing technologies on sustainability performance. The goals of this work are achieved by mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) using the General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS). Multi-objective optimisation techniques are used in assessing the trade-offs between the sustainability aspects.