Life cycle analysis to achieve a cleaner production of gassy drinks

摘要

The life cycle analysis can be used to evaluate the environmental impacts of a process and at the same time to propose improvements to mitigate these impacts. These improvements can be evaluated using the pinch technology, which improves the efficiency of the process. Combining these methodologies is possible to improve the environmental and technological performance of the process, having as a tool a calculation leaf of excel for the material and energy balances development of the process. This paper presents the evaluation of the environmental impacts taken place in a stage of the production process of gassy drinks, which has an impact on the resources category, due to high water consumption in the laundry of manufacturing equipments at this stage. Measures have been proposed to improve the environmental and technological performance of the process as part of the fourth phase of life cycle analysis, in order to mitigate the environmental impact produced. On the obtained results, an alternative evaluated with the pinch technology is presented, which indicates the minimum water flow that should be used for this operation, reducing the fresh water quantity needed.