Water Footprint as an Emerging Environmental Tool for Assessing Sustainable Water Use of the Bioethanol Distillery at Metahara Sugarcane Farm, Oromiya Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

In Ethiopia, sugarcane estate farms and bioethanol distilleries are being expanded at an alarming rate to provide alternative sustainable energy as renewable, affordable, and low carbon footprint bioenergy for the transportation sector. The promotion of bioethanol production is definitely poised to cause high competition for water resources. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the water footprint (WF) of sugarcane molasses-based bioethanol production of the Metahara sugarcane farm. Ten years of meteorological data (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016) were collected from the Metahara weather stations and processed through the CROPWAT 8 model using the Penman-Monteith method. Sugarcane coefficient (K c ) was taken from FAO data; and sugarcane growing seasons, fertilizer application rates, sugarcane yield, and factory data were obtained from the Metahara factories. Reference evapotranspiration varied from 4.73 to 7.98 mm/day whereas effective rainfall (R eff ) values ranged from 256.4 to 743.6 mm/growing season of sugarcane (16 months). The estimated sugarcane water requirement (SWR) ranged from 2544.1 to 4833.3 mm/growing season. The ANOVA test (p > 0.05) for R eff showed statistically insignificant differences in means but the test for SWR (p < 0.05) revealed a statistically significant differences in means. The average sugarcane WF was 217.69 m 3 /t whereas the bioethanol WF was 3106.7 L/L. Hence, the WF of bioethanol production in the Metahara distillery is higher than the global average, indicating pressure on local water resources. Therefore, the results of this study may help policy makers to develop appropriate water resource management for the extensively growing sugar and bioethanol industries in Ethiopia.

Agronomic Performance and Economic Benefits of Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Under Drip Irrigation for Sandy and Clay Soils in East Java, Indonesia

“…Waterlogging condition may lead to a reduction of sugarcane growth and yield (Gomathi et al 2015;Avivi et al 2016;Jaiphong et al 2017). Sugarcane crop water requirement (CWR) defined as the amount of water needed to compensate evapotranspiration process in the field (Fito et al 2017). The value of sugarcane CWR during a crop cycle is within the range of 1,100-1,800 mm, depending on location (Carr & Knox 2011).…”

Fluoride removal from aqueous solution onto activated carbon of Catha edulis through the adsorption treatment technology

“…Today, freshwater consumption is increasing rapidly at an unexpected rate due to the fast industrial advancement, world population explosion, mechanized agriculture expansion and progress of civilization (Fito et al 2017a;Fito and Alemu 2019). Basically, in all nations across the globe, access to safe water and sanitation is recognized as a fundamental human right for all (Fito et al 2019a).…”

Examination of the Effectiveness of Controlled Release Fertilizer to Balance Sugarcane Yield and Reduce Nitrate Leaching to Groundwater

“…The sugarcane WF proc,grey of the plant cane season (CRF: 17.28 m 3 /t, urea: 44.99 m 3 /t) (Table 4) indicated that more than twice the water volume is required to assimilate the pollutant load derived from sugarcane cultivation for urea application to match the water quality standards of the area than for the CRF application. According to Scholten W, 2009, as cited in Fito et al [71], the proportion of the grey WF to the total sugarcane WF in different countries ranges between 4% and 11%. Our obtained results for the plant cane season indicated that the contribution of the grey WF of the CRF treatment to the total WF was 8.98% while that of the urea treatment was 19.27%, more than two times higher than the former.…”