Emergy analysis of cassava -based fuel ethanol in China

To improve the comparability of research results in fuel ethanol industries, taking the cassava-based fuel ethanol industry as a case. The emergy method was applied to analyze fuel ethanol production system, which is made up of three stages, planting, transporting and ethanol production. This approach unified organically the three system of material flow, Energy flow, money flow during the process, and analyzed quantitatively the integrated value of the cassava-based fuel ethanol. It overcomes shortage that the simple evaluation fuel ethanol on Energy-benefit analysis or Economic Feasibility Analysis at present. The results of the emergy assessment of fuel ethanol in China indicate the Transformity is 1.10E+06sej/j, the Emergy Yield Rate is 1.14, the Environmental Load Rate is 40.9, the Emergy Investment Rate is 32.6, the Emergy Sustainability index is 0.03, and the Emergy Assisted Rate is 0.1.