Lin S.Y.Holden N.M.Thongdara R.Silalertruksa T.Gheewala S.H.Prapaspongsa T.Mahidol University2025-09-112025-09-112025-10-01Sustainable Production and Consumption Vol.59 (2025) , 305-324https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/112023Sugarcane biorefineries convert sugarcane waste into bioproducts, requiring assessment for environmentally viable processing. This study compared the life cycle environmental impacts, environmental damage costs, and circularity of sugarcane biorefinery scenarios: a base case with pre-harvest cane trash burning and sugar and ethanol production; a modified one with improved energy efficiency; and three bioproduct scenarios producing bagasse-based biobutanol or biochar for bioenergy scenario, lactic or acetic acid for biochemicals, and cane trash-derived cellulose nanofibers or soil conditioner for biomaterials. Bioproduct scenarios assumed green cane harvesting. Life cycle assessment followed a cradle-to-gate scope, with a functional unit of 1 tonne of cane processed (t<inf>c</inf>). Damage to human health ranged from 7.72 × 10⁻⁴ to 2.85 × 10⁻³ disability-adjusted life years/t<inf>c</inf>; ecosystem from 4.85 × 10⁻⁶ to 9.15 × 10⁻⁶ species.year/t<inf>c</inf>; resource scarcity from 10 to 60 United States dollar 2013/t<inf>c</inf>; total damage costs from 2,100 to 5,410 Thai Baht/t<inf>c</inf>, and circularity from 0.44 to 0.52. Bioproduct scenarios, except cellulose nanofibers, had lower environmental damage costs than the base case. Biorefinery circularity aligned closely with the highest-value product in each scenario. Biochemical (Lactic acid) was the best overall, with the lowest environmental damage cost and resource scarcity damage, relatively low human health and ecosystem damage, and a high circularity score of 0.5. Biomaterial (Cellulose nanofibers) was the worst due to its highest damage cost from the highest fossil resource scarcity, accounting for over 95 % of resources scarcity damage in all scenarios, and high-water consumption, despite minimum human health damage from the lowest fine particulate matter formation, leading contributor to human health damage mainly from cane burning and biomass electricity, and a high circularity of 0.52. The modified base case was slightly better than the base case across all metrics. Bioproduct scenarios increased circularity; however, higher circularity did not always correlate better environmental performance.EnergyEnvironmental ScienceEngineeringArticleSCOPUS10.1016/j.spc.2025.07.0082-s2.0-10501493561723525509