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<p>Agro-industrial residues such as grape marc (GM) and brewer’s spent grain (BSG) present both a waste management challenge and an opportunity for renewable heat production. This study presents a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of Grape Marc (GM) and Brewer’s Spent Grain (BSG) combustion for thermal energy production. The functional unit was 1 GJ of useful thermal energy, and harmonized system boundaries were adopted to ensure methodological consistency. Results show that GM consistently outperforms BSG across most environmental impact categories. At the midpoint level, GM exhibits 76.3% lower global warming potential (21.7 vs. 98.5&#xa0;kg CO₂-eq/GJ), along with substantially reduced terrestrial ecotoxicity, fossil resource use, and air pollutant emissions. Endpoint results confirm these findings, with GM demonstrating 81.4% lower ecosystem damage, 64.9% lower human health impacts, and 77.9% lower natural resource depletion. Key environmental hotspots include biomass moisture content, energy demand for drying, and transport distance. A Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis (1,000 iterations) was performed to assess result robustness, confirming a high probability that GM maintains lower environmental impacts than BSG across major categories. The results support GM as a more sustainable biofuel option within circular bioenergy systems and EU decarbonization strategies.</p>

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Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Agro-Industrial Residues: Environmental Impacts of Grape Marc and Brewer’s Spent Grain Combustion

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年4月16日

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  • Dimitra Kaffe

摘要

Agro-industrial residues such as grape marc (GM) and brewer’s spent grain (BSG) present both a waste management challenge and an opportunity for renewable heat production. This study presents a comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impacts of Grape Marc (GM) and Brewer’s Spent Grain (BSG) combustion for thermal energy production. The functional unit was 1 GJ of useful thermal energy, and harmonized system boundaries were adopted to ensure methodological consistency. Results show that GM consistently outperforms BSG across most environmental impact categories. At the midpoint level, GM exhibits 76.3% lower global warming potential (21.7 vs. 98.5 kg CO₂-eq/GJ), along with substantially reduced terrestrial ecotoxicity, fossil resource use, and air pollutant emissions. Endpoint results confirm these findings, with GM demonstrating 81.4% lower ecosystem damage, 64.9% lower human health impacts, and 77.9% lower natural resource depletion. Key environmental hotspots include biomass moisture content, energy demand for drying, and transport distance. A Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis (1,000 iterations) was performed to assess result robustness, confirming a high probability that GM maintains lower environmental impacts than BSG across major categories. The results support GM as a more sustainable biofuel option within circular bioenergy systems and EU decarbonization strategies.