single product system for all (multiple products) from various stages

Question

I have a  system based on the sugar industry that includes the following processes:

• Ethanol production (from molasses)
• Electricity production (from bagasse)

Processing sugarcane in a sugar mill produces molasses and bagasse that are further used to produce ethanol and electricity. I am trying to create a single product system that can simulate the overall impacts of processing 1 ton of sugarcane, including ethanol and electricity production processes.

In brief, I am trying to simulate the overall impacts for the following:

• 1 kg of ethanol produced
• 1 kWh of electricity produced

I have created a product system for ethanol production that includes all the upstream processes. I have also linked electricity production to this ethanol product system by using the "add recipients" option. When I'm trying to estimate the overall impacts w.r.t the reference flow, I can only choose ethanol produced (kg) as the Reference flow. Is there a way that I can also choose electricity produced (kWh) as the Reference flow and estimate the impacts? Is it possible to select multiple Reference Flows for a single product system with varied target amounts?

Answer 1

So, your final process produces only ethanol, but links to electricity, in the correct amount? Then the ethanol can be used to scale all the impact (and it makes sense that you cannot choose electricity). Do I understand correctly? Thank you.