Impact of biomass use on the bioeconomy of Central American sugar mills

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of the use of Biomass on the productive path of the Bioeconomy of the sugar Biorefineries in the Central American region, through the study of the total productivity of the factors. The data available in the FAO were used, which were organized in a data panel and the data envelopment analysis was applied with the Malmquist indices tool, the environmental technical efficiency approach was added, a model with three components was considered: productive, environmental and social. Likewise, the incidence of planetary solar geomagnetic activity on the productivity of biorefineries was investigated. The results were evaluated considering the solar activity and omitting it, the first show that only the countries Belize, El Salvador (11%), Nicaragua (4%) and Cuba (3%) show an average growth in productivity, unlike Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama presented a decrease in productivity. The change in TFP was explained by the technological development of the mills rather than by the technical efficiency of the workforce. In addition, it is concluded that the productivity of the bioeconomy has a certain relationship with the planetary geomagnetic activity and therefore the relationship between the productivity of biorefineries and the population growth rate must be taken into account. It is important that the investors of the sugar mills consider these evidences given that knowing the variations of the solar activity.UNIVERSITAS (León): Scientific Journal of UNAN León Vol.5(1) 2014, pp 26-58