A Data-Driven Comparative Assessment of Pollution from Ethanol Production and Refrigeration & Air-Conditioning Systems

Tarun Singh

This research paper presents a global, data-driven screening-level comparison of environmental pollution from fuel ethanol production and refrigeration and air-conditioning systems, including household air conditioners and refrigerators. The analysis uses publicly available data from international energy, cooling, refrigerant, and ethanol-production sources, combined with a reproducible Python forecasting model. Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are treated as the main climate metric, while SO2/SOx, NOx, VOC, and PM2.5 are included as screening indicators. Results show that air-conditioning and wider RAC systems represent a larger global climate concern because of electricity demand and refrigerant leakage, while ethanol production plants can create stronger local industrial pollution risks through wastewater, VOCs, odor, and boiler emissions. The model estimates that one 1.5-ton AC running for 24 hours emits about 16.16 kg CO2e, one refrigerator running for 24 hours emits about 0.67 kg CO2e, and production of one litre of ethanol emits about 1.11 kg CO2e on a life-cycle basis. The study concludes that RAC is the larger global warming risk, while ethanol production requires strong local pollution-control and wastewater-management systems.