Life Cycle Assessment of Bovine Bone Meal Production in Paraguay: A Methodological Framework for Comparing Steam-Cooking versus Calcination Scenarios

Paraguay's beef sector produces around 1.8 million tons of bone waste every year, creating both environmental pressure and an opportunity for nutrient recovery. Bone meal production fits circular economy thinking, yet its environmental footprint has never been examined locally. This study puts forward a comparative Life Cycle Assessment framework to evaluate two production routes. Following ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006 standards, a cradle-to-gate approach was adopted with a functional unit of 1 metric ton of bone meal (moisture below 5%, packed). Two scenarios were modeled using OpenLCA software. The first reproduces current practice in a local plant with primary data on electricity, water, materials, and emissions. This route, based on steam-cooking, aims to produce a fertilizer that preserves the original organic matrix of the bone, making it suitable for direct soil application as a slow-release phosphorus source. The second scenario is hypothetical and based on calcination, a thermal treatment intended to obtain a soil amendment with different characteristics: higher pH, lower organic content, and greater crystallinity, making it more suitable for acidic soils or as a material with adsorbent properties. Preliminary results indicate that calcination carries a significantly heavier load, with climate change impacts roughly 40% higher and fossil resource depletion nearly 55% greater, mainly due to additional fuel demands. The heating stage and input transport emerge as the main hotspots in both routes. Steam-cooking performs better overall, largely because it uses existing infrastructure and requires less energy. These early findings offer the first quantitative evidence for bone meal production in Paraguay, establishing a baseline to inform company decisions, support national greenhouse gas inventory efforts, and contribute to SDGs 9, 12, and 13.