What is the carbon footprint of citric acid per tonne?
Citric acid is made by fermenting sugar or starch, then recovering and crystallising it. The figure comes from the sugar feedstock, steam for evaporation and drying, and electricity for aeration. Fermentation CO2 from the sugar is biogenic and reported separately.
Main parts
- Feedstock: molasses, glucose or starch.
- Aeration and stirring electricity during fermentation.
- Steam for evaporation, crystallisation and drying.
Biogenic CO2
CO2 released as sugar ferments comes from plant carbon. Show it apart from fossil emissions, not added to them.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads the energy invoices behind the making stage into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, and keeps material invoices on the Scope 3 trail. Material factors come from your supplier or a named database and are labelled with their source, so the product figure can be traced line by line.
Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Standard
Last reviewed 2026-10-22.