Integrated Energy and Environmental Assessment of Sugar Production: From Static to Dynamic LCA—State of Knowledge and Research Perspectives

Considering the implementation of the circular economy and the concept of sustainable development, there is a growing need to reduce resource consumption and the environmental impact of industrial processes. This is particularly important in the sugar industry, which is characterized by high energy intensity and a complex process structure. The aim of this paper is to conduct a narrative review of the latest research from 2021–2026 on the assessment of technological processes in the sugar industry from an energy and environmental perspective. The analysis includes approaches such as life-cycle assessment, carbon footprint analysis, energy indicators, and methods related to the circular economy. The results of the review indicate that existing research focuses primarily on selected process aspects, such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, or by-product management. However, approaches integrating environmental, energy, cost, and process analysis are lacking. This paper identifies a significant research gap and proposes a direction for filling it by integrating dynamic life-cycle assessment, exergy analysis, material flow and energy costing (MFCA), and process–energy modeling. This approach provides a comprehensive framework for process evaluation and supports the identification of improvement strategies that minimize energy consumption, environmental burdens, and production costs while preserving process efficiency.