Life cycle assessment of biobased chemicals from different agricultural feedstocks

Abstract

The production of biobased fuels and chemicals using renewable feedstocks is a promising alternative to achieve sustainability. Research has been focused on evaluating the economic, environmental and social performance of different products along their life cycle. Most of the published research on the evaluation of the environmental performance focuses on single products while examining mostly the global warming potential and/or the energy demand. In this work a “cradle to gate” life cycle assessment is performed for the commercial-scale production of nine different biobased chemicals. To have a comprehensive view about their total sustainability, the impact categories examined are the global warming potential, the acidification potential and the eutrophication potential. Detailed description of the processes and their simulation, design and inventories are presented to facilitate future research efforts. The analysis of the results shows that the main drivers are the production of feedstock and the use of utility steam and electricity across each impact category. Significant advantages over the fossil-based production technologies are demonstrated in all cases where reliable data are available in the open literature.