Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of biomass- and waste-derived hydrocarbons considering uncertainties in available feedstocks

Abstract

Sustainable chemical production requires renewable feedstocks. Biomass- and waste-derived production is a method for producing chemical products from renewables. In this study, we explore sustainable chemical production applying renewable feedstocks crude palm oil, rapeseed oil, palm fatty acid distillate, used cooking oil, inedible animal fat, inedible fish fat, and algae oil. Hydrotreated vegetable oil has been applied as the raw material for cracking on petrochemical sites and conversion into chemicals based on existing technology patents. A life cycle assessment was used to examine whether this production route can support a reduction in nonbiogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by the production and use of renewable-derived hydrocarbons (RDHC) as the functional unit (FU). The life cycle GHG of the FU ranged between 2.87 and 3.29 kg-CO2eq/FU for three types of feedstock mix, considering their availability and RDHC production capacity, whereas that of fossil-based life cycle is 4.59 kg-CO2eq/FU. Due to the limited availability and wide range of needs, the sourcing of renewable feedstocks could become competitive in the near future. The development and implementation of technologies applying various resources as feedstocks for chemical production are strongly needed toward a carbon-neutral chemical production.