Abstract
AbstractBiobased production has been promoted as an alternative to fossil‐based production to mitigate climate change. However, emerging concerns over the sustainability of biobased products have shown that tensions can emerge between different objectives and concerns, like emission reduction targets and food security, and that these are dependent on local contexts. Here we present the Open Sustainability‐in‐Design (OSiD) framework, the aim of which is to integrate a context‐sensitive sustainability analysis in the conceptual design of biobased processes. The framework is illustrated, taking as an example the production of sustainable aviation fuel in southeast Brazil. The OSiD framework is a novel concept that brings the perspectives of stakeholders and considerations of the regional context to an ex ante sustainability analysis of biobased production. This work also illustrates a way to integrate methods from different scientific disciplines supporting the analysis of sustainability and the identification of tensions between different sustainability aspects. Making these tensions explicit early in the development of biobased production can make them more responsive to emerging sustainability concerns. Considering the global pressure to reduce carbon emissions, situating sustainability analyses in their socio‐technical contexts as presented here can help to explain and improve the impacts of biobased production in the transition away from fossil resources. © 2021 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Highlights
Biobased production has been promoted as an alternative to fossil-based production to mitigate climate change.[1]
Concerns over the sustainability of biobased products include food security impacts related to the use of food crops, land use changes in feedstock producing regions, and negative impacts on the livelihood of local communities.[4,5,6]
Conceptual process design has been mostly focused on economic feasibility, and more recently on sustainability too - the focus has been mostly limited to climate change and efficiency metrics.[9]
Summary
Biobased production has been promoted as an alternative to fossil-based production to mitigate climate change.[1]. The OSiD framework allows (1) an integration of the perspectives of stakeholders and considerations of the regional context to an ex ante sustainability analysis of biobased production alternatives, (2) combination of methods from different scientific disciplines to support the analysis of sustainability in a conceptual process design project, (3) identification of sustainability tensions with regard to the project background (related to, e.g., objectives and technologies in consideration) and the local context that can include, for instance, certain sustainability objectives or stakeholder priorities Making these tensions explicit early in the development of biofuels can contribute to making biofuel innovations more responsive to emerging sustainability concerns. Other stakeholders included certification laboratories, financing institutions, governmental bodies related to agriculture, energy and technology, as well as producers of other fuels, notably bioethanol for road transportation This stage is about exploring the space for designing, identifying the production potential from available resources in the target region, and sustainability aspects relevant to the development of the project and how to evaluate them. Soil sustainability was studied through a review of the literature
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