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The combination of LCA and monetization has revealed that protic ionic liquids can be sustainable alternatives to conventional solvents.

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Recent governmental policies that promote a biobased economy have led to an increasing production of biodiesel, resulting in large amounts of waste glycerol being generated as low-cost and readily available feedstock. Here, the production of high-value biobased propylene glycol as an alternative chemical route to valorize biodiesel glycerol was studied and assessed considering economic and life cycle environmental criteria. To this end, the conventional industrial process for propylene glycol production, which uses petroleum-based propylene oxide as feedstock, was compared against three different hydrogenolysis routes based on biodiesel glycerol using process modeling and optimization tools. The environmental impact of each alternative was evaluated following Life Cycle Assessment principles, whereas the main uncertainties were explicitly accounted for via stochastic modeling. Comparison among the various cases reveals that there are process alternatives based on biodiesel glycerol that outperform the current propylene glycol production scheme simultaneously in profit and environmental impact (i.e., 90% increment in profit and 74% reduction in environmental impact under optimum process conditions). Overall, this work demonstrates the viability to develop sustainable biorefinery schemes that convert waste glycerol into high-value commodity chemicals, like propylene glycol, thereby promoting holistic bioeconomy frameworks.

In a decade when Industry 4.0 and quality by design are major technology drivers of biopharma, automated and adaptive process monitoring and control are inevitable requirements and model‐based solutions are key enablers in fulfilling these goals. Despite strong advancement in process digitalization, in most cases, the generated datasets are not sufficient for relying on purely data‐driven methods, whereas the underlying complex bioprocesses are still not completely understood. In this regard, hybrid models are emerging as a timely pragmatic solution to synergistically combine available process data and mechanistic understanding. In this study, we show a novel application of the hybrid‐EKF framework, that is, hybrid models coupled with an extended Kalman filter for real‐time monitoring, control, and automated decision‐making in mammalian cell culture processing. We show that, in the considered application, the predictive monitoring accuracy of such a framework improves by at least 35% when developed with hybrid models with respect to industrial benchmark tools based on PLS models. In addition, we also highlight the advantages of this approach in industrial applications related to conditional process feeding and process monitoring. With regard to the latter, for an industrial use case, we demonstrate that the application of hybrid‐EKF as a soft sensor for titer shows a 50% improvement in prediction accuracy compared with state‐of‐the‐art soft sensor tools.

Designing energy systems within planetary boundaries is crucial to preserving the Earth's ecological capacity given the power sector's environmental footprint.

Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has recently gained broad interest in the chemical industry. Direct electro-and thermocatalytic technologies are currently the focus of intense research, where the former employs electricity directly to reduce the CO 2 molecule, while the latter comprises hydrogenation of CO 2 in tandem with electrocatalytic water splitting. So far, it remains unclear which of the two is superior, yet this information is considered critical. Focusing on the platform chemical ethylene, the two CCU routes were compared using state-of-the-art performances with the fossil technology considering different power and CO 2 sources. The thermo-route was found to be, at present, economically and environmentally better, yet under the same electrolyzer efficiencies, the electro-route would become superior. CCU routes could substantially improve the carbon footprint of the fossil ethylene (by 236 %) while decreasing at the same time impacts on human health, ecosystem quality, and resources (64, 140, and 80 %, respectively). However, they are economically unattractive even when considering externalities (indirect cost of environmental impacts), that is, 1.7-to 3.9-fold more expensive compared to the current fossil-based analogue. Acknowledging this limitation, the concept of hybridization was applied as a means to smooth the transition towards more sustainable chemicals. Accordingly, it was found that an optimal hybrid plant could produce carbon-neutral (cradle-to-gate) ethylene with a premium of only 30 % over the current market prices by judiciously combining CCU routes with fossil technologies.