Can we assess innovative bio-based chemicals in their early development stage? A comparison between early-stage and life cycle assessments

Fernández-Dacosta, Cora; Wassenaar, Pim N.H.; Dencic, I.; Mc, Zijp; Morão, A.I. Cavaco; Heugens, Evelyn H. W.; Shen, Li

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.05.115

Cited by 18 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…96 However, early-stage LCA studies have been shown to successfully identify environmental hotspots within the system. 96,97 Therefore, it is advised that, where it is appropriate, scaledup models of novel bio-based processes should be made to allow for comparison with incumbent technologies. If this cannot be done, LCA studies of lab-scale routes may allow for the determination of environmental hotspots, but should not be compared to studies of larger-scale systems.…”

Section: Availability and Scale Of Lca Inventory Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Production of HMF, FDCA and their derived products: a review of life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies

et al. 2021

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Section: Availability and Scale Of Lca Inventory Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Production of HMF, FDCA and their derived products: a review of life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies

et al. 2021

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“…67 However, the remaining processes for PLA production all have negative or close to zero S2X efficiencies. The S2X efficiency is close to zero for O ̈gmundarson et al 60 (0.3) and Dacosta et al 56 (0.1). The S2X efficiencies for Dunn et al 57 (−0.8), Morales et al 59 (−1.1), and Manandhar et al 58 (−1.5 to −3.0) are significantly lower and lead to no positive S2X, regardless of feedstock.…”

Section: ■ Resultsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Sugar-to-What? An Environmental Merit Order Curve for Biobased Chemicals and Plastics

Winter

Meys

Sternberg

et al. 2022

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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The chemical industry aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by adopting biomass as a renewable carbon feedstock. However, biomass is a limited resource. Thus, biomass should preferentially be used in processes that most reduce GHG emissions. However, a lack of harmonization in current life cycle assessment (LCA) literature makes the identification of efficient processes difficult. In this study, 46 fermentation processes from literature are harmonized and analyzed on the basis of their GHG reduction compared with fossil benchmarks. The GHG reduction per amount of sugar used is defined as Sugar-to-X efficiency and used as a performance metric in the following. The analyzed processes span a wide range of Sugar-to-X efficiencies from −3.3 to 6.7 kg of CO2 equiv per kg of sugar input. Diverting sugar from bioethanol production for fuels to the fermentation and bioconversion processes with the highest Sugar-to-X efficiency could reduce the chemical industry’s GHG emissions by an additional 130 MT of CO2 equiv without requiring any more biobased feedstocks.

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“…The authors define ex-ante LCA as being studies that compare scaled-up emerging technologies with evolved incumbent technologies and scaled-up emerging technologies based on likely scenarios in terms of their future performance when operational. In the context of bio-based chemicals, [49] found that when starting at the process design phase of a new production process, ex-ante LCA yielded good predictions of hotspots. This allows for an early identification of major contributions to the emissions pertaining to a product's life cycle.…”

Section: Ex-ante Lca and Multi Methods Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

LCA Practices of Plastics and Their Recycling: A Critical Review

2021

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In a bid to help address the environmental footprints associated with products and services, life cycle assessment (LCA) applications have become increasingly popular throughout the years. This review summarizes some important methodological developments in recent years, such as the advent of dynamic LCA, as well as highlighting recent LCA applications in the context of plastics/recycling with a focus on their methodological choices. Furthermore, this review aims to offer a set of possible research lines to improve the gap between LCA and decision-making (policy). It was found that the majority of reviewed papers are mostly conservative in their methodological practice, employing mostly static analyses and making little use of other methods. In order to bridge the gap between LCA and policy, it is suggested to broaden system boundaries through the integration of dynamic modelling methods, incorporating interactions between fore- and background systems, and including behavioral components where relevant. In addition, advanced sampling routines to further explore and assess the policy space are recommended. This is of paramount importance when dealing with recycling processes as the molecules/polymers constituting the output of those processes have to be benchmarked in terms of costs and, crucially, their sustainability character against virgin ones.

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Can we assess innovative bio-based chemicals in their early development stage? A comparison between early-stage and life cycle assessments

Cited by 18 publications

References 33 publications

Production of HMF, FDCA and their derived products: a review of life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies

Production of HMF, FDCA and their derived products: a review of life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis (TEA) studies

Sugar-to-What? An Environmental Merit Order Curve for Biobased Chemicals and Plastics

LCA Practices of Plastics and Their Recycling: A Critical Review

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