Environmental Impacts of Experimental Production of Lactic Acid for Bioplastics from Ulva spp.

Helmes, Roel; López-Contreras, Ana M.; Benoit, Maud; Abreu, Helena; Maguire, Julie; Moejes, Fiona Wanjiku; Burg, S.W.K. van den

doi:10.3390/su10072462

Cited by 37 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…The process with the highest contribution to biorefinery‐related impacts is the use of triethanolamine in the purification of LA production, followed by the treatment of refinery sludge (see LCI for first generation process in ESI.1). The purification process has also been identified earlier as substantial contributor to impacts of production systems for succinic acid (Morales et al, ) and life cycle (Helmes et al, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Environmental hotspots of lactic acid production systems

et al. 2019

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Using selected bio‐based feedstocks as alternative to fossil resources for producing biochemicals and derived materials is increasingly considered an important goal of a viable bioeconomy worldwide. However, to ensure that using bio‐based feedstocks is aligned with the global sustainability agenda, impacts along the entire life cycle of biochemical production systems need to be evaluated. This will help to identify those processes and technologies, which should be targeted for optimizing overall environmental sustainability performance. To address this need, we quantify environmental impacts of biochemical production using distinct bio‐based feedstocks, and discuss the potential for reducing impact hotspots via process optimization. Lactic acid (LA) was used as an example biochemical derived from corn, corn stover, and macroalgae (Laminaria sp.) as feedstocks of different technological maturity. We used environmental life cycle assessment (LCA), a standardized methodology, considering the full life cycle of the analyzed biochemical production systems and a broad range of environmental impact indicators. Across production systems, feedstock production and biorefinery processes dominate life cycle impact profiles, with choice in energy mix and biomass processing as main influencing aspects. Results show that uncertainty decreases with increasing technological maturity. When using Laminaria sp. (least mature among selected feedstocks), impacts are mainly driven by energy utilities (up to 86%) due to biomass drying. This suggests to focus on optimizing or avoiding this process for significantly increasing environmental sustainability of Laminaria sp.‐based LA production. Our results demonstrate that applying LCA is useful for identifying environmental impact hotspots at an earlier stage of technological development across biochemical production systems. With that, our approach contributes to improving the environmental sustainability of future biochemical production as part of moving toward a viable bioeconomy worldwide.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Environmental hotspots of lactic acid production systems

et al. 2019

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“…Among the biodegradable polyesters, one of the most studied is the poly(lactic acid) (PLA). PLA is completely biobased, as it is obtained from the fermentation of corn starch, sugar beets or other renewable resources [14,15]. Regarding its properties, at room temperature it exhibits a Young's modulus of about 3 GPa and a tensile strength between 50 and 70 MPa [16,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Properties and Skin Compatibility of Films Based on Poly(Lactic Acid) (PLA) Bionanocomposites Incorporating Chitin Nanofibrils (CN)

Coltelli

Aliotta

Vannozzi

et al. 2020

JFB

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Nanobiocomposites suitable for preparing skin compatible films by flat die extrusion were prepared by using plasticized poly(lactic acid) (PLA), poly(butylene succinate-co-adipate) (PBSA), and Chitin nanofibrils as functional filler. Chitin nanofibrils (CNs) were dispersed in the blends thanks to the preparation of pre-nanocomposites containing poly(ethylene glycol). Thanks to the use of a melt strength enhancer (Plastistrength) and calcium carbonate, the processability and thermal properties of bionanocomposites films containing CNs could be tuned in a wide range. Moreover, the resultant films were flexible and highly resistant. The addition of CNs in the presence of starch proved not advantageous because of an extensive chain scission resulting in low values of melt viscosity. The films containing CNs or CNs and calcium carbonate resulted biocompatible and enabled the production of cells defensins, acting as indirect anti-microbial. Nevertheless, tests made with Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter spp. (Gram positive and negative respectively) by the qualitative agar diffusion test did not show any direct anti-microbial activity of the films. The results are explained considering the morphology of the film and the different mechanisms of direct and indirect anti-microbial action generated by the nanobiocomposite based films.

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“…Some important bacterial strains that are shown to degrade plastics (without concerning the fact that how efficient these strains are in the process of degradation). The microbial strains mentioned in Table 2 [39][40][41][42][43][44][45] are a few examples where microbes are used to degrade plastics. One important thing to bear in mind is that these microbial strains that have been studied until now are not available on commercial scale to degrade large garbage dump sites in land, or to degrade plastic liter in oceans.…”

Section: Biodegradation Of Synthetic Plasticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plastics Versus Bioplastics

Nadeem

Muneer

2021

Degradation of Plastics

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Plastics are polymers of long chain hydrocarbons based on petrochemicals. Due to their physiochemical properties these are almost non-degradable and their complete recycling is impossible. High production rate and less disposal capacities have made plastic environmental pollutant resulting in severe impacts on the health of organisms and destruction of habitats thus effecting the biosphere in different ways. Biodegradation, thermal and catalytic degradation of plastics is widely studied to ensure a sustainable disposal of plastic waste with limited results until the present however, a new field where ecofriendly polymers obtained from natural biomass are used to make materials is flourishing. Bioplastics are polymers derived from biomass such as cellulose, starch, chitin and microbial polyhydroxyalkanoates that have the ability to produce products of daily use that can replace their counter parts made from the synthetic plastics. Bioplastics degrade easily in natural environment and replace the petrochemical based plastic polymers, thus saving the natural environment from plastic pollution and ensuring a sustainable environment.

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Environmental Impacts of Experimental Production of Lactic Acid for Bioplastics from Ulva spp.

Cited by 37 publications

References 39 publications

Environmental hotspots of lactic acid production systems

Environmental hotspots of lactic acid production systems

Properties and Skin Compatibility of Films Based on Poly(Lactic Acid) (PLA) Bionanocomposites Incorporating Chitin Nanofibrils (CN)

Plastics Versus Bioplastics

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