Life cycle analysis applied to the assessment of the environmental impact of alternative synthetic processes. The dimethylcarbonate case: part 1

Carbon capture, storage and utilisation technologies: A critical analysis and comparison of their life cycle environmental impacts

“…Sixteen LCA studies have been conducted for various CCU options to date globally [6,12,38,51,[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][66][67][68][69][70]. Similar to the CCS studies, most have considered fossil-fuel power plants as a source of CO 2 with only three studying the use of CO 2 from chemical plants such as ammonia and hydrogen production [51,60,66].…”

“…Similar to the CCS studies, most have considered fossil-fuel power plants as a source of CO 2 with only three studying the use of CO 2 from chemical plants such as ammonia and hydrogen production [51,60,66]. As summarised in Table 3, the CO 2 utilisation options evaluated in these studies are enhanced oil recovery and production of mineral carbonates, chemicals and biodiesel from microalgae.…”

“…As summarised in Table 3, the CO 2 utilisation options evaluated in these studies are enhanced oil recovery and production of mineral carbonates, chemicals and biodiesel from microalgae. Five out of the six studies presented in Table 3 considered post-combustion capture with absorption in aminebased solvents [6,12,38,66,68], and the remaining one focused on pre-combustion capture using selexol [67]. All studies on microalgae considered direct injection of flue gases from power plants [51,[54][55][56][57][58][59][60]69].…”

Zeolite Catalysis

“…Meanwhile, the carbon dioxide utilization is one of the most challenging tasks in chemistry [189,190]. Here, zeolite membranes might be used for the direct dimethyl ether synthesis from a mixture of syngas and carbon dioxide [191].…”

Synthesis of Linear and Cyclic Carbonates

“…In 1970, SNPE exploited the phosgenation of glycols that had long been a prominent technology but which, unfortunately, led to the production of chlorinated waste that caused a major adverse environmental impact. Whilst the major positive aspect of using phosgene is its high reactivity, the drawbacks include limitations to transport and storage, safety measures in handling, and the disposal of large amounts of end -products [1] . Environmental regulations and risk minimization, however, do not ensure that such technology can fi t in with the market expansion of the two major acyclic carbonates, namely dimethyl carbonate ( DMC ) and diphenyl carbonate ( DPC ), and that of ethene carbonate ( EC ) and propene carbonate s ( PC ).…”