Life Cycle Assessment of Microbial 2,3-Butanediol Production from Brewer’s Spent Grain Modeled on Pinch Technology

Abstract

Microbial production of 2,3-butanediol (BDO) has received considerable attention as a promising alternate to fossilderived BDO. In our previous work, BDO concentration >100 g/L was accumulated using brewer's spent grain (BSG) via microbial routes which was followed by techno-economic analysis of the bioprocess. In the present work, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted for BDO production from the fermentation of BSG to identify the associated environmental impacts. The LCA was based on an industrial-scale biorefinery processing of 100 metric tons BSG per day modeled using ASPEN plus integrated with pinch technology, a tool for achieving maximum thermal efficiency and heat recovery from the process. For the cradle-to-gate LCA, the functional unit of 1 kg of BDO production was selected. Onehundred-year global warming potential of 7.25 kg CO 2 /kg BDO was estimated while including biogenic carbon emission. The pretreatment stage followed by the cultivation and fermentation contributed to the maximum adverse impacts. Sensitivity analysis revealed that a reduction in electricity consumption and transportation and an increase in BDO yield could reduce the adverse impacts associated with microbial BDO production.

Bioethanol production from cocoa hydrolysate and the assessment of its environmental sustainability

“…5 shows hot spots associated with the use of water with an average contribution of about 34%, the use of urea with an input of about 29% and emissions from the use of pesticides and fertilizers of about 33%. These results are in agreement with those obtained by Tagne et al [ 9 ] and Tiwari et al [ 14 ], with low variability.…”

“…González-García et al (2012), reported a net GWP of −0.619 kg CO 2 equivalent per kg ethanol [ 33 ]. In 2023, Tiwari et al [ 14 ] reported a Global Warming Potential of 7.2/kg BDO including biogenic carbon emissions. The higher Global Warming Potential in our study compared to results reported in the literature could be the result of taking into account cocoa cultivation subsystems and ethanol production up to the biorefinery stage.…”

“…This methodology is also recognized as a standardized tool whose main objective to analyze and quantifyof the environmental impacts associated with a product by quantifying emissions and discharges that could affect the environment [ 11 ]. Previous studies were carried out with the aim of evaluating the environmental burdens of bioethanol production from different biomasses [ [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] ]. However, the analysis of emissions resulting from the production of bioethanol still remains a subject of debate and concern since the limits of the system vary according to researchers, thus causing variability in the results [ 15 ].…”

Methyl Methacrylate Production Processes: A Comparative Analysis of Alternatives Using the Life Cycle Assessment Methodology

“…The LCA methodology has been utilized for similar studies evaluating the potential environmental impacts associated with industrial chemical production and comparing the different production approaches based on their level of impacts. Mostly all the sectors are covered: fossil-based industry, , biobased fuels and chemicals, − pharmaceuticals, and the synthesis of new catalytic system from earth-abundant metals. − Studies presented above, along with several others, established the suitability of the LCA methodology for pinpointing areas where different approaches to the production of chemical compounds excel in terms of environmental performance and the possible areas where process improvement efforts should be concentrated to drive significant environmental gains.…”