Life Cycle Assessment of Soybean Oil Production

Abstract

A life cycle assessment (LCA) case study was conducted on the processing of soybeans to soybean oil. Three stages of soybean oil processing are studied in detail: preprocessing, extraction and separation, and postprocessing. For extraction, hexane (current industrial process) and supercritical CO 2 (research and development [R & D] laboratory-scale process) methods are compared in detail. The initial life cycle comparison found that the laboratory-scale CO 2 system was not as good in life cycle impacts as the hexane system. However, reasonable engineering improvements typical of scale-up practices would make the CO 2 technology better than hexane and eliminate the hexane emissions. Utilization of membrane techniques to separate the small molecular CO 2 from the soybean oil hydrocarbon appears to be a much better R & D direction for development. This article illustrates the ability to use life cycle as an aid to R & D to select more advantageous directions for process improvement.

Regional variations in greenhouse gas emissions of biobased products in the United States—corn-based ethanol and soybean oil

“…Several studies have examined the environmental performance of these two biobased products Dale 2005, 2008a;Argonne National 2008;Li et al 2006). Most studies on ethanol fuel compared its environmental impacts to those of gasoline, including vehicle operations in the analysis.…”

Tunable solvents: Shades of green

“…The benefits of this approach will be diminished if the number of solvent reuses is limited by solvent decomposition or a build-up of impurities. Even if no technological issues arise industry must still be persuaded to make the initial high investment [89,90], for long term energy savings [91,92].…”

Environmental Impact Analysis of Soybean Oil Production from Expelling, Hexane Extraction and Enzyme Assisted Aqueous Extraction

“…For solvent extraction, though higher oil can be recovered, the most controversial issue is the application of organic and fossil derived chemicals, which leads to critical environmental and safety issues. Additionally, the energy consumption is required for the process (Li et al, 2006). As for EAEP, water is as solvent which could mitigate the environmental impact comparing to solvent extraction.…”