Quantifying the impact of cascading use: A comparative integrated assessment of the European pine chemicals industry

Economics of forest bioeconomy: new results

“…In contrast, profits from biosludge did not significantly differ between alternative uses due to low prices and produced amounts. These results align with previous studies as they find value-added biochemical products based on lignin and tall oil economically feasible and providing significant future potential (Aryan et al 2019, Bajwa et al 2019, Xu et al 2021. Hassan et al (2019) defined biosludge as a low-value side stream and estimated that only a small share of biosludge is used for economic purposes in Finland.…”

“…This does not follow the cascading principle of side stream use. The life cycle assessment studies by Cashman et al (2015) and Aryan et al (2019) did not find any additional climate benefits if crude tall oil is used in biodiesel production instead of current chemical production. Bauer et al (2017) note that the EU has set clear targets for biofuels but has not set any targets for other bioproducts, such as biochemical and biomaterials.…”

“…Quantitative studies on the environmental impacts of cascading use of wood typically apply life cycle assessment (Jarre et al 2020, Thonemann andSchumann 2018). A still somewhat limited number of life cycle studies have focused on alternative uses of pulp mill's side streams, such as tall oil, lignin, and biosludge (Cashman et al 2015, Aryan et al 2019, Bajwa et al 2019, Culbertson et al 2016, Mohammadi et al 2019a, Secchi et al 2019, Hermansson et al 2019. Studies on the tall oil industry have compared the use of tall oil either in biodiesel or in the pine chemicals industry (Cashman et al 2015, Aryan et al 2019.…”

“…A still somewhat limited number of life cycle studies have focused on alternative uses of pulp mill's side streams, such as tall oil, lignin, and biosludge (Cashman et al 2015, Aryan et al 2019, Bajwa et al 2019, Culbertson et al 2016, Mohammadi et al 2019a, Secchi et al 2019, Hermansson et al 2019. Studies on the tall oil industry have compared the use of tall oil either in biodiesel or in the pine chemicals industry (Cashman et al 2015, Aryan et al 2019. Bajwa et al (2019) discuss the possibilities of 7 lignin-derived products to improve both the profitability of the pulp and paper companies and their environmental performance compared to fossil-based products.…”

“…Mohammadi et al (2019aMohammadi et al ( , 2019b analyze the alternative uses of pulp and paper mill biosludge and their environmental impacts. These studies indicate that the cascading use of side streams may lead to better environmental performance (Cashman et al 2015, Aryan et al 2019, Bajwa et al 2019, Culbertson et al 2016, Mohammadi et al 2019a. However, as in the case of lignin, for example, the allocation method highly impacts the results of life-cycle analyses (Secchi et al 2019, Hermansson et al 2020, Wenger et al 2020.…”