Sustainable design of biorefinery processes: existing practices and new methodology

Abstract

Nowadays, eco‐designing products is increasingly practiced. The next challenge for sustainability is to optimize production processes. Biorefineries are particularly concerned with this improvement, because they use renewable resources. To identify the contribution of transformation processes to the overall environmental impacts, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) appears as the adequate method. A literature review highlights that LCA is mainly performed on biorefineries to compare biomass feedstocks between them and to a fossil reference. Another part of environmental LCA compares the impacts of different processing routes. Nevertheless, these evaluations concern already designed processes. Generally, processes are considered as a unique operation in assessments. However, some criteria like operating can notably modify environmental burdens. The eco‐design of biorefinery processes can be guided by coupling process simulation to LCA. This method has been emerging in the chemical sector in recent years. Consequently, this paper proposes a new methodological approach to assessing the complete sustainability of biorefinery processes, since its first design stages. In addition to coupling process simulation and environmental LCA, the other pillars of sustainability will be assessed. Indeed, Life Cycle Costing and Social Life Cycle Assessment can be performed to obtain an integrated methodological framework. The simultaneous optimization of the environmental, economic, and social performances of the process can lead to antagonist ways of improving. Consequently, compromises should be realized. Thereby, the multi‐objective optimization can be accomplished by a metaheuristic method supported by a decision‐making tool. Finally, the main limits of this method and some perspectives and ways for improving are discussed. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Robust microorganisms for biofuel and chemical production from municipal solid waste

“…Overall, the high-performing species identified in this study have considerable promise for production of renewable biofuels and chemicals from OMSW, but further work is needed to assess viability for industrial-scale fermentations. In particular, evaluation of growth in bioreactors is critical for determining bioprocess scalability [91,92] and life cycle assessment (LCA) should be used to holistically compare the performance of different microbial platforms [25,93]. Downstream processing methods are also a major factor to consider when assessing feasibility for industrial applications [94].…”

Sustainable Biorefineries: What was Learned from the Design, Analysis and Implementation

“…The definition of sustainability should be included not only as a goal but also as a rule for designing based on the most classic definition of sustainability according to the Brundtland report "sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" [20]. It is considered that sustainability encompasses in an integral and equitable way three concepts to be included and validated through robust calculations: economy, environment and social aspects [21]. In this sense, different authors have proposed many design methods in order to integrate this concept into the design of biomass-based processes.…”

Advanced Bioethanol Production: From Novel Raw Materials to Integrated Biorefineries

“…into consideration. The techno-economic analysis or the life cycle assessment are two of the most common methodologies [104,105], but there are other holistic approaches such as emergy, energy or exergy analyses [106], green indexes [3] and multiobjective optimization [104,107]. The weak point of all these technologies is the amount of information that they need, since the quality of the analysis depends heavily on the accuracy and reliability of the data used and the assumptions made.…”

“…The weak point of all these technologies is the amount of information that they need, since the quality of the analysis depends heavily on the accuracy and reliability of the data used and the assumptions made. In this regard, most of the analyses of novel systems (where experimental data is scarce) rely on the use of process simulation software [104].…”