Techno-economic and carbon footprint assessment of methyl crotonate and methyl acrylate production from wastewater-based polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)

Fernández-Dacosta, Cora; Posada, John A.; Ramirez, Andrea

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.07.152

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Furthermore, quantification of the GHG emissions intensity of biobased products is generally neglected, as in the studies mentioned above. In this respect, the literature is still limited on systematic combinations of a comprehensive techno‐economic analysis with a GHG emissions intensity assessment to screen and select the most promising biobased products . Hence, the combination of these two factors (the lack of a harmonized assessment method for economics and GHG emissions, and the limited number of studies addressing these aspects) makes it necessary to define both consistent methodological features (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic performance and GHG emission intensity of sugarcane‐ and eucalyptus‐derived biofuels and biobased chemicals in Brazil

Jonker

Junginger

Posada

et al. 2019

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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Biomass feedstock can be used for the production of biofuels or biobased chemicals to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Earlier studies about the techno-economic performance of biofuel or biobased chemical production varied in biomass feedstock, conversion process, and other techno-economic assumptions. This made a fair comparison between different industrial processing pathways difficult. The aim of this study is to quantify uniformly the factorygate production costs and the GHG emission intensity of biobased ethanol, ethylene, 1,3-propanediol (PDO), and succinic acid, and to compare them with each other and their respective fossil equivalent products. Brazilian sugarcane and eucalyptus are used as biomass feedstock in this study. A uniform approach is applied to determine the production costs and GHG emission intensity of biobased products, taking into account feedstock supply, biobased product yield, capital investment, energy, labor, maintenance, and processing inputs. Economic performance and net avoided GHG emissions of biobased chemicals depend on various uncertain factors, so this study pays particular attention to uncertainty by means of a Monte Carlo analysis. A sensitivity analysis is also performed. As there is uncertainty associated with the parameters used for biobased product yield, feedstock cost, fixed capital investment, industrial scale, and energy costs, the results are presented in ranges. The 60% confidence interval ranges of the biobased product production costs are 0.64-1.10 US$ kg −1 ethanol, 1.18-2.05 US$ kg −1 ethylene, 1.37-2.40 US$ kg −1 1,3-PDO, and 951 Modeling and Analysis: Costs and GHG emissions of biobased value chains JGG Jonker et al.1.91-2.57 US$ kg −1 succinic acid. The cost ranges of all biobased products partly or completely overlap with the ranges of the production costs of the fossil equivalent products. The results show that sugarcane-based 1,3-PDO and to a lesser extent succinic acid have the highest potential benefit. The ranges of GHG emission reduction are 1.29-2.16, 3.37-4.12, 2.54-5.91, and 0.47-5.22 CO 2eq kg −1 biobased product for ethanol, ethylene, 1,3-PDO, and succinic acid respectively. Considering the potential GHG emission reduction and profit per hectare, the pathways using sugarcane score are generally better than eucalyptus feedstock due to the high yield of sugarcane in Brazil. Overall, it was not possible to choose a clear winner, (a) because the best performing biobased product strongly depends on the chosen metric, and (b) because of the large ranges found, especially for PDO and succinic acid, independent of the chosen metric. To quantify the performance better, more data are required regarding the biobased product yield, equipment costs, and energy consumption of biobased industrial pathways, but also about the production costs and GHG emission intensity of fossil-equivalent products. 952JGG Jonker et al.Modeling and Analysis: Costs and GHG emissions of biobased value chains

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic performance and GHG emission intensity of sugarcane‐ and eucalyptus‐derived biofuels and biobased chemicals in Brazil

Jonker

Junginger

Posada

et al. 2019

Biofuels Bioprod Bioref

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“…Very recently, a review on the link between sustainability and industrial waste streams as feedstock for the production of PHAs has been published [44]; many different industrial streams have been taken into consideration, including activated sludge and industrial aqueous streams. The authors agree that the consideration of waste stream exploitation as a bacteria growth substrate is an interesting contribution towards a circular bioeconomy [44], economic competitiveness against fossil-based products [34,42], and eco-sustainability [43,45]. However, there is also a general agreement on the need for further investigations in order to improve the PHAs production process [40,44,46,47], and to deeply explore the environmental performances [41], thus avoiding possible burden shifting [43] and widening the analysis to include disregarded impacts like water use, land use, and eutrophication [39].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…PHAs from a genetically modified corn have also been analyzed [33]. Later, the focus shifted to evaluation of the eco-performances of PHAs produced from alternatives to dedicated carbon sources, such as fermentable sugars from lignocellulosic biomass [31], industrial wastewater [12,34], biomethane [35], municipal solid waste [36], potato [37], switchgrass [38], etc. In the last few years, the increasing attention given to wastewater and sludge as a PHAs-accumulating bacteria growth substrate has pushed many LCA studies in that direction.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Assessment and Energy Balance of a Novel Polyhydroxyalkanoates Production Process with Mixed Microbial Cultures Fed on Pyrolytic Products of Wastewater Treatment Sludge

et al. 2020

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A “cradle-to-grave” life cycle assessment is performed to identify the environmental issues of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) produced through a hybrid thermochemical-biological process using anaerobically digested sewage sludge (ADSS) as feedstock. The assessment includes a measure of the energy performance of the process. The system boundary includes: (i) Sludge pyrolysis followed by volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production; (ii) PHAs-enriched biomass production using a mixed microbial culture (MMC); (iii) PHAs extraction with dimethyl carbonate; and iv) PHAs end-of-life. Three scenarios differing in the use of the syngas produced by both pyrolysis and biochar gasification, and two more scenarios differing only in the external energy sources were evaluated. Results show a trade-off between environmental impacts at global scale, such as climate change and resources depletion, and those having an effect at the local/regional scale, such as acidification, eutrophication, and toxicity. Process configurations based only on the sludge-to-PHAs route require an external energy supply, which determines the highest impacts with respect to climate change, resources depletion, and water depletion. On the contrary, process configurations also integrating the sludge-to-energy route for self-sustainment imply more onsite sludge processing and combustion; this results in the highest values of eutrophication, ecotoxicity, and human toxicity. There is not a categorical winner among the investigated configurations; however, the use of a selected mix of external renewable sources while using sludge to produce PHAs only seems the best compromise. The results are comparable to those of both other PHAs production processes found in the literature and various fossil-based and bio-based polymers, in terms of both non-biogenic GHG emissions and energy demand. Further process advancements and technology improvement in high impact stages are required to make this PHAs production process a competitive candidate for the production of biopolymers on a wide scale.

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“…The most original approach to the biobased production of crotonic acid is the pyrolysis of PHB and other poly(hydroxyalkanoates) (PHAs). PHB, a biopolymer synthesized by various microorganisms from cheap substrates such as wastewater, [ 252 ] can indeed be thermally degraded into CrA. This topic has been reviewed in 2006 and 2010, so that only the main contributions are highlighted in this paragraph.…”

Section: Production Of Biobased Acrylates and Analogsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Remarkably, the techno‐economic evaluation of such a process showed that methyl crotonate could be formed with a 90% purity and a presumably competitive 1.3 € kg −1 production cost. [ 252 ] Waymouth and co‐workers also showed that long chain 2‐alkenoates produced from the pyrolysis of the corresponding PHAs could be metabolized by microorganisms together with methane to give PHB, which could subsequently be pyrolyzed to CrA. [ 269 ] In an integrated process for PHA production, pyrolysis of the microbial biomass containing residual nonextractable PHAs was also performed to recover valuable crotonic acid.…”

Section: Production Of Biobased Acrylates and Analogsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production and Polymerization of Biobased Acrylates and Analogs

Fouilloux

Thomas

2021

Macromol. Rapid Commun.

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To prepare biobased polymers, particular attention must be paid to the obtention of the monomers from which they are derived. (Meth)acrylates and their analogs constitute such a class of monomers that have been extensively studied due to the wide range of polymers accessible from them. This review therefore aims to highlight the progresses made in the production and polymerization of (meth)acrylates and their analogs. Acrylic acid production from biomass is close to commercialization, as three different high‐potential intermediates are identified: glycerol, lactic acid, and 3‐hydroxypropionic acid. Biobased methacrylic acid is less common, but several promising options are available, such as the decarboxylation of itaconic acid or the dehydration of 2‐hydroxyisobutyric acid. Itaconic acid is also a vinylic monomer of great interest, and polymers derived from it have already found commercial applications. Methylene butyrolactones are promising monomers, obtained from bioresources via three different intermediates: levulinic, succinic, or itaconic acid. Although expensive, methylene butyrolactones have a strong potential for the production of high‐performance polymers. Finally, β‐substituted acrylic monomers, such as cinnamic, fumaric, muconic, or crotonic acid, are also examined, as they provide an original access to biobased materials from various renewable raw materials, such as protein waste, lignin, or wastewater.

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Techno-economic and carbon footprint assessment of methyl crotonate and methyl acrylate production from wastewater-based polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)

Cited by 24 publications

References 18 publications

Economic performance and GHG emission intensity of sugarcane‐ and eucalyptus‐derived biofuels and biobased chemicals in Brazil

Economic performance and GHG emission intensity of sugarcane‐ and eucalyptus‐derived biofuels and biobased chemicals in Brazil

Life Cycle Assessment and Energy Balance of a Novel Polyhydroxyalkanoates Production Process with Mixed Microbial Cultures Fed on Pyrolytic Products of Wastewater Treatment Sludge

Production and Polymerization of Biobased Acrylates and Analogs

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