Keywords:biomass environmental impact assessment greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions industrial ecology life cycle assessment meta-analysis Supporting information is available on the JIE Web site SummaryConcerns over climate change and the security of industrial feedstock supplies have been opening a growing market for biobased materials. This development, however, also presents a challenge to scientists, policy makers, and industry because the production of biobased materials requires land and is typically associated with adverse environmental effects. This article addresses the environmental impacts of biobased materials in a meta-analysis of 44 life cycle assessment (LCA) studies. The reviewed literature suggests that one metric ton (t) of biobased materials saves, relative to conventional materials, 55 ± 34 gigajoules of primary energy and 3 ± 1 t carbon dioxide equivalents of greenhouse gases. However, biobased materials may increase eutrophication by 5 ± 7 kilograms (kg) phosphate equivalents/t and stratospheric ozone depletion by 1.9 ± 1.8 kg nitrous oxide equivalents/t. Our findings are inconclusive with regard to acidification (savings of 2 ± 20 kg sulfur dioxide equivalents/t) and photochemical ozone formation (savings of 0.3 ± 2.4 kg ethene equivalents/t). The variability in the results of life cycle assessment studies highlights the difficulties in drawing general conclusions. Still, common to most biobased materials are impacts caused by the application of fertilizers and pesticides during industrial biomass cultivation. Additional land use impacts, such as the potential loss of biodiversity, soil carbon depletion, soil erosion, deforestation, as well as greenhouse gas emissions from indirect land use change are not quantified in this review.

We present a new analytical tool, called COMPLIMENT, which can be used to provide detailed information on the overall environmental impact of a business. COMPLIMENT integrates parts of tools such as life cycle assessment, multi-criteria analysis and environmental performance indicators. It avoids disadvantages and combines complementary aspects of these three tools. The methodology is based on environmental performance indicators, expanding the scope of data collection towards a life cycle approach and including a weighting and aggregation step. A case study on the Thai pulp industry illustrates the usefulness of COMPLIMENT.

The production of bulk chemicals from biomass can make a significant contribution to solving two of the most urgent environmental problems: climate change and depletion of fossil energy. We analyzed current and future technology routes leading to 15 bulk chemicals using industrial biotechnology and calculated their CO 2 emissions and fossil energy use. Savings of more than 100% in nonrenewable energy use and greenhouse gas emissions are already possible with current state of the art biotechnology. Substantial further savings are possible for the future by improved fermentation and downstream processing. Worldwide CO 2 savings in the range of 500-1000 million tons per year are possible using future technology. Industrial biotechnology hence offers excellent opportunities for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing dependence on fossil energy sources and therefore has the potential to make inroads into the existing chemical industry.

Little information is yet available on the economic viability of the production of bio-based bulk chemicals and intermediates from white biotechnology (WB). This paper details a methodology to systematically evaluate the techno-economic prospects of present and future production routes of bio-based bulk chemicals produced with WB. Current and future technology routes are evaluated for 15 products assuming prices of fermentable sugar between 70 euro/t and 400 euro/t and crude oil prices of US $25/barrel and US $50/barrel. The results are compared to current technology routes of petrochemical equivalents. For current state-of-the-art WB processes and a crude oil price of US $25/barrel, WB-based ethanol, 1,3-propanediol, polytrimethylene terephthalate and succinic acid are economically viable. Only three WB products are economically not viable for future technology: acetic acid, ethylene and PLA. Future-technology ethylene and PLA become economically viable for a higher crude oil price (US $50/barrel). Production costs plus profits of WB products decrease by 20-50% when changing from current to future technology for a crude oil price of US $25 per barrel and across all sugar prices. Technological progress in WB can thus contribute significantly to improved economic viability of WB products. A large-scale introduction of WB-based production of economically viable bulk chemicals would therefore be desirable if the environmental impacts are smaller than those of current petrochemical production routes.

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