Carbon footprint analysis of supply chain of bio-based methyl levulinate production in China

Abstract

The carbon reduction effect of bio-based levulinic acid chemicals is a matter of concern. This work reports the life cycle assessment of methyl levulinate based on local biomass refineries in China. The final LCA results showed that the entire life cycle of methyl levulinate could reduce by approximately 24% of carbon emissions compared with fossil diesel of equal quality. To address the lack of effective uncertainty analysis in current LCA research on levulinic acid chemicals, this study conducted a comprehensive and detailed assessment of inventory data and utilized Taylor series expansion to obtain uncertainty of the LCA results. When connected to a localized background database, the LCA results showed high credibility. According to the sensitivity analysis and Aspen optimization results, further technical improvement schemes are proposed, including improving thermal efficiency, use of clean electricity, and use of clean methanol. Prospective analysis shows that combined implementation of the above strategies can further reduce the existing carbon emissions by more than half. Graphical Abstract

Sustainable Continuous Synthesis of Methyl Levulinate in a Rotating Catalytic-Bed Recycle Reactor: Reaction Kinetics, Process Scale-Up, Engine Performance, and Exhaust Emission

“…The environmental impact of the entire process of synthesis of ML from “F” in the presence of APC employing the UTCRCR (recycle mode) has been compared with the process of ML production under dark conditions, i.e., in the absence of UVTH (Figure ). The present work encompasses 40.74% reduction in GWP, which is much higher than a previously reported work (24% reduction) of ML synthesis from rice straw . Along with this, a 27.23% reduction in fresh water ecotoxicity (FWE), an 84.75% decrease in human toxicity (HT), a 51.32% diminution in marine ecotoxicity (ME), a 21.09% decrement in photochemical oxidant formation (POF), and a 25.54% reduction in terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE) were observed when UVTH was employed to synthesize ML as compared to the dark run.…”

“…Moreover, a high GWP (2.55 kg CO 2 -eq) was obtained from the life cycle impact assessment of the synthesis process of 1 kg of ML from rice straw suggesting the necessity for improvement in the production technology of ML through the employment of energy-efficient and sustainable processes.…”

Sustainable production of catechol derivatives from waste tung nutshell C/G-type lignin via heterogeneous Cu–NC catalytic oxidation

“…In recent years, the coordinated development of the economy, energy, and environment has driven research efforts toward the utilization of renewable carbon resources. 7 In this regard, the sustainable production of catechol derivatives from carbon-neutral renewable resources, such as lignocellulosic biomass, has attracted increasing interest from both industrial and academic researchers.…”