Comparative environmental Life Cycle Assessment of integral revalorization of vine shoots from a biorefinery perspective

Gullón, Patricia; Gullón, Beatriz; Dávila, Izaskun; Labidi, Jalel; González‐García, Sara

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.12.036

Cited by 50 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Statistical analysis has been carried out using the software R (version 3.4.3) due to the relevance of electricity requirements in biorefinery systems when environmental burdens are analysed (González-García et al, 2016;2018;Gullón et al, 2018). Differences in electricity consumptions inall production areas have been tested using both one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's post hoc test.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the environmental impacts of a brewery waste–based biorefinery: Bio-ethanol and xylooligosaccharides joint production case study

González‐García

Morales

Gullón

2018

Industrial Crops and Products

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In the food industry, the brewing sector holds a strategic economic position since beer is the most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. Brewing process involves the production of a large amount of lignocellulosic residues such as barley straw from cereal cultivation and brewer'spent grains.This study was aimed at developing a full-scale biorefinery system for generating bio-ethanol and xylooligosaccharides (XOS) considering the mentioned residues as feedstock. Life Cycle Asssessment (LCA) methodology was used to investigate the environmental consequences of the biorefinery system paying special attention into mass and energy balances in each production section to gather representative inventory data. Biorefinery system was divided in five areas: i) reconditioning and storage, ii) autohydrolysis pretreatment, iii) XOS purification, iv) fermentation and v) bio-ethanol purification. LCA results identified two environmental hotspots all over the whole biorefinery chain: the production of steam required to achieve the large autohydrolysis temperature (responsible for contributions higher than 50% in categories such as acidification and global warming potential) and the production of enzymes required in the simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (>95% of contributions to terrestrial and marine aquatic ecotoxicity potentials). Since enzymes production involves high energy intensive background processes, the most straightforward improvement challenge should be focused on the production of steam. An alternative biorefinery scenario using wood chips as fuel source to produce heating requirements instead of the conventional natural gas was environmentally evaluated reporting improvements ranging from 44% to 72% in the categories directly affected by this hotspot.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating the environmental impacts of a brewery waste–based biorefinery: Bio-ethanol and xylooligosaccharides joint production case study

González‐García

Morales

Gullón

2018

Industrial Crops and Products

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“…Sustainability system analysis in biorefinery research boils down to the importance of broad methods when evaluating biorefineries requiring methods such as LCA or MCA. It is often LCA that is used for sustainability system analysis of biorefineries (see Ahlgren et al, 2015;Gullón et al, 2018). The Scopus search in Figure 2 showed few results where system analysis and biorefineries are combined, but this can be, for example, a limiting factor in the search terms.…”

Section: Sustainability System Analysis In Biorefinery Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biogas solutions in bio-based industrial systems are relevant as they, to begin with, fulfil three important roles for bio-based industrial systems: they contribute with a nutrient circulation opportunity (Carey et al, 2016); they can contribute to the energy demand of the system (Bravo-Fritz et al, 2016); and, by increasing circular flows, the bio-based industrial systems can become more resource efficient and profitable (Gullón et al, 2018). Biogas solutions are generally proven, well-established technologies (Langeveld et al, 2012).…”

Section: Relevance Of Biogas Solutions In Bio-based Industrial Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How do biogas solutions influence the sustainability of bio-based industrial systems?

Hagman

2018

Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Licentiate Thesis

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Biomass is a valuable and limited resource that should be used efficiently. The potential of replacing fossil-based products with bio-based ones produced in biobased industrial systems is huge. One important aim of increasing the share of biobased products is to improve the sustainability of systems for production and consumption. Therefore, it is important to evaluate what solutions are available to improve the sustainability performance of bio-based industrial systems, and if they also bring negative impacts. The thesis focuses on assessing the role of biogas solutions in developing sustainable bio-based systems. Such assessments are often quite narrow in their scope and focus on quantitative environmental or economic aspects. This thesis aims at also including feasibility related aspects involving the contextual conditions that are assessed more qualitatively. Biogas solutions are identified as a versatile approach to treat organic materials which are generated in large volumes in bio-based industrial systems. The results show that biogas solutions in bio-based industrial systems (i) improve circular flows of energy and nutrients, (ii) are especially viable alternatives when the quality of the by-product streams become poorer, and (iii) may improve the profitability of the bio-based industrial system. To perform better assessments of these systems, it seems valuable to broaden the set of indicators assessed and include feasibility-related indicators, preferably through the involvement of relevant stakeholders as they contribute with different perspectives and can identify aspects that influence the sustainability in different areas. Future studies could benefit from applying those broader assessments on more cases to build on a more generalisable knowledge base.

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“…The combustion of ViSh and induced emissions have previously been studied (Spinelli et al 2012;Picchi et al 2013) without LCA tools. More recently, Gullón et al performed a LCA of the valorization of vine shoots into antioxidant extracts, and other bioproducts from a biorefinery perspective (Gullón et al 2018). They determined that ViSh production-related processes should be burden-free in the biorefinery system since the environmental impacts were entirely allocated to the grape harvesting, as ViShs were considered agricultural waste (Sanchez et al 2002;Max et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental benefit of upcycling vine shoots as fillers in biocomposite packaging materials

David

Vega

Sohn

et al. 2020

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose The objective of the present study was to better understand the potential environmental benefit of using vine shoots (ViShs), an agricultural residue, as filler in composite materials. For that purpose, a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of a rigid tray made of virgin poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) PHBV, polylactic acid (PLA) or polypropylene (PP), and increasing content of ViSh particles was performed. The contribution of each processing step in the life cycle on the different environmental impacts was identified and discussed. Furthermore, the balance between the environmental and the economic benefits of composite trays was discussed. Methods This work presents a cradle-to-grave LCA of composite rigid trays. Once collected in vineyards, ViShs were dried and ground using dry fractionation processes, then mixed with a polymer matrix by melt extrusion to produce compounds that were finally injected to obtain rigid trays for food packaging. The density of each component was taken into account in order to compare trays with the same volume. The maximum filler content was set to 30 vol% according to recommendations from literature and industrial data. The ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint Hierarchist (H) methodology was used for the assessment using the cutoff system model. Results and discussion This study showed that bioplastics are currently less eco-friendly than PP. This is in part due to the fact that LCA does not account for, in existing tools, effects of microplastic accumulation and that bioplastic technologies are still under development with low tonnage. This study also demonstrated the environmental interest of the development of biocomposites by the incorporation of ViSh particles. The minimal filler content of interest depended on the matrices and the impact categories. Concerning global warming, composite trays had less impact than virgin plastic trays from 5 vol% for PHBV or PLA and from 20 vol% for PP. Concerning PHBV, the only biodegradable polymer in natural conditions in this study, the price and the impact on global warming are reduced by 25% and 20% respectively when 30 vol% of ViSh are added. Conclusion The benefit of using vine shoots in composite materials from an environmental and economical point of view was demonstrated. As a recommendation, the polymer production step, which constitutes the most important impact, should be optimized and the maximum filler content in composite materials should be increased.

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Comparative environmental Life Cycle Assessment of integral revalorization of vine shoots from a biorefinery perspective

Cited by 50 publications

References 47 publications

Estimating the environmental impacts of a brewery waste–based biorefinery: Bio-ethanol and xylooligosaccharides joint production case study

Estimating the environmental impacts of a brewery waste–based biorefinery: Bio-ethanol and xylooligosaccharides joint production case study

How do biogas solutions influence the sustainability of bio-based industrial systems?

Using life cycle assessment to quantify the environmental benefit of upcycling vine shoots as fillers in biocomposite packaging materials

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