Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from wheat straw in the UK

Wang, Lei; Littlewood, Jade; Murphy, Richard J.

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2013.08.031

Cited by 131 publications

(76 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Regardless of the treatment pathway, enzyme production is a major contributor to the conversion‐related impacts for most categories. This is in line with other studies, which found life cycle results of lignocellulosic ethanol sensitive to impacts from enzyme provision (Gerbrandt et al, ; McKechnie et al, ; Wang, Littlewood, & Murphy, ). Related impacts are subject to uncertainty, as reported burdens for enzyme provision vary widely.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Life cycle assessment of ethanol production from miscanthus: A comparison of production pathways at two European sites

et al. 2018

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Lignocellulosic ethanol represents a renewable alternative to petrol. Miscanthus, a perennial plant that grows on marginal land, is characterized by efficient use of resources and is considered a promising source of lignocellulosic biomass. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed to determine the environmental impacts of ethanol production from miscanthus grown on marginal land in Great Britain (Aberystwyth) and an average-yield site in Germany (Stuttgart; functional unit: 1 GJ). As the conversion process has substantial influence on the overall environmental performance, the comparison examined three pretreatment options for miscanthus. Overall, results indicate lower impacts for the production in Stuttgart in comparison with the corresponding pathways in Aberystwyth across the analysed categories. Disparities between the sites were mainly attributed to differences in biomass yield. When comparing the conversion options, liquid hot water treatment resulted in the lowest impacts, followed by dilute sulphuric acid. Dilute sodium hydroxide pretreatment represented the least favourable option. Site-dependent variation in biomass composition and degradability did not have substantial influence on the environmental performance of the analysed pathways. Additionally, implications of replacing petrol with miscanthus ethanol were examined. Ethanol derived from miscanthus resulted in lower impacts with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, fossil resource depletion, natural land transformation and ozone depletion. However, for other categories, including toxicity, eutrophication and agricultural land occupation, net scores were substantially higher than for the fossil reference. Nevertheless, the results indicate that miscanthus ethanol produced via dilute acid and liquid hot water treatment at the site in Stuttgart has the potential to comply with the requirements of the European Renewable energy directive for greenhouse gas emission reduction. For ethanol production at the marginal site, carbon sequestration needs to be considered in order to meet the requirements for greenhouse gas mitigation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Life cycle assessment of ethanol production from miscanthus: A comparison of production pathways at two European sites

et al. 2018

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“…First, cellulase enzymes are formed in the fermentation reactor and then the cellulase enzymes are moved to the saccharification reactor, where sugars are formed. Nutrient loadings and the efficiencies of the fermentation sugar conversion (95% for glucose, 85% for xylose and arabinose) are based on the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) process [32]. At the next step, the enzymes are recycled back to the cellulose reactor and the sugars are sent to a fermentation reactor, where ethanol is produced.…”

Section: Bioethanol Production Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Assessment of the Sustainability of Lignocellulosic Bioethanol Production from Wastes in Iceland

Safarian

Unnþórsson

2018

Energies

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This paper describes the development of a model to comprehensively assess the sustainability impacts of producing lignocellulosic bioethanol from various types of municipal organic wastes (MOWs) in Iceland: paper and paperboard, timber and wood and garden waste. The tool integrates significant economic, energy, environmental and technical aspects to analyse and rank twelve systems using the most common pretreatment technologies: dilute acid, dilute alkali, hot water and steam explosion. The results show that among the MOWs, paper and paperboard have higher positive rankings under most assessments. Steam explosion is also ranked at the top from the economic, energy and environmental perspectives, followed by the hot water method for paper and timber wastes. Finally, a potential evaluation of total wastes and bioethanol production in Iceland is carried out. The results show that the average production of lignocellulosic bioethanol in 2015 could be 12.5, 11 and 3 thousand tons from paper, timber and garden wastes, respectively, and that production could reach about 15.9, 13.7 and 3.7 thousand tons, respectively, by 2030.

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“…Thankst oi ts great flexibility,L CA is widely used to evaluate viable solutionse ither for small communities, for example, the efficient exploitation of the regionals upply chain [35] or the smart use of wood prunes, [36] or to investigate international topics (such as the use of biofuelsint ransportation). [37,38] However,t he applicationo fL CA within the green chemistry field [39] represents nowadays ac onsolidated way to address environmental sustainability both at the laboratory and industrial scale. Several areas have been investigated, such as:t he biobased industry and biorefinery, [6,17,[40][41][42] petrochemicals and solvents, [43][44][45][46] nanomaterials, [47][48][49] pharmaceuticals, [50][51][52] etc.…”

Section: Life Cycle Assessment( Lca)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Glycidol, a Valuable Substrate for the Synthesis of Monoalkyl Glyceryl Ethers: A Simplified Life Cycle Approach

et al. 2017

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The disposal of any waste by recovering it within the production plant represents the ultimate goal of every biorefinery. In this scenario, the selective preparation of monoalkyl glyceryl ethers (MAGEs) starting from glycidol, obtained as byproduct in the epichlorohydrin production plant, represents a very promising strategy. Here, we report the synthesis of MAGEs through the reaction of glycidol with alcohols catalyzed by a green homogeneous Lewis acids catalyst, such as Bi triflate, under very mild reaction conditions. To evaluate the green potential of the proposed alternative, a simplified life cycle assessment (LCA) approach was followed by comparing the environmental performance of the proposed innovative route to prepare MAGEs with that of the most investigated pathway from glycerol. A considerable reduction of all impact categories considered was observed in our experimental conditions, suggesting that the glycidol-to-MAGEs route can be a valuable integration to the glycerol-to-MAGEs chain. Thanks to the use of primary data within the LCA model, the results achieved are a very good approximation of the real case.

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Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from wheat straw in the UK

Cited by 131 publications

References 20 publications

Life cycle assessment of ethanol production from miscanthus: A comparison of production pathways at two European sites

Life cycle assessment of ethanol production from miscanthus: A comparison of production pathways at two European sites

An Assessment of the Sustainability of Lignocellulosic Bioethanol Production from Wastes in Iceland

Glycidol, a Valuable Substrate for the Synthesis of Monoalkyl Glyceryl Ethers: A Simplified Life Cycle Approach

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