Process Simulation-Based Life Cycle Assessment of Dissolving Pulps

Echeverria, Darlene; Venditti, Richard A.; Jameel, Hasan; Yao, Yuan

doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c06523

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Different analytical techniques (e.g., contribution analysis or sensitivity analysis) have been used in this phase to understand the driving factors of environmental impacts and identify improvement opportunities. For example, Echeverria et al applied contribution analysis to identify the hotspots for environmental impacts of dissolving pulps made from hardwood and softwood and found on-site emissions and chemicals as the main contributors across all dissolving pulp grades . In another LCA study on sustainable bleaching of wood pulp, the upstream burdens of bleaching chemicals contribute to most life-cycle environmental impact categories, and sodium sulfate contributed the most among the chemicals, which reveals the future opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts of pulp bleaching …”

Section: Lca Of Engineered Wood Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Engineered Wood for Building Applications

et al. 2022

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The building sector, including building operations and materials, was responsible for the emission of ∼11.9 gigatons of global energy-related CO2 in 2020, accounting for 37% of the total CO2 emissions, the largest share among different sectors. Lowering the carbon footprint of buildings requires the development of carbon-storage materials as well as novel designs that could enable multifunctional components to achieve widespread applications. Wood is one of the most abundant biomaterials on Earth and has been used for construction historically. Recent research breakthroughs on advanced engineered wood products epitomize this material’s tremendous yet largely untapped potential for addressing global sustainability challenges. In this review, we explore recent developments in chemically modified wood that will produce a new generation of engineered wood products for building applications. Traditionally, engineered wood products have primarily had a structural purpose, but this review broadens the classification to encompass more aspects of building performance. We begin by providing multiscale design principles of wood products from a computational point of view, followed by discussion of the chemical modifications and structural engineering methods used to modify wood in terms of its mechanical, thermal, optical, and energy-related performance. Additionally, we explore life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis tools for guiding future research toward environmentally friendly and economically feasible directions for engineered wood products. Finally, this review highlights the current challenges and perspectives on future directions in this research field. By leveraging these new wood-based technologies and analysis tools for the fabrication of carbon-storage materials, it is possible to design sustainable and carbon-negative buildings, which could have a significant impact on mitigating climate change.

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Section: Lca Of Engineered Wood Productsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Engineered Wood for Building Applications

et al. 2022

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“…In this regard, we estimated the GWP associated with FP based on factors reported in LCA studies for diapers; ,, these factors and the corresponding GWP are included in Table . Table also includes the GWP of various bleached softwood pulps, including northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp from Canada, conventional softwood (CSW) pulp, and southern bleached softwood kraft (SBSK) pulp . We also considered an average value reported for market pulp in the US …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon Footprint of Bleached Softwood Fluff Pulp: Detailed Process Simulation and Environmental Life Cycle Assessment to Understand Carbon Emissions

Buitrago-Tello

Venditti

Jameel

et al. 2022

ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

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Wood-based fluff pulp (FP) is the primary raw material for indispensable commodities, including hygienic products. FP substantially contributes to global warming due to the high manufacturing energy demand. Despite FP's importance, the environmental implications of its manufacture have not been transparently explored. The present study provides the carbon footprint for FP cradle-to-manufacturing gate based on process simulation and environmental life cycle assessment The simulation tracks the anthropogenic and biogenic carbon across the mill's areas. In addition, the implications of switching energy sources and key operational conditions are evaluated. The results show that 1 kg of FP produces 1.102 kg CO 2 -equiv. Most of the biogenic carbon fed to the mill (52%) is used to produce steam and electricity. The study shows that switching from natural gas to residual biomass wood pellets represents a reduction of 13.4% of the CO 2 -equiv emissions. This benefit is increased if wood pellets are used to achieve electrical power self-sufficiency, and even more benefit can be realized if the mill produces 20% surplus electricity to the grid. A critical parameter for global warming potential is the incoming biomass lignin content; the pulping of biomass with higher lignin content produces a black liquor with higher heating value and more solids burned in the recovery boiler, reducing the demand for external energy and thus reducing fossil-based greenhouse gas emissions.

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“…38,47,56,57 Dissolving pulp can be produced from varied biomass sources (typically hardwood, softwood, and cotton fibers) via sulfite pulping or pre-hydrolysis kraft pulping. 58 In this study, the dissolving pulp type is pre-hydrolysis kraft pulp which is aligned with the pilot plant experiment of Gu et al 38 The compositions of the dissolving pulp are 97.9% (dry basis) cellulose, 1.5% xylan (dry basis), 0.6% lignin (dry basis), with 5.3% moisture content (dry basis). 58,59 For CNC production, there are a total of seven scenarios as mentioned above (all the technical and modeling details are available in ESI Sections S2 and S5 †).…”

Section: Cellulose Nanocrystal Productionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…† The cradle-to-gate life-cycle environmental impacts of producing viscose grade dissolving pulp (for CNC production) were based on the work by Echeverria et al and shown in ESI Table S6. † 58 The emission factors of combusting natural gas and wood pellet follow the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) AP-42 External Combustion Sources emission factors for natural gas and wood residue combustion. 79 In this study, the feedstock pulp contains biogenic carbon that has two destinations.…”

Section: Life Cycle Assessment For Cellulose Nanomaterialsmentioning

confidence: 99%