Artículo
Environmental assessment of thermo-chemical processes for bio-ethylene production in comparison with bio-chemical and fossil-based ethylene
Autor/es | Alonso-Fariñas, Bernabé
Gallego Schmid, Alejandro García Haro, Pedro Azapagic, Adisa |
Departamento | Universidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Ingeniería Química y Ambiental |
Fecha de publicación | 2018-11 |
Fecha de depósito | 2023-05-29 |
Publicado en |
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Resumen | The use of biomass for production of chemicals is gaining interest because of its potential to
contribute towards a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental benefits
linked to the substitution of ... The use of biomass for production of chemicals is gaining interest because of its potential to contribute towards a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental benefits linked to the substitution of fossil resources. But, conversely to biofuels, studies focusing on environmental impacts of biomass-derived chemicals are scarce. This paper uses life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental sustainability of bio-ethylene from poplar produced by the following three thermo-chemical routes: direct and indirect dehydration of ethanol and production of olefins via dimethyl ether. The indirect route is the best option for most impact categories for all three allocation methods considered: system expansion, economic and energy basis. However, the dimethyl ether-to-olefins route has the lowest global warming potential. In comparison to ethylene produced bio-chemically from sugar beet, the thermo-chemical indirect route has lower impacts for all categories except human, terrestrial and freshwater toxicities. All three thermo-chemical alternatives show a significant reduction in global warming potential (up to 105% in the case of dimethyl ether-to-olefins) and depletion of fossil fuels when compared to conventional ethylene production from fossil fuels. However, the results also suggest that bioethylene produced by any of the three thermo-chemical routes would lead to a significant increase in most other impact categories relative to fossil fuels. Therefore, while trying to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the overall environmental sustainability of bio-ethylene suffers from the increase in other environmental impacts. |
Agencias financiadoras | Universidad de Sevilla Grant Contrato de Acceso al Sistema Español de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (VPPI-US) |
Identificador del proyecto | VPPI-US |
Cita | Alonso-Fariñas, B., Gallego Schmid, A., García Haro, P. y Azapagic, A. (2018). Environmental assessment of thermo-chemical processes for bio-ethylene production in comparison with bio-chemical and fossil-based ethylene. Journal of Cleaner Production, 202, 817-829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.147. |
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