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Life Cycle Assessment of Bioethanol Production: A Case Study from Poplar Biomass Growth in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. FERMENTATION 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/fermentation8120734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Biomass appears to be one of the most prominent renewable resources for biofuels such as bioethanol, mainly due to its better environmental performance compared with fossil fuels. This study addresses a comprehensive environmental performance of bioethanol production, employing empirical data from hybrid poplar grown in the U.S. The study considers 1 MJ as a functional unit and employs a cradle-to-grave approach, which entails the feedstock and harvesting production of poplar, transport to a biorefinery, bioconversion of the biomass process, and fuel use. On average, bioconversion is the main contributor to environmental degradation in all the categories evaluated (77%). The second main contributor is either the feedstock and harvesting production of poplar (17%) or fuel use (6%), depending on the environmental category. Thus, focusing on only one category may induce a misinterpretation of the environmental performance of bioethanol production. Finally, environmental credits in the global warming potential (GWP) category were obtained from the carbon sequestered in the biomass during the growing period and from avoided fossil fuel emissions due to electricity production from a renewable source. This means that the net GWP of the life cycle of bioethanol from poplar biomass is slightly negative (−1.05 × 10−3 kg CO2-eq·MJ−1).
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Chen X, Zheng X, Pei Y, Chen W, Lin Q, Huang J, Hou P, Tang J, Han W. Process design and techno-economic analysis of fuel ethanol production from food waste by enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation. BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY 2022; 363:127882. [PMID: 36067898 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.127882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2022] [Revised: 08/26/2022] [Accepted: 08/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
In this study, fuel ethanol production from food waste using enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation was evaluated from techno-economic viewpoint. The plant was designed with a capacity of 10 t/d food waste and a lifetime of 15-year. The total capital cost, annual operation cost and annual net profits of the plant were US$ 367,552, US$ 155,959 and US$ 74,995.57, respectively. The plant was economically viable as long as the internal rate of return remained below 29.8%. The shortest payback time was 5 years with discount rate of 5%. The price of fuel ethanol and food waste treatment fee were the most important variables for the economic performance of the plant by sensitivity analysis. This work could provide the basic knowledge for techno-economic analysis of food waste treatment and promote the industrial production of fuel ethanol.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xikai Chen
- College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Xietian Zheng
- College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Yanbo Pei
- College of Electronics and Information, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Weikun Chen
- College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Qiang Lin
- College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Jingang Huang
- College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China; School of Automation, The Belt and Road Information Research Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Pingzhi Hou
- School of Automation, The Belt and Road Information Research Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Junhong Tang
- College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
| | - Wei Han
- College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China; School of Automation, The Belt and Road Information Research Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
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