NDLI: Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from waste papers: sensitivity to the system boundary

Content Provider	Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Author	Murphy, Richard J. Templer, Richard Wang, Lei
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	The production of bioethanol from various waste papers (newspaper, office paper, magazine and cardboard) was evaluated from an environmental standpoint. ‘Cradle-to-grave’ (or ‘well-to-wheel’) analyses were performed using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach with the aims of identifying the key drivers of environmental impact in the bioethanol supply chains and of comparing the environmental footprints of various bioethanol supply chains with those of conventional petrol. Base cases (bioethanol production from various waste papers) and two state-of-the-art cases including pre-treatment of office paper by dilute acid (DA) and of newspaper by an oxidative lime (OL) process were constructed using laboratory data, expert consultations, literature values, and simulation in AspenPlus™ software. Contribution analysis showed enzyme production needed for hydrolysis of the papers to be the main contributor to the environmental profiles for bioethanol in the base cases. The production of process heat and hydrochloric acid respectively were the main contributors to the bioethanol environmental profiles for office paper-to-bioethanol with DA pre-treatment and newspaper-to-bioethanol with OL pre-treatment. Overall, bioethanol produced from newspaper, magazine paper and cardboard was found to have a lower environmental impact than the conventional transport fuel petrol. However, this conclusion is significantly affected by the system boundaries used for the analysis. When an expanded system boundary is applied to consider virgin and recycled paper production as the potential consequential effects within the bioethanol and petrol systems respectively, office paper-derived bioethanol systems emerge as the most environmentally favourable over petrol.
Starting Page	8281
Ending Page	8293
Page Count	13
File Format	HTM / HTML PDF
ISSN	17545692
Volume Number	5
Issue Number	8
Journal	Energy & Environmental Science
DOI	10.1039/c2ee21550k
Language	English
Publisher	Royal Society of Chemistry
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	LCA Biofuel Life-cycle assessment Acid Office lady Enzyme Hydrolysis
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Environmental Chemistry Pollution Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment Nuclear Energy and Engineering

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Technology performance and economic feasibility of bioethanol production from various waste papers

Odour and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Waste Management: A Local Assessment Proposal

Using Agroecosystem Modeling to Improve the Estimates of N$_{2}$O Emissions in the Life-Cycle Assessment of Biofuels

Sustainability assessment of novel chemical processes at early stage: application to biobased processes

Life-cycle assessment of carbon dioxide capture and utilization: avoiding the pitfalls

Eco-design of microbial electrochemical technologies for the production of waste-based succinic acid thanks to a life cycle assessment

Environmental and economic assessment of lactic acid production from glycerol using cascade bio- and chemocatalysis

A matter of meters: state of the art in the life cycle assessment of enhanced geothermal systems

Net primary energy balance of a solar-driven photoelectrochemical water-splitting device

Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from waste papers: sensitivity to the system boundary

Similar Documents

Technology performance and economic feasibility of bioethanol production from various waste papers

Odour and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in Waste Management: A Local Assessment Proposal

Using Agroecosystem Modeling to Improve the Estimates of N$_{2}$O Emissions in the Life-Cycle Assessment of Biofuels

Sustainability assessment of novel chemical processes at early stage: application to biobased processes

Life-cycle assessment of carbon dioxide capture and utilization: avoiding the pitfalls

Eco-design of microbial electrochemical technologies for the production of waste-based succinic acid thanks to a life cycle assessment

Environmental and economic assessment of lactic acid production from glycerol using cascade bio- and chemocatalysis

A matter of meters: state of the art in the life cycle assessment of enhanced geothermal systems

Net primary energy balance of a solar-driven photoelectrochemical water-splitting device

Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from waste papers: sensitivity to the system boundary