TY - JOUR
T1 - Life cycle analysis of apple pomace biorefining for biofuel and pectin production
AU - Azarakhsh, Fatemeh Al Sadat
AU - Ziloue, Hamid
AU - Ebrahimian, Farinaz
AU - Khoshnevisan, Benyamin
AU - Denayer, Joeri F.M.
AU - Karimi, Keikhosro
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2024/11/15
Y1 - 2024/11/15
N2 - This study investigated the environmental impacts associated with converting apple pomace, a globally abundant resource, into biofuels and high-value products using a comparative consequential life cycle assessment. In three developed scenarios, an acid pretreatment method was applied and the pretreated liquid was used for ethanol and pectin production. The pretreated solids were utilized to produce different products: scenario 1 produced biogas, scenario 2 generated butanol, and scenario 3 yielded both biogas and butanol from the solids. The results demonstrated that scenario 1 exhibited the best performance compared to the other two scenarios, imposing the lowest environmental burdens across all damage categories, including human health, ecosystems, and resources. Despite the induced impacts, the benefits of avoided products, i.e., ethanol, natural gas, butanol, acetone, and pectin, compensated for these induced environmental impacts to some extent. The results also revealed that among all products generated through the biorefineries, first-generation ethanol substitution had the most significant positive environmental impacts. Overall, the biorefinery developed in scenario 1 represents the most feasible strategy for a circular bioeconomy. It performs 84.38 % and 72.98 % better than scenarios 2 and 3 in terms of human health, 85.34 % and 74.54 % better in terms of ecosystems, and more than 100 % better in terms of resources. Conversely, scenario 2 resulted in the highest net impacts across all damage categories. Furthermore, in scenario 1, the midpoint results showed 83.10 % and 71.08 % lower impacts on global warming, 85.15 % and 74.17 % lower impacts on terrestrial acidification, and 99.26 % and 98.53 % lower impacts on fossil resource scarcity compared to scenarios 2 and 3, respectively. In conclusion, the first scenario shows promise for the sustainable valorization of apple pomace.
AB - This study investigated the environmental impacts associated with converting apple pomace, a globally abundant resource, into biofuels and high-value products using a comparative consequential life cycle assessment. In three developed scenarios, an acid pretreatment method was applied and the pretreated liquid was used for ethanol and pectin production. The pretreated solids were utilized to produce different products: scenario 1 produced biogas, scenario 2 generated butanol, and scenario 3 yielded both biogas and butanol from the solids. The results demonstrated that scenario 1 exhibited the best performance compared to the other two scenarios, imposing the lowest environmental burdens across all damage categories, including human health, ecosystems, and resources. Despite the induced impacts, the benefits of avoided products, i.e., ethanol, natural gas, butanol, acetone, and pectin, compensated for these induced environmental impacts to some extent. The results also revealed that among all products generated through the biorefineries, first-generation ethanol substitution had the most significant positive environmental impacts. Overall, the biorefinery developed in scenario 1 represents the most feasible strategy for a circular bioeconomy. It performs 84.38 % and 72.98 % better than scenarios 2 and 3 in terms of human health, 85.34 % and 74.54 % better in terms of ecosystems, and more than 100 % better in terms of resources. Conversely, scenario 2 resulted in the highest net impacts across all damage categories. Furthermore, in scenario 1, the midpoint results showed 83.10 % and 71.08 % lower impacts on global warming, 85.15 % and 74.17 % lower impacts on terrestrial acidification, and 99.26 % and 98.53 % lower impacts on fossil resource scarcity compared to scenarios 2 and 3, respectively. In conclusion, the first scenario shows promise for the sustainable valorization of apple pomace.
KW - Biofuels
KW - Circular bioeconomy
KW - High-value products
KW - Resource conservation
KW - Sustainability analysis
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175780
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175780
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 39187078
AN - SCOPUS:85202345338
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 951
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 175780
ER -