Scale‐up and Sustainability Evaluation of Biopolymer Production from Citrus Waste Offering Carbon Capture and Utilisation Pathway

ChemistryOpen

Prof. Nilay Shah¹  Alex Durkin¹  Ivan Taptygin¹  Dr. Qingyuan Kong¹  Dr. Miao Guo¹  Dr. Ana M. L. Fernández²  Mohamad F. M. Gunam Resul²  Prof. Adam P. Harvey²  Abdul Rehman² 

[1] Department of Chemical Engineering Imperial College London London SW7 2AZ UK;School of Engineering Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU UK;

关键词: biopolymer;    copolymerisation;    resource recovery;    carbon dioxide fixation;    life cycle analysis;   

DOI  :  10.1002/open.201900015

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Poly(limonene carbonate) (PLC) has been highlighted as an attractive substitute to petroleum derived plastics, due to its utilisation of CO2 and bio‐based limonene as feedstocks, offering an effective carbon capture and utilisation pathway. Our study investigates the techno‐economic viability and environmental sustainability of a novel process to produce PLC from citrus waste derived limonene, coupled with an anaerobic digestion process to enable energy cogeneration and waste recovery maximisation. Computational process design was integrated with a life cycle assessment to identify the sustainability improvement opportunities. PLC production was found to be economically viable, assuming sufficient citrus waste is supplied to the process, and environmentally preferable to polystyrene (PS) in various impact categories including climate change. However, it exhibited greater environmental burdens than PS across other impact categories, although the environmental performance could be improved with a waste recovery system, at the cost of a process design shift towards energy generation. Finally, our study quantified the potential contribution of PLC to mitigating the escape of atmospheric CO2 concentration from the planetary boundary. We emphasise the importance of a holistic approach to process design and highlight the potential impacts of biopolymers, which is instrumental in solving environmental problems facing the plastic industry and building a sustainable circular economy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown