Life cycle analysis of apple pomace biorefining for biofuel and pectin production Show others and affiliations
2024 (English) In: Science of the Total Environment, ISSN 0048-9697, E-ISSN 1879-1026, Vol. 951, article id 175780Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages Elsevier B.V. , 2024. Vol. 951, article id 175780
Keywords [en]
Biofuels, Circular bioeconomy, High-value products, Resource conservation, Sustainability analysis, Apple pomace, Biorefineries, Biorefining, High-value product, Human health, Life cycle analysis, Low impacts, Life cycle assessment
National Category
Environmental Engineering
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-68348 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175780 ISI: 001307622600001 PubMedID: 39187078 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85202345338 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-68348 DiVA, id: diva2:1895348
2024-09-052024-09-052025-10-10 Bibliographically approved