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Life cycle assessment of ethylene production from empty fruit bunch
Author(s) -
Akmalina Rifkah,
Pawitra Mayang Gitta
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
asia‐pacific journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.348
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 1932-2135
DOI - 10.1002/apj.2436
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , life cycle assessment , raw material , environmental science , global warming potential , lignocellulosic biomass , biomass (ecology) , pulp and paper industry , global warming , ethylene , fossil fuel , carbon sequestration , biofuel , lignin , waste management , environmental engineering , carbon dioxide , chemistry , production (economics) , agronomy , climate change , engineering , ecology , organic chemistry , biology , economics , catalysis , macroeconomics
Empty fruit bunch (EFB), as the abundant residue of palm oil processing in Indonesia, is potential lignocellulosic biomass that can be converted into ethylene. The use of lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock may overcome the problem of fossil‐sources depletion in the long term. The Aspen Plus was employed to simulate the entire process of ethylene production. The environmental impact of the process was further evaluated through life cycle assessment (LCA) method in which the global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, and photochemical oxidant creation were considered. A cradle‐to‐gate LCA study of ethylene production from EFB revealed that global warming potential (GWP) had the largest impact to the environment with the value of 1.15 kg CO 2 eq/kg ethylene. Utilizing biomass as the raw material for producing ethylene showed a lower impact of global warming compared with the fossil based. The presence of biogenic carbon and lignin content in lignocellulosic biomass may potentially reduce environmental burden. Taking lignin into account as a credited product in this study resulted in a considerable reduction on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission by 83.9%, while the sequestration of CO 2 provided insignificant effect to offset GHG emission.