Open AccessScale‐up and Sustainability Evaluation of Biopolymer Production from Citrus Waste Offering Carbon Capture and Utilisation Pathway
Author(s) -
Durkin Alex,
Taptygin Ivan,
Kong Qingyuan,
Gunam Resul Mohamad F. M.,
Rehman Abdul,
Fernández Ana M. L.,
Harvey Adam P.,
Shah Nilay,
Guo Miao
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
chemistryopen
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 29
ISSN - 2191-1363
DOI - 10.1002/open.201900015
Subject(s) - life cycle assessment , sustainability , waste management , environmental science , circular economy , environmental impact assessment , process (computing) , cleaner production , greenhouse gas , environmental economics , production (economics) , engineering , municipal solid waste , computer science , ecology , economics , macroeconomics , biology , operating system
Poly(limonene carbonate) (PLC) has been highlighted as an attractive substitute to petroleum derived plastics, due to its utilisation of CO 2 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 CO 2 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.