Affiliations 

  • 1 Henan Province Forest Resources Sustainable Development and High-value Utilization Engineering Research Center, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Biofuel Research Team (BRTeam), Terengganu, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran
  • 3 Biofuel Research Team (BRTeam), Terengganu, Malaysia; Microbial Biotechnology Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute of Iran (ABRII), Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran
  • 4 Microbial Biotechnology Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute of Iran (ABRII), Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran
  • 5 Department of Chemical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
  • 6 Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran; Department of Chemical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
  • 7 Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia; Henan Province Forest Resources Sustainable Development and High-value Utilization Engineering Research Center, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China. Electronic address: lam@umt.edu.my
  • 8 Henan Province Forest Resources Sustainable Development and High-value Utilization Engineering Research Center, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Department of Mechanical Engineering of Agricultural Machinery, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. Electronic address: maghbashlo@ut.ac.ir
  • 9 Higher Institution Centre of Excellence (HICoE), Institute of Tropical Aquaculture and Fisheries (AKUATROP), Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia; Henan Province Forest Resources Sustainable Development and High-value Utilization Engineering Research Center, School of Forestry, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450002, China; Biofuel Research Team (BRTeam), Terengganu, Malaysia; Microbial Biotechnology Department, Agricultural Biotechnology Institute of Iran (ABRII), Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension Organization (AREEO), Karaj, Iran. Electronic address: meisam.tabatabaei@umt.edu.my
Sci Total Environ, 2021 Aug 21;802:149842.
PMID: 34455274 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149842

Abstract

Global environmental awareness has encouraged further research towards biofuel production and consumption. Despite the favorable properties of biofuels, the sustainability of their conventional production pathways from agricultural feedstocks has been questioned. Therefore, the use of non-food feedstocks as a promising approach to ensure sustainable biofuel production is encouraged. However, the use of synthetic solvents/chemicals and energy carriers during biofuel production and the consequent adverse environmental effects are still challenging. On the other hand, biofuel production is also associated with generating large volumes of waste and wastewater. Accordingly, the circular bioeconomy as an innovative approach to ensure complete valorization of feedstocks and generated waste streams under the biorefinery scheme is proposed. In line with that, the current study aims to assess the environmental sustainability of bioethanol production in a safflower-based biorefinery using the life cycle assessment framework. Based on the obtained results, safflower production and its processing into 1 MJ bioethanol under the safflower-based biorefinery led to damage of 2.23E-07 disability-adjusted life years (DALY), 2.35E-02 potentially disappeared fraction (PDF)*m2*yr, 4.76E-01 kg CO2 eq., and 3.82 MJ primary on the human health, ecosystem quality, climate change, and resources, respectively. Moreover, it was revealed that despite adverse environmental effects associated with safflower production and processing, the substitution of conventional products, i.e., products that are the typical products in the market without having environmental criteria, with their bio-counterparts, i.e., products produced in the biorefinery based on environmental criteria could overshadow the unfavorable effects and substantially enhance the overall sustainability of the biorefinery system. The developed safflower-based biorefinery led to seven- and two-time reduction in damage to the ecosystem quality and resources damage categories, respectively. The reductions in damage to human health and climate change were also found to be 52% and 24%, respectively. The weighted environmental impacts of the safflower-based biorefinery decreased by 64% due to the production of bioproducts, mainly biodiesel and biogas, replacing their fossil-based counterparts, i.e., diesel and natural gas, respectively. Finally, although the main focus of the developed safflower-based biorefinery was biofuel production, waste valorization and mainly animal feed played a significant role in improving the associated environmental impacts.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.