Parametrized regionalization of paper recycling life-cycle assessment.

Recycling is a commonly acknowledged strategy to reduce the environmental impacts linked to primary resource exploitation. Large regional variations can be observed in recycling processes' parameters, like efficiency, energy mix and treatment of rejects. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is widely used to evaluate the environmental impacts of recycling processes, but existing studies are neither harmonized nor sufficient to provide a comprehensive geographical and technological coverage of recycling processes. The purpose of this research is to develop an efficient and iterative approach for the parametrized generation of semi-automated regionalized life-cycle inventories that take into account technological and geographical variabilities in the recycling sector. The regionalization framework is then applied to create a parametrized paper recycling regionalization tool. This tool is used in the results section to compare the national climate change impacts of recycling three paper grades. Results show a significant global warming impact variability between countries for recycled graphic paper (0.36 to 2.25 kg CO2-Eq/kg wastepaper recycled), newsprint (0.27 to 1.84 kg CO2-Eq/kg wastepaper recycled) and corrugated cardboard (0.28 to 1.68 kg CO2-Eq/kg wastepaper recycled) productions. A regionalized LCA of the international recycling of the mixed wastepaper exported from Quebec's (Canada) sorting centers is also performed with the tool and compared to the non-regionalized mixed wastepaper recycling process available in the ecoinvent database. Only nine midpoint ReCiPe impact categories remain environmentally advantageous compared to virgin paper production when applying the regionalization methodology, compared to sixteen when using the ecoinvent process, illustrating how regionalization can substantially influence LCA results.

Total Synthesis of a Chimeric Glycolipid Bearing the Partially Acetylated Backbone of Sponge-Derived Agminoside E.

We describe the total synthesis of a chimeric glycolipid bearing both the partially acetylated backbone of sponge-derived agminoside E and the (R)-3-hydroxydecanoic acid chain of bacterial rhamnolipids. The branched pentaglucolipid skeleton was achieved using a [3 + 2] disconnection approach. The ß-(1 → 2) and ß-(1 → 4)-glycosidic bonds were synthesized through a combination of NIS/Yb(OTf)3- and TMSOTf-mediated stereoselective glycosylations of thiotolyl, N-phenyltrifluoroacetimidate, and trichloroacetimidate donors. Late-stage pentaacetylation, Staudinger reduction of a (2-azidomethyl)benzoyl group, followed by continuous-flow microfluidic hydrogenolysis completed the total synthesis of the structurally simplified glycolipid, whose partial acetylation pattern on the glycan part was identical to agminoside E. Our study lays the foundation for the total synthesis of sponge-derived agminosides and the understanding of their biological functions in sponges.