A critical review of life cycle assessment studies of woody biomass conversion to sugars.

Woody biomass could potentially become a viable raw material for the future sustainable chemical industry. For this, a suitable regulatory framework must exist, that would create favourable economic conditions for wood biorefineries. Such policies must be developed on the basis of scientific evidence-in this case, data supporting the environmental advantages of the bio-based feedstocks to the chemical industry. The most suitable methodology for comprehensive evaluation of environmental performance of technologies is life cycle assessment (LCA). In this review, the available LCA studies of woody biomass fractionation and conversion to bulk chemical feedstocks are critically evaluated. It has been revealed that the majority of the openly available studies do not contain transparent inventory data and, therefore, cannot be verified or re-used; studies containing inventory data are reported in this review. The lack of inventory data also prevents comparison between studies of the same processes performed with different evaluation methods or using different system boundaries. Recommendations are proposed on how to overcome issues of commercial data sensitivity by using black-box modelling when reporting environmental information. From several comparable LCA studies, it has been concluded that today the most environmentally favourable technology for wood biomass fractionation is organosolv. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bio-derived and bioinspired sustainable advanced materials for emerging technologies (part 1)'.

A Multiobjective Optimization Including Results of Life Cycle Assessment in Developing Biorenewables-Based Processes.

A decision support tool has been developed that uses global multiobjective optimization based on 1) the environmental impacts, evaluated within the framework of full life cycle assessment; and 2) process costs, evaluated by using rigorous process models. This approach is particularly useful in developing biorenewable-based energy solutions and chemicals manufacturing, for which multiple criteria must be evaluated and optimization-based decision-making processes are particularly attractive. The framework is demonstrated by using a case study of the conversion of terpenes derived from biowaste feedstocks into reactive intermediates. A two-step chemical conversion/separation sequence was implemented as a rigorous process model and combined with a life cycle model. A life cycle inventory for crude sulfate turpentine was developed, as well as a conceptual process of its separation into pure terpene feedstocks. The performed single- and multiobjective optimizations demonstrate the functionality of the optimization-based process development and illustrate the approach. The most significant advance is the ability to perform multiobjective global optimization, resulting in identification of a region of Pareto-optimal solutions.

Structural and magnetic properties of Zn-substituted cobalt ferrites prepared by co-precipitation method.

Zn substituted cobalt ferrite spinels with the general formula Zn(x)Co(1-x)Fe(2)O(4) (with x varying from 0 to 0.5) were synthesized by a co-precipitation method and calcined at 500 °C and 800 °C. It was found that Zn substitution has a big effect in decreasing the Curie temperature (T(c)), from around 440 °C for the undoped sample to ~180 °C with x = 0.5. However, these values were also strongly affected by the pre-calcination temperature of the samples, thus T(C) shifts from ~275 °C for the x = 0.3 sample to ~296 °C after calcination at 500 °C and 800 °C respectively. These effects are due to facilitation of demagnetisation by substitution of the non-magnetic Zn ions and by production of very small nanoparticles. The latter are removed by higher temperature calcinations and so T(C) increases.