Life cycle assessment of commodity chemical production from forest residue via fast pyrolysis

This life cycle assessment evaluates and quantifies the environmental impacts of renewable chemical production from forest residue via fast pyrolysis with hydrotreating/fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) pathway. The assessment input data are taken from Aspen Plus and greenhouse gases, regulated emissions, and energy use in transportation (GREET) model. The SimaPro 7.3 software is employed to evaluate the environmental impacts. The results indicate that the net fossil energy input is 34.8 MJ to produce 1 kg of chemicals, and the net global warming potential (GWP) is -0.53 kg CO2 eq. per kg chemicals produced under the proposed chemical production pathway. Sensitivity analysis indicates that bio-oil yields and chemical yields play the most important roles in the greenhouse gas footprints. Fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced if commodity chemicals are produced via forest residue fast pyrolysis with hydrotreating/FCC pathway in place of conventional petroleum-based production pathways.