Application and progress of techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment in biomanufacturing of fuels and chemicals

Abstract

To reduce the dependency on petroleum-based products and emission of greenhouse gas, renewable biofuels and chemicals play an important role to meet the unmatched energy demands of the rapidly growing population. However, most biofuel and chemical products do not reach the commercialization stage, mainly hindered by incomparable economics to petroproducts. Techno-economic assessment (TEA) is a useful tool to estimate economic performance, and identify bottlenecks for the development of biofuel and chemical production technology, meanwhile, life cycle assessment (LCA) is applied to assess sustainability by reducing the environmental impact of biofuel and chemical production. This present review covers TEA and LCA research progress in the manufacturing of biofuels and biochemical, and discusses the impacts of TEA and LCA results on the development and optimization of biofuel and chemical production. In addition, challenges associated with TEA and LCA of biofuel and biochemical production were briefly overviewed, and potential approaches that may overcome such challenges were discussed enabling viable and sustainable biomanufacturing of fuels and chemicals. Future integrated TEA and LCA studies could significantly promote the economic and sustainable development of the biomanufacturing process.