Life cycle assessments of bio-based sustainable polylimonene carbonate production processes

Biomass is a promising feedstock for the production of sustainable biopolymers, which could offer a significant reduction of the adverse environmental impacts associated with conventional petroleum-based polymers. To further evaluate their potential, this study investigated the environmental impacts associated with the production of the newly proposed biopolymer polylimonene carbonate. Different feedstocks (citrus waste and microalgae) were selected and a conceptual process design from limonene oxidation to polymer synthesis was completed. Using life cycle assessment, the potential for energy integration and the contributions of individual process sections on the overall process environmental impacts were thoroughly analysed. The results showed, that sustainable polylimonene carbonate synthesis was limited by the use of tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the limonene oxidation agent and consequently, a more environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient limonene oxidation method should be developed. Based on the economic analysis, the polymer cost was estimated to range from $1.36 to $1.51 kg −1 , comparable to the costs of petrol-based polystyrene ($1.2 to $1.6 kg −1 ). Moreover, this study found that both feedstock selection and the biowaste treatment method have significant effects on the process environmental impacts, and a carbon negative process was achieved when applying the waste biomass for electricity generation. Therefore, it was concluded that future process designs should combine polymer production with the co-generation of energy from waste biomass