Contribution information

Title Environmental sustainability of a biomass-based chemical industry in the Visegrad countries
Status Accepted
Final type Lecture
Final session WAS&BIO - Waste and biomass as sustainable energy and material sources
Authors E., Cséfalvay1, T., Hajas2, L., Mika3
1 Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
2 Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
3 Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary
Uploaded abstract link
Brief content Three recently introduced ethanol equivalent-based sustainability metrics, namely the sustainability value of resource replacement (SVrep), the sustainability value of the fate of waste (SVwaste), and sustainability indicator (SUSind) derived by the combination of the former two were used to assess the environmental sustainability of a possible bioethanol-based chemical industry. The production of basic chemicals such as ethylene, propylene, toluene, para-xylene, styrene, ethylene oxide and benzene form corn-based bioethanol was evaluated. The theory assumes to use corn-based first generation bioethanol as a feedstock of bio-based industry. The initial reaction i.e. the chemical dehydration of bioethanol to bioethylene could be executed in a secondary biorefinery. Further on, this bioethylene could be used as starting material of well-known chemical reactions to produce the above named bulk chemicals. The resource replacement analysis enlightened that bioethanol was far less produced at the current stage than required to cover the raw material needs of the current production volume of the chemical industry. The calculations for sustainability of the fate of the waste revealed that due to the high conversion and selectivity of the reactions, SVwaste approached the sustainable value (i.e. 1), and SVrep acted as the limiting factor in SUSind calculation. Although there is a possibility to replace fossil-fuel resources with bioethanol and switch to a bio-based chemical industry, the current bioethanol volumes are not enough to cover the resources needs. Studying the Visegrad countries, Slovakia shows the highest SUSind value, but none of them can reach the sustainable value.
ID 21