Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26949414›Full record

ArticleBiotechnology for biofuels2016

Life cycle impacts of ethanol production from spruce wood chips under high-gravity conditions.

Matty Janssen, Charilaos Xiros, Anne-Marie Tillman

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biotechnology for biofuels, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Matty JanssenDepartment of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Systems Analysis, Chalmers University of Technology, Rännvägen 6B, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden.ORCID 0000-0002-5314-7968
Charilaos XirosDepartment of Biology and Biological Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology, Chalmers University of Technology, Kemigården 4, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden ; School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL, Bern University of Applied Sciences, Länggasse 85, 3052 Zollikofen, Switzerland.
Anne-Marie TillmanDepartment of Energy and Environment, Division of Environmental Systems Analysis, Chalmers University of Technology, Rännvägen 6B, SE-41296 Göteborg, Sweden.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDevelopment of more sustainable biofuel production processes is ongoing, and technology to run these processes at a high dry matter content, also called high-gravity conditions, is one option. This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of such a technology currently in development for the production of bio-ethanol from spruce wood chips.

resultsThe cradle-to-gate LCA used lab results from a set of 30 experiments (or process configurations) in which the main process variable was the detoxification strategy applied to the pretreated feedstock material. The results of the assessment show that a process configuration, in which washing of the pretreated slurry is the detoxification strategy, leads to the lowest environmental impact of the process. Enzyme production and use are the main contributors to the environmental impact in all process configurations, and strategies to significantly reduce this contribution are enzyme recycling and on-site enzyme production. Furthermore, a strong linear correlation between the ethanol yield of a configuration and its environmental impact is demonstrated, and the selected environmental impacts show a very strong cross-correlation ([Formula: see text] in all cases) which may be used to reduce the number of impact categories considered from four to one (in this case, global warming potential). Lastly, a comparison with results of an LCA of ethanol production under high-gravity conditions using wheat straw shows that the environmental performance does not significantly differ when using spruce wood chips. For this comparison, it is shown that eutrophication potential also needs to be considered due to the fertilizer use in wheat cultivation.

conclusionsThe LCA points out the environmental hotspots in the ethanol production process, and thus provides input to the further development of the high-gravity technology. Reducing the number of impact categories based only on cross-correlations should be done with caution. Knowledge of the analyzed system provides further input to the choice of impact categories.

Indexed as

Acidification potentialEthanol productionEutrophication potentialGlobal warming potentialHigh-gravity hydrolysis and fermentationLife cycle assessmentPhotochemical ozone creation potentialRenewable and non-renewable energy useSpruce wood chipsTechnology development

Identifiers

PMID26949414
PMCPMC4779266

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.