ACS Sustain Chem Eng
September 2024
The large-scale production of platform chemicals from biomass requires efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable methods. Here, we present three one-pot synthesis routes for producing diformylxylose (DFX), a sugar-based solvent and platform chemical, using d-xylose or corncobs as feedstocks. With yields of approximately 80%, these routes were seamlessly scaled from lab to kilogram-scale in a 15 L batch reactor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiobased chemicals, crucial for the net-zero chemical industry, rely on lignocellulose residues as a major feedstock. However, its availability and environmental impacts vary greatly across regions. By 2050, we estimate that 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFModern machine learning has the potential to fundamentally change the way bioprocesses are developed. In particular, horizontal knowledge transfer methods, which seek to exploit data from historical processes to facilitate process development for a new product, provide an opportunity to rethink current workflows. In this work, we first assess the potential of two knowledge transfer approaches, meta learning and one-hot encoding, in combination with Gaussian process (GP) models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInternet access has reached 60% of the global population, with the average user spending over 40% of their waking life on the Internet, yet the environmental implications remain poorly understood. Here, we assess the environmental impacts of digital content consumption in relation to the Earth's carrying capacity, finding that currently the global average consumption of web surfing, social media, video and music streaming, and video conferencing could account for approximately 40% of the per capita carbon budget consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5 °C, as well as around 55% of the per capita carrying capacity for mineral and metal resources use and over 10% for five other impact categories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChemistry, a vital tool for sustainable development, faces a challenge due to the lack of clear guidance on actionable steps, hindering the optimal adoption of sustainability practices across its diverse facets from discovery to implementation. This Scientific Perspective explores established frameworks and principles, proposing a conciliated set of triple E priorities anchored on Environmental, Economic, and Equity pillars for research and decision making. We outline associated metrics, crucial for quantifying impacts, classifying them according to their focus areas and scales tackled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbon capture and utilization has gained attention to potentially curb CO emissions while generating valuable chemicals. These technologies will coexist with fossil analogs, creating synergies to leverage circular economy principles. In this context, flue gas valorization from power plants can assist in the transition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSingle-atom heterogeneous catalysts (SACs) attract growing interest in their application in green chemistry and organic synthesis due to their potential for achieving atomic-level precision. These catalysts offer the possibility of achieving selectivity comparable to the traditionally applied organometallic complexes, while enhancing metal utilization and recovery. However, an understanding of SAC performance in organic reactions remains limited to model substrates, and their application as drop-in solutions may not yield optimal activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntense efforts have been devoted to developing green and blue centralised Haber-Bosch processes (gHB and bHB, respectively), but the feasibility of a decentralised and sustainable scheme has yet to be assessed. Here we reveal the conditions under which small-scale systems based on the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogen (eN2R) powered by photovoltaic energy (NH3-leaf) could become a competitive technology in terms of environmental criteria. To this end, we calculated energy efficiency targets based on solar irradiation atlases to guide research in the incipient eN2R field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScaling up syntheses from mg to kg quantities is a complex endeavor. Besides adapting laboratory protocols to industrial processes and equipment and thorough safety assessments, much attention is paid to the reduction of the process' environmental impact. For processes including transition metal catalyzed steps, e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntense efforts have been devoted to developing green and blue centralised Haber-Bosch processes (gHB and bHB, respectively), but the feasibility of a decentralised and more sustainable scheme has yet to be assessed. Here we reveal the conditions under which small-scale systems (NH-leaves) based on the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrogen (eNR) powered by photovoltaic energy could realise a decentralised scheme competitive in terms of environmental and economic criteria. For this purpose, we calculated energy efficiency targets worldwide, providing clear values that may guide research in the incipient eNR field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmmonia and methanol are essential to modern societies, but their production has been heavily reliant on natural gas, which contributes to supply disruptions and significant CO emissions. While low-carbon or green production routes have been extensively researched, their adoption has been hindered by higher costs, making them unsustainable. However, a recent energy crisis in Europe has created a unique opportunity to shift towards greener production technologies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSingle-atom catalysts (SACs) have well-defined active sites, making them of potential interest for organic synthesis. However, the architecture of these mononuclear metal species stabilized on solid supports may not be optimal for catalysing complex molecular transformations owing to restricted spatial environment and electronic quantum states. Here we report a class of heterogeneous geminal-atom catalysts (GACs), which pair single-atom sites in specific coordination and spatial proximity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe synthesis of the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), employed to manufacture poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastic, primarily relies on oil-derived ethylene, resulting in high costs and carbon footprint. Natural gas-derived ethane in VCM synthesis has long been considered a transformative feedstock to lower emissions and expenses. In this work, we evaluate the environmental potential and economics of recently developed catalytic ethane chlorination technologies for VCM synthesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn this contribution, we study the extent to which 68 scenarios for microalgae biofuels could help the heavy-duty transport sector operate within planetary boundaries. The proposed scenarios are built considering a range of alternative configurations based on three types of fuel production processes (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPotential external cost savings associated with the reduction of animal-sourced foods remain poorly understood. Here we combine life cycle assessment principles and monetarization factors to estimate the monetary worth of damage to human health and ecosystems caused by the environmental impacts of food production. We find that, globally, approximately US$2 of production-related external costs were embedded in every dollar of food expenditure in 2018-corresponding to US$14.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ability to assess the environmental performance of early-stage technologies at production scale is critical for sustainable process development. This paper presents a systematic methodology for uncertainty quantification in life-cycle assessment (LCA) of such technologies using global sensitivity analysis (GSA) coupled with a detailed process simulator and LCA database. This methodology accounts for uncertainty in both the background and foreground life-cycle inventories, and is enabled by lumping multiple background flows, either downstream or upstream of the foreground processes, in order to reduce the number of factors in the sensitivity analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, liquid fuels from renewable carbon that can replace fossil ones with minimal infrastructure changes have attracted increasing interest in decarbonising the heavy-duty long-haul sector. Here we focus on dimethyl ether (DME), a promising alternative to diesel due to its high cetane number, oxygen content, and more efficient and cleaner propulsion that results in low particulate matter and sulphur oxide emissions. Going well beyond previous studies that quantified the environmental impact of DME, often in terms of global warming, here we evaluate DME use in heavy-duty trucks in the context of seven planetary boundaries, all essential for maintaining the Earth's stability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCopper catalysts are attractive candidates for Hg-free vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) production via acetylene hydrochlorination due to their non-toxic nature and high stability. However, the optimal architecture for Cu-based catalysts at the nanoscale is not yet fully understood. To address this gap, the metal precursor and the annealing temperature are modified to prepare copper nanoparticles or single atoms, either in chlorinated or ligand-free form, on an unmodified carbon support.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Sustain Chem Eng
February 2023
The rising demand for single-use polymers calls for alternative waste treatment pathways to ensure a circular economy. Here, we explore hydrogen production from waste polymer gasification (wPG) to reduce the environmental impacts of plastic incineration and landfilling while generating a valuable product. We assess the carbon footprint of 13 H production routes and their environmental sustainability relative to the planetary boundaries (PBs) defined for seven Earth-system processes, covering H from waste polymers (wP; polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene), and a set of benchmark technologies including H from natural gas, biomass, and water splitting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Sustain Chem Eng
February 2023
The consequences of global warming call for a shift to circular manufacturing practices. In this context, carbon capture and utilization (CCU) has become a promising alternative toward a low-emitting chemical sector. This study addresses for the first time the design of an integrated CO refinery and compares it against the business-as-usual (BAU) counterpart.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbon capture and utilisation (CCU) provides an appealing framework to turn carbon emissions into valuable fuels and chemicals. However, given the vast energy required to activate the CO molecule, CCU may have implications on sustainable development that are still poorly understood due to the narrow scope of current carbon footprint-oriented assessments lacking absolute sustainability thresholds. To bridge this gap, we developed a power-chemicals nexus model to look into the future and understand how we could produce 22 net-zero bulk chemicals of crucial importance in a sustainable manner by integrating fossil, CCU routes and power technologies, often assessed separately.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCarbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) have been projected by the power and industrial sectors to play a vital role towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. In this study, we aim to explore the feasibility of a global chemical industry that fully relies on CO as its carbon source in 2050. We project the global annual CO demand as chemical feedstock to be 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite the global pandemic that recently affected human and cargo transportation, the emissions of the maritime sector are projected to keep growing steadily. The International Maritime Organization focused on boosting the fleets' efficiency to improve their environmental performance, while more sustainable fuels are currently under investigation. Here, we assess the economic, technical, and environmental feasibility of an interim solution for low-carbon shipping using state-of-the-art CO capture technology, namely, chemical absorption, on-board cargo ships.
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