TECHNO-ECOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE COMMERCIAL PRODUCTION OF 1,3-PROPANEDIOL AND N-BUTANOL FROM GLYCEROL VIA FERMENTATIVE PROCESSES

摘要

Glycerol occurs as by-product from biodiesel (FAME) production and is commonly used inrnpharmaceutical, chemical or cosmetics industries. The project GRAIL aims to point-out new or further developrnestablished conversion routes for the utilization of crude glycerol. The fermentative production of 1,3-propanediol orrnn-butanol are two possible process routes investigated within this collaborative project. Experimental data werernreceived from lab-scale. Mass and energy balances were obtained via flowsheet simulation. A life cycle assessmentrn(LCA) was performed in order to calculate GHG emissions related to the whole production chain. Hereby thernupstream chain (glycerol provision) and the amount of utilities and auxiliaries were detected as main drivers of thernoverall GHG emissions. The comparison of the results with fossil reference systems showed promising trends andrnenables the detection of relevant bottlenecks to be addressed in future.