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Study: Production of Bioplastics in Biorefinery Cuts GHG By About 80%

16 August 2008

Researchers at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii at Manoa have calculated that the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) as a value-added byproduct from cellulosic ethanol biorefineries results in GHG emissions (CO2e) of 0.49 kg per 1 kg of resin on a full lifecycle basis. This compares to 2-3 kg CO2e for petrochemical counterparts—a reduction of between 76-84%.

The fossil energy requirement per kg of bioplastics is 44 MJ/kg resin, lower than those of petrochemical counterparts (78-88 MJ/kg resin). About 62% of fossil energy is used for processing utilities and wastewater treatment, and the rest is required for raw materials in different life cycle stages.

The team of Jian Yu and Lilian X. L. Chen published a paper on their work online 16 August in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Resources

  • Jian Yu and Lilian X. L. Chen (2008) The Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Fossil Energy Requirement of Bioplastics from Cradle to Gate of a Biomass Refinery. ASAP Environ. Sci. Technol., doi: 10.1021/es7032235

August 16, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

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Comments

GHG are no longer a real issue in renewable energy. There is simply too much evidence now that CO2 plays little or no role in global warming. Please update the programming.

==There is simply too much evidence now that CO2 plays little or no role in global warming.==

Care to say what that evidence is?

Since I bet you can't find a single scientific institution in the entire world that says that manmade actions aren't a primary cause of the warming we've experienced in the past few decades.

http://greyfalcon.net/whatwouldittake

@ anonymous

The dork in that video needs to get a girlfriend.

Try the American Physical Society.

Who would have thought that plasic(s) would come to the aid of carbon pollution reduction.
The brainbox just got a bit bigger.

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