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Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials

Nanocellulose-based materials are attracting an increasing interest for the positive role they could play in sustainable development; being originated from renewable resources. Moreover, cellulose has a high potential of recycling from both post-consumer waste and industrial waste. Both factors, i.e...

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Autores principales: Gallo Stampino, Paola, Riva, Laura, Punta, Carlo, Elegir, Graziano, Bussini, Daniele, Dotelli, Giovanni
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8125706/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33924756
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26092558
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author Gallo Stampino, Paola
Riva, Laura
Punta, Carlo
Elegir, Graziano
Bussini, Daniele
Dotelli, Giovanni
author_facet Gallo Stampino, Paola
Riva, Laura
Punta, Carlo
Elegir, Graziano
Bussini, Daniele
Dotelli, Giovanni
author_sort Gallo Stampino, Paola
collection PubMed
description Nanocellulose-based materials are attracting an increasing interest for the positive role they could play in sustainable development; being originated from renewable resources. Moreover, cellulose has a high potential of recycling from both post-consumer waste and industrial waste. Both factors, i.e., recyclability and renewable resources; results are also extremely favourable in the perspective of circular economy. Despite all these positive aspects, an industrial production has yet to start. At the lab scale, many preparation methods of cellulose nanofibres (CNF) are available; here, the three most common are analysed: (1) enzymatic pre-treatment followed by homogenisation (ENZHO), (2) oxidative pre-treatment combined with homogenisation (TOHO) or (3) oxidative pre-treatment followed by sonication (TOSO). All three processes have been experimentally carried out starting from both virgin and recycled cellulose from industrial waste sludge. The environmental sustainability of these three routes is estimated by the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using experimental lab scale data. In this scenario, the comparative LCA has pointed out a superior performance of the ENZHO process, followed by TOHO and, lastly, by TOSO. The influence of energy consumption on the final results has been further investigated by a sensitivity analysis, showing that the TOHO and TOSO routes could reach similar performances by scaling-up the process from the laboratory. The different typology of CNF obtained by conducting the ENZHO process with respect to the TEMPO-mediated oxidation approach is also outlined as an additional element to be considered for the final selection of a suitable process.
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spelling pubmed-81257062021-05-17 Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials Gallo Stampino, Paola Riva, Laura Punta, Carlo Elegir, Graziano Bussini, Daniele Dotelli, Giovanni Molecules Article Nanocellulose-based materials are attracting an increasing interest for the positive role they could play in sustainable development; being originated from renewable resources. Moreover, cellulose has a high potential of recycling from both post-consumer waste and industrial waste. Both factors, i.e., recyclability and renewable resources; results are also extremely favourable in the perspective of circular economy. Despite all these positive aspects, an industrial production has yet to start. At the lab scale, many preparation methods of cellulose nanofibres (CNF) are available; here, the three most common are analysed: (1) enzymatic pre-treatment followed by homogenisation (ENZHO), (2) oxidative pre-treatment combined with homogenisation (TOHO) or (3) oxidative pre-treatment followed by sonication (TOSO). All three processes have been experimentally carried out starting from both virgin and recycled cellulose from industrial waste sludge. The environmental sustainability of these three routes is estimated by the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) using experimental lab scale data. In this scenario, the comparative LCA has pointed out a superior performance of the ENZHO process, followed by TOHO and, lastly, by TOSO. The influence of energy consumption on the final results has been further investigated by a sensitivity analysis, showing that the TOHO and TOSO routes could reach similar performances by scaling-up the process from the laboratory. The different typology of CNF obtained by conducting the ENZHO process with respect to the TEMPO-mediated oxidation approach is also outlined as an additional element to be considered for the final selection of a suitable process. MDPI 2021-04-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8125706/ /pubmed/33924756 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26092558 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Gallo Stampino, Paola
Riva, Laura
Punta, Carlo
Elegir, Graziano
Bussini, Daniele
Dotelli, Giovanni
Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials
title Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials
title_full Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials
title_fullStr Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials
title_full_unstemmed Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials
title_short Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Cellulose Nanofibres Production Routes from Virgin and Recycled Raw Materials
title_sort comparative life cycle assessment of cellulose nanofibres production routes from virgin and recycled raw materials
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8125706/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33924756
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/molecules26092558
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