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Environmental and economic impact of furfuralcohol production using corncob as a raw material

  • LCA FOR AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AND BIOBASED INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Corncob as agricultural waste has dramatically increased in recent years. Some corncobs are recycled and reused as bioproducts, whereas a large amount remains unused and burned in the fields. Currently, furfural production technology is one of the most commonly used technologies for corncob valorization because furfural is one of the most promising chemicals for sustainable chemical production. However, very few studies have analyzed the impact of furfural and furfuralcohol production on the environment and economy via life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle costing (LCC). This study aims to quantify the environmental and economic impacts of furfural and furfuralcohol production, identify the main pollution processes and substances, improve potentials, and build a database on the furfural industry.

Methods

Life cycle assessment and life cycle costing were carried out to estimate the environmental and economic impact of corncob-based furfural and furfuralcohol production.

Results and discussion

The corncob production, transport, and electricity consumption stages had the greatest impact on the environment because of direct heavy metal, phosphate, and phosphorus emissions. The overall economic impact was mainly attributed to tax, corncob, transport, electricity, and infrastructure investment. Optimizing corncob transport, raw materials and consumption efficiency, and waste disposal is highly important in reducing both environmental and economic burden.

Conclusions

The key factors that contribute to reducing the overall environmental and economic impacts are increasing electricity consumption efficiency and furfural product yield, decreasing transport distance from corncob buyers to suppliers, choosing the appropriate corncob compression technology, and optimizing the wastewater reuse system.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41101554); SRF for ROCS, SEM (grant no. 2011-1568); and the National High-Tech R&D Program of China (863 Program, grant no. 2012AA061705).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Shenyang Agricultural University, No. 120, Doling Road, Shenyang, 110866, Liaoning Province, China

    Jingmin Hong & Jing Zhou

  2. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China

    Jinglan Hong

Authors
  1. Jingmin Hong
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  2. Jing Zhou
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Correspondence to Jinglan Hong.

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Responsible editor: Seungdo Kim

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Hong, J., Zhou, J. & Hong, J. Environmental and economic impact of furfuralcohol production using corncob as a raw material. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20, 623–631 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0854-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0854-2

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