DuPont Engineering Research and Technology, 1007 Market Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19898, USA.
Ecol Appl. 2011 Jun;21(4):1096-104. doi: 10.1890/09-0677.1.
Life-cycle assessment (LCA) can be used as a scientific decision support technique to quantify the environmental implications of various biorefinery process, feedstock, and integration options. The goal of DuPont's integrated corn biorefinery (ICBR) project, a cost-share project with the United States Department of Energy, was to demonstrate the feasibility of a cellulosic ethanol biorefinery concept. DuPont used LCA to guide research and development to the most sustainable cellulosic ethanol biorefinery design in its ICBR project and will continue to apply LCA in support of its ongoing effort with joint venture partners. Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel which has the potential to provide a sustainable solution to the nation's growing concerns around energy supply and climate change. A successful biorefinery begins with sustainable removal of biomass from the field. Michigan State University (MSU) used LCA to estimate the environmental performance of corn grain, corn stover, and the corn cob portion of the stover, grown under various farming practices for several corn growing locations in the United States Corn Belt. In order to benchmark the future technology options for producing cellulosic ethanol with existing technologies, LCA results for fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are compared to alternative ethanol processes and conventional gasoline. Preliminary results show that the DuPont ICBR outperforms gasoline and other ethanol technologies in the life-cycle impact categories considered here.
生命周期评估（LCA）可作为一种科学决策支持技术，用于量化各种生物炼制工艺、原料和整合方案的环境影响。杜邦公司与美国能源部合作的综合玉米生物炼制厂（ICBR）项目旨在展示纤维素乙醇生物炼制厂概念的可行性。杜邦公司在其 ICBR 项目中使用 LCA 来指导研究和开发最可持续的纤维素乙醇生物炼制厂设计，并将继续应用 LCA 来支持其与合资伙伴的持续努力。纤维素乙醇是一种生物燃料，有潜力为国家在能源供应和气候变化方面日益增长的担忧提供可持续的解决方案。一个成功的生物炼制厂始于从田间可持续地去除生物质。密歇根州立大学（MSU）使用 LCA 来估算在美国玉米带的几个玉米种植地点，根据不同的农业实践种植的玉米谷物、玉米秸秆和秸秆的玉米芯部分的环境表现。为了对现有技术生产纤维素乙醇的未来技术选择进行基准测试，将化石能源消耗和温室气体（GHG）排放的 LCA 结果与替代乙醇工艺和常规汽油进行了比较。初步结果表明，在考虑的生命周期影响类别中，杜邦 ICBR 优于汽油和其他乙醇技术。
