Shahzad Khurram, Rehan Mohammad, Rashid Muhammad Imtiaz, Ali Nadeem, Summan Ahmed Saleh, Ismail Iqbal Muhammad Ibrahim
Centre of Excellence in Environmental Studies, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
Polymers (Basel). 2021 Dec 29;14(1):118. doi: 10.3390/polym14010118.
High raw material prices and rivalry from the food industry have hampered the adoption of renewable resource-based goods. It has necessitated the investigation of cost-cutting strategies such as locating low-cost raw material supplies and adopting cleaner manufacturing processes. Exploiting waste streams as substitute resources for the operations is one low-cost option. The present study evaluates the environmental burden of biopolymer (polyhydroxyalkanoate) production from slaughtering residues. The sustainability of the PHA production process will be assessed utilising the Emergy Accounting methodology. The effect of changing energy resources from business as usual (i.e., electricity mix from the grid and heat provision utilising natural gas) to different renewable energy resources is also evaluated. The emergy intensity for PHA production (seJ/g) shows a minor improvement ranging from 1.5% to 2% by changing only the electricity provision resources. This impact reaches up to 17% when electricity and heat provision resources are replaced with biomass resources. Similarly, the emergy intensity for PHA production using electricity EU27 mix, coal, hydropower, wind power, and biomass is about 5% to 7% lower than the emergy intensity of polyethylene high density (PE-HD). In comparison, its value is up to 21% lower for electricity and heat provision from biomass.
高昂的原材料价格以及来自食品行业的竞争阻碍了可再生资源基产品的采用。这就需要研究削减成本的策略，比如寻找低成本的原材料供应以及采用更清洁的制造工艺。将废物流用作运营的替代资源是一种低成本选择。本研究评估了利用屠宰残渣生产生物聚合物（聚羟基脂肪酸酯）的环境负担。将采用能值核算方法评估PHA生产过程的可持续性。还评估了将能源资源从常规状态（即电网的电力组合以及利用天然气供热）转变为不同可再生能源资源的影响。PHA生产的能值强度（seJ/g）仅通过改变电力供应资源显示出1.5%至2%的小幅改善。当电力和供热资源被生物质资源替代时，这种影响高达17%。同样，使用欧盟27国电力组合、煤炭、水电、风能和生物质生产PHA的能值强度比高密度聚乙烯（PE-HD）的能值强度低约5%至7%。相比之下，生物质供热和供电时其值低达21%。
