Ali Nadeem, Rashid Muhammad Imtiaz, Rehan Mohammad, Shah Eqani Syed Ali Musstjab Akber, Summan Ahmed Saleh Ahmed, Ismail Iqbal Muhammad Ibrahim, Koller Martin, Ali Arshid Mahmood, Shahzad Khurram
Centre of Excellence in Environmental Studies, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Public Health and Environment Division, Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad 45550, Pakistan.
N Biotechnol. 2023 Jul 25;75:40-51. doi: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.03.004. Epub 2023 Mar 21.
The massive production and extensive use of fossil-based non-biodegradable plastics are leading to their environmental accumulation and ultimately cause health threats to animals, humans, and the biosphere in general. The problem can be overcome by developing eco-friendly ways for producing plastics-like biopolymers from waste residues such as of agricultural origin. This will solve two currently prevailing social issues: waste management and the efficient production of a biopolymer that is environmentally benign, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). The current study assesses the environmental impact of biopolymer (PHA) manufacturing, starting from slaughterhouse waste as raw material. The Material Input Per Service Unit methodology (MIPS) is used to examine the sustainability of the PHA production process. In addition, the impact of shifting from business-as-usual energy provision (i.e., electricity from distribution grid network and heat provision from natural gas) to alternative renewable energy sources is also evaluated. As a major outcome, it is shown that the abiotic material contribution for PHA production process is almost double for using hard coal as an energy source than the petro-plastic low-density-poly(ethene) (LPDE), which PHA shall ultimately replace. Likewise, abiotic material contribution is 43 % and 7 % higher when using the electricity from the European electricity mix (EU-27 mix) and biogas, respectively, than in the case of LDPE production. However, PHA production based on wind power for energy provision has 12 % lower abiotic material input than LDPE. Furthermore, the water input decreases when moving from the EU-27 mix to wind power. The reduction in water consumption for various electricity provision resources amounts to 20 % for the EU-27 mix, 25 % for hard coal, 71 % for wind, and 70 % for biogas. As the main conclusion, it is demonstrated that using wind farm electricity to generate PHA is the most environmentally friendly choice. Biogas is the second-best choice, although it requires additional abiotic material input.
基于化石的不可生物降解塑料的大规模生产和广泛使用正导致其在环境中的积累，并最终对动物、人类以及整个生物圈造成健康威胁。通过开发从农业废弃物等废渣中生产类似塑料的生物聚合物的环保方法，可以克服这一问题。这将解决当前两个普遍存在的社会问题：废物管理以及环境友好型生物聚合物聚羟基脂肪酸酯（PHA）的高效生产。本研究评估了以屠宰场废弃物为原料制造生物聚合物（PHA）的环境影响。采用单位服务物质投入方法（MIPS）来考察PHA生产过程的可持续性。此外，还评估了从常规能源供应（即来自配电网的电力和来自天然气的供热）转向替代可再生能源的影响。作为主要结果表明，使用硬煤作为能源时，PHA生产过程中的非生物物质贡献几乎是石化塑料低密度聚乙烯（LPDE）的两倍，而PHA最终将取代LPDE。同样，分别使用欧洲电力组合（欧盟27国组合）电力和沼气时，非生物物质贡献比生产LDPE的情况分别高出43%和7%。然而，基于风能供应能源的PHA生产的非生物物质投入比LDPE低12%。此外，从欧盟27国组合转向风能时，水的投入减少。不同电力供应资源的用水量减少情况为：欧盟27国组合为20%，硬煤为25%，风能为71%，沼气为70%。作为主要结论，证明使用风电场电力生产PHA是最环保的选择。沼气是第二好的选择，尽管它需要额外的非生物物质投入。
