An Assessment of the Sustainability of Lignocellulosic Bioethanol Production from Wastes in Iceland

Sahar Safarian and Runar Unnthorsson
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Sahar Safarian: Department of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland, Hjardarhagi 6, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland
Runar Unnthorsson: Department of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland, Hjardarhagi 6, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: This paper describes the development of a model to comprehensively assess the sustainability impacts of producing lignocellulosic bioethanol from various types of municipal organic wastes (MOWs) in Iceland: paper and paperboard, timber and wood and garden waste. The tool integrates significant economic, energy, environmental and technical aspects to analyse and rank twelve systems using the most common pretreatment technologies: dilute acid, dilute alkali, hot water and steam explosion. The results show that among the MOWs, paper and paperboard have higher positive rankings under most assessments. Steam explosion is also ranked at the top from the economic, energy and environmental perspectives, followed by the hot water method for paper and timber wastes. Finally, a potential evaluation of total wastes and bioethanol production in Iceland is carried out. The results show that the average production of lignocellulosic bioethanol in 2015 could be 12.5, 11 and 3 thousand tons from paper, timber and garden wastes, respectively, and that production could reach about 15.9, 13.7 and 3.7 thousand tons, respectively, by 2030.

Keywords: bioethanol; sustainability assessment; lignocellulosic wastes; pretreatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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