In recent times, technocrats and scientists employ advanced technologies in industrial processes to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, which subsequently abate climate change. Momentum is increasing among humans to combat unprecedented climate change and environmental degradation for sustainable livelihood. Biomass utilization for green fuel production is a viable alternate for fossil fuels to sort out the issues related with gas emissions, land pollution, and inflated economy. The major challenge in biomassBiomass usage is the difficulty in handling voluminous quantity and poor profit margin of valorized products. Owing to high energy density and abundance in availability, the agricultural residues and woody biomassBiomass are considered as excellent raw materials to produce biofuels and other carbon-deprived fuels. Before switching over from fossil fuel energy source to biomaterial energy source, it is necessary to evaluate the environmental impacts, cradle-to-grave carbon footprint size in biomassBiomass usage, capital costs, operating costs, product yield, and scale-up costs of bioconversion process. In order to assess the environmental impacts of a process and products, the life cycle assessment (LCA) is used, whereas the techno-economic analysis (TEA) evaluates the performance of a process in terms of monetary benefits. Raw materials procurement and processing is the first step in LCA, while the energy emission terms related to raw materials are embodied into produced goods. LCA has become the reliable tools to monitor environmental qualities and forecasts the strategies to follow in biomassBiomass conversion processes. The manufacturers, policymakers, and deciding authorities choose the process with least environmental consequences based on the output from LCA. These approaches upskill the end users to understand polluting potential of products and processes and educate public for meticulous use of products. The guidelines to implement and practice LCA in industries are defined in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. The environmental consequences of a product or a process are addressed in ISO 14040, while ISO 14044 standard defines the four phases, namely, goal and scope, life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis, life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), and interpretation, in LCA. The economic and technical performance of a process and product is analyzed using TEA parameters such as net present value (NPV), payback period, and discounted cash flow rate of return (DCFR). This chapter discusses the scope of LCA and TEA in biomassBiomass valorization.

Life Cycle Assessment and Techno-Economic Analysis on Setting Up of Pilot Scale Plants

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发表日期：

2025年

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Magesh Kumar Marichamy

摘要

In recent times, technocrats and scientists employ advanced technologies in industrial processes to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, which subsequently abate climate change. Momentum is increasing among humans to combat unprecedented climate change and environmental degradation for sustainable livelihood. Biomass utilization for green fuel production is a viable alternate for fossil fuels to sort out the issues related with gas emissions, land pollution, and inflated economy. The major challenge in biomassBiomass usage is the difficulty in handling voluminous quantity and poor profit margin of valorized products. Owing to high energy density and abundance in availability, the agricultural residues and woody biomassBiomass are considered as excellent raw materials to produce biofuels and other carbon-deprived fuels. Before switching over from fossil fuel energy source to biomaterial energy source, it is necessary to evaluate the environmental impacts, cradle-to-grave carbon footprint size in biomassBiomass usage, capital costs, operating costs, product yield, and scale-up costs of bioconversion process. In order to assess the environmental impacts of a process and products, the life cycle assessment (LCA) is used, whereas the techno-economic analysis (TEA) evaluates the performance of a process in terms of monetary benefits. Raw materials procurement and processing is the first step in LCA, while the energy emission terms related to raw materials are embodied into produced goods. LCA has become the reliable tools to monitor environmental qualities and forecasts the strategies to follow in biomassBiomass conversion processes. The manufacturers, policymakers, and deciding authorities choose the process with least environmental consequences based on the output from LCA. These approaches upskill the end users to understand polluting potential of products and processes and educate public for meticulous use of products. The guidelines to implement and practice LCA in industries are defined in ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 standards. The environmental consequences of a product or a process are addressed in ISO 14040, while ISO 14044 standard defines the four phases, namely, goal and scope, life cycle inventory (LCI) analysis, life cycle impact assessment (LCIA), and interpretation, in LCA. The economic and technical performance of a process and product is analyzed using TEA parameters such as net present value (NPV), payback period, and discounted cash flow rate of return (DCFR). This chapter discusses the scope of LCA and TEA in biomassBiomass valorization.