Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from wheat straw in the UK》.pdf

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 28 (2013) 715–725 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: /locate/rser Environmental sustainability of bioethanol production from wheat straw in the UK Lei Wang a,n, Jade Littlewood b, Richard J. Murphy c a Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK b Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK c Centre for Environmental Strategy, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: A UK-based environmental sustainability study on bioethanol production from wheat straw was Received 19 February 2013 conducted using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. Five pathways with leading pretreatment Received in revised form technologies (dilute acid, steam explosion with and without catalyst, liquid hot water, and wet oxidation) 26 July 2013 were modelled using process simulation software AspenPlus™, and their advantages and disadvantages Accepted 11 August 2013 were evaluated from an environmental perspective. In a contribution analysis of the environmental Available online 6 September 2013 profiles for the near-term prospective scenarios, results indicated that the enzyme is a main cont