Life Cycle Assessment of Large-scale Biomass-derived Ester-based Lubricant Production via Integrated Biological and Chemical Conversion

Abstract

To reduce carbon emissions, it is important to produce lubricants from sustainable resources such as biomass instead of fossil fuel. Despite several limitations such as low efficiency of carbon reduction and economics, in conventional small-scale biomass based lubricant production processes, this study aims to deal with the issue. The purpose of this study is to 1) design a novel largescale integrated biological-chemical conversion process for biomass-derived ester-based lubricant production and 2) conduct life cycle assessment (LCA) based on the inventory data of proposed process. As a result, 46.7 metric tons of 99wt% poly alpha olefin (PAO) is produced through the suggested process. The result of LCA shows that the greenhouse gas emission is 11.76 kg CO 2 -eq/kg of PAO, which is 22.4% less than the conventional crude oil-based PAO production process.