Integrating life cycle assessment in early process development stage: The case of extracting starch from mango kernel

Abstract

An important issue in the development of new processes is how to perform environmental impact assessments that support decisions at an early stage of process development. In this study, a methodological procedure was applied to insert life cycle assessment (LCA) in early design of two alternative processes (A and B) to extract starch from mango kernel. This procedure allowed to perform LCAs at technology readiness levels (TRL) 4 and 5 considering different functional units, production scales and alternative scenarios. The analysis of process A and B identified the phase of starch purification as one of the most impacting one. After modifications were implemented, the comparison of Process A with B showed that process A, characterized by extracting only starch, performed better in all situations, being recommended for the implementation in a pilot plant, the next level in the technology maturity scale. Process B still requires improvements to reduce the impacts on climate change and human toxicity. This case study showed reductions in energy and water use, and life cycle impacts, when moving production from lab to industrial scale, through simulation. It also showed that crop production should be considered when evaluating processes that use biomass waste as raw material. The lessons learned from this case study allowed the simplification and detail of the applied procedure for inserting LCA at early research stage. This procedure can be applied to perform ex-ante LCA of new processes.