LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT IN THE PRODUCTION OF NANOLIGNIN AND NANOBIOSCHAR FROM CORN COB: A SUSTAINABLE AND ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH

• Grant number: 23/15276-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Agreement: Secretaria de Meio Ambiente, Infraestrutura e Logística - Fundação Florestal
• Principal Investigator: Rita de Cássia Lacerda Brambilla Rodrigues
• Grantee: Álvaro Henrique Mello José
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/03904-7 - Obtaining renewable chemicals by valuing sustainable carbon from corncobs, AP.BIOEN.R

Abstract

This study aims at a life cycle assessment to compare the sustainability of pre-treatment processes by extrusion and organosolv and fast pyrolysis for the production of nanolignin and nanobiochar using the agro-industrial residue corncob. The data collected from the processes studied will be selected according to the availability of primary data or information from the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) databases available in the SimaPro® software used in the LCA modeling. The Aspen Plus® software will also perform the mass and energy balances of the energy conversion and CO2 capture processes. Analysis procedures are defined in the ISO 14040 series of standards and the ILCD series of manuals. The results will be relevant and will contribute to the national bank of life cycle inventories with great importance for researchers and allow the achievement of fundamental environmental parameters for the sustainable operation of the products obtained.