food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Food and Bioproducts Processing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/fbp

Environmental impact assessment of

lignocellulosic lactic acid production: Integrated
with existing sugar mills

Asfaw Gezae Daful a,∗ , Kathleen Haigh a , Pavel Vaskan b ,

Johann F. Görgens a
aDepartment of Process Engineering, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch 7602, South Africa
bBioenergy and Energy Planning Research Group, GR-GN, INTER, ENAC, Station 18, EPFL, 1015 Lausanne,
Switzerland

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Lactic acid (LA) is considered for the diversification and value addition to sugar industry in
Received 10 December 2015 South Africa, through a bioconversion of sugarcane bagasse and leaves. A bioconversion pro-
Received in revised form 4 April cess was modeled in Aspen Plus® V8.6 and its environmental impacts were evaluated using
2016 the Life Cycle Assessment method using SimaPro® considering its integration into exist-
Accepted 10 April 2016 ing South African Sugar mills. The life cycle approach took into account the whole sugar
Available online 16 April 2016 production chain, including sugarcane cultivation stage, harvesting and transportation of
sugarcane, sugar mill, and LA production. The life cycle inventories of the sugarcane culti-
Keywords: vation and sugar mill were obtained from literature while Aspen Plus® simulation data were
Lactic acid used for the LA production. The ecoinvent database of SimaPro® was used for all external
Environmental impacts inputs and fossil-based LA production. Environmental impacts of the biobased and fossil
Lignocellulose based LA productions were assessed and compared. The total environmental savings of the
Sugarcane bagasse major impact categories obtained upon replacing a tonne of fossil-based LA with biobased
Gypsum free LA are: 3925.65 kg CO2 eq. of global warming potential; 1742.05 kg fossil fuel eq. of abiotic
depletion potential; 1296.16 kg 1,4-DB eq. of human toxicity potential; 397.79 kBq U235 eq.
of ionizing radiation potential; 253.97 kg Fe eq. of metal depletion potential; 43.48 kg 1,4-DB
eq. of marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential; 42.97 kg 1,4-DB eq. of fresh water aquatic eco-
toxicity potential and 18.23 kg SO2 eq. of acidification potential. Auxiliary chemicals used
in the biobased LA production are most relevant to the total environmental impacts. Thus,
biobased LA production has significantly reduced the impact on the environment, giving
80–99% environmental savings compared to fossil-derived LA.
© 2016 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction of the existing fossil based economy with a green economy

The ongoing depletion of petroleum reserves and the
associated environmental impacts are driving research to
investigate the potential substitution of the current petro-
chemically derived building blocks with equivalent molecules
from renewable resources (Avelino et al., 2007). Substitution
within the framework of sustainable development is one of
the challenges of our time. The environmental impacts of
the growing demand for petroleum-derived chemicals and
fuels can be mitigated by the use of lignocellulosic bio-
chemicals and biofuels. Significant research efforts have been
directed to the conversion of such bio-derived feedstocks into

∗
Corresponding author. Tel.: +27 617018907.
E-mail address: agezae@gmail.com (A.G. Daful).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2016.04.005
0960-3085/© 2016 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70
chemicals as a means to replace fossil-derived products, mit-
igate global warming and meet the societal needs for greener
products (Avelino et al., 2007). In this context, lactic acid
(LA) has gained significant interest (Päivi et al., 2014). LA,
the simplest hydroxy carboxylic acid is a bulk chemical with
two optically active enantiomers (d(−) and l(+)). LA is a plat-
form chemical with wide industrial applications, in the food,
chemical, pharmaceutical and health care industries (Abdel-
Rahman et al., 2013; Chao et al., 2011). It is primarily used
for food and pharmaceutical applications, preferentially the
l(+) isomer since it is the only LA isomer produced in the
human body (Martinez et al., 2013). LA can be used as feedstock
to generate multiple commodity and intermediate chemi-
cals (Päivi et al., 2014; Dusselier et al., 2013; Abdel-Rahman
et al., 2013), such as acrylic acid, 1,2-propanediol, pyruvic
acid, acetaldehyde, and 2,3-pentanedione. These LA-based
products and others may increase the world market share sig-
nificantly, which includes the use of derivatives such as ethyl
esters to replace hazardous solvents like chlorinated hydro-
carbon solvents in certain industrial applications. It can also
be polymerized into a novel biodegradable plastic suitable
for packagings, i.e. polylactic acid (PLA). This polymer has a
current global market demand of approximately 105 metric
tonnes per annum and is anticipated to grow by at least 28%
per annum until 2025 (Cellulac) particularly given that PLA
could replace polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in 20% of the
current applications (Päivi et al., 2014; Dusselier et al., 2013;
Abdel-Rahman et al., 2013).
LA can be produced either by anaerobic fermentation
(Wang et al., 2015; Abdel-Rahman et al., 2011, 2013; Rathin
and Michael, 2006) or by chemical synthesis (Pal et al., 2009;
Narayanan et al., 2004; John et al., 2007). The chemical syn-
thesis pathway (Martinez et al., 2013) produces an optically
inactive racemic mixture (equal quantities of the l and d
isomers), while the anaerobic fermentation pathway gener-
ally yields one of the two stereoisomers, depending on the
microorganism used. LA can be produced via fermentation of
sugars from various types of biomass, including starch crops,
sugar crops, and lignocellulosic materials and whey. Technolo-
gies to produce LA from lignocellulosic derived sugars are the
least advanced while the use of sugars from starch, sugar crops
and whey are commercially available (Abdel-Rahman et al.,
2011).
Within South Africa, there is the potential to liberate lig-
nocellulosic feedstock from the sugar industry which could
be converted to LA. Sugarcane bagasse is the solid residue
remaining after crushing the sugarcane to obtain the juice
used for sugar production. In addition, current sugarcane har-
vesting practices involve burning the majority of the leaves
and tops, although in future these could be harvested sepa-
rately as a feedstock for production of value added products.
An average of 20 million tonnes per year (SASA; Meyer and
Fenwick, 2003) of sugarcane is crushed in the South African
sugar industry which generates about 5.6 million tonnes of
bagasse. About 5 million tonnes of tops and leaves is burnt
in the sugarcane field during harvesting, emitting high levels
of particulate matter, CO, NOx , SOx and CH4 (Leal et al., 2013),
that causes serious health problems for workers, who breathe
in the soot while working, as well as those who live in nearby
areas.
Sugarcane bagasse is currently used as a source of energy
for the sugar mills. It may be possible to satisfy the energy
requirements of the sugar mills with half of the produced
59
bagasse by improving the energy efficiency of the existing
sugar mills (Rocha et al., 2011, 2012). In this way there is
the potential for the South African sugar industry to provide
about 10.6 million tonne of combined sugarcane bagasse
and leaves (SCBL) as a lignocellulosic feedstock for biobased
energy, chemical and material production, leaving the tops in
the field for enriching the agricultural land. This development
is fueled by the potential they hold to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and to increase the security of raw material sup-
ply through the transition from fossil feedstocks to renewable
and sustainably exploited biobased feedstocks. Moreover, this
leads to diversification of the sugar industry by integration of
LA production facility to better mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions and increase the environmental sustainability of
the sector.
An Aspen plus® simulation has been developed to investi-
gate LA production from lignocellulosic biomass SCBL, to be
integrated with a typical South African sugar mill and a life
cycle Assessment (LCA) of the process has been conducted
based on the developed model. LCA studies of bioproducts
in the public literature are sparse and for biobased LA are
scarce. Hermann et al. (2007) developed LCAs of a number of
bioproducts produced from sugars sourced from corn, sugar
cane, or corn stover and concluded that, when corn stover is
the feedstock, bioproducts can result in a 25% to nearly 100%
reduction in GHG emissions when compared to their petro-
chemical counterparts. Adom et al. (2014) conducted LCAs for
eight bioproducts produced from algal glycerol and from corn
stover-derived sugars and determined GHG emission reduc-
tions ranging from 39% for 1,3-propanediol to 86% for succinic
acid compared with their fossil based equivalents. Similarly
Lammens et al. (2011) showed 50% and 35% potential reduc-
tions in GHG emissions for biobased N-methylpyrrolidone and
N-vinylpyrrolidone respectively compared with their petro-
chemical counterparts. Cok et al. (2014) examined succinic
acid production from corn-derived dextrose via cradle-to-gate
LCA and show a 90% reduction in GHG emissions compared
with production from petrochemical feedstocks. Other LCA
studies of biobased products focus on bioethanol (Borrion
et al., 2012; Raman and Gnansounou, 2015; Morales et al., 2015)
and bipolymers (Tsiropoulos et al., 2015; Hottle et al., 2013;
Avolio et al., 2015; Pietrini et al., 2007). To the best knowledge
of the authors, no LCA study has been carried out to assess the
environmental impacts of LA production from lignocellulosic
biomass. This paper focuses on lignocellulosic LA from SCBL
and its environmental performances.
The aim of this paper is to present a quantitative evaluation
of the environmental loads associated with the produc-
tion of LA from lignocellulose biomass, SCBL, and compare
this to the petrochemical equivalent via a cradle-to-gate
LCA. In combination with the techno-economic assess-
ment, this environmental impact assessment will help the
industry to consider replacing petrochemical products with
biobased ones and annexing such a facility to the exist-
ing sugar mill in South Africa. Furthermore, it will indicate
weak points (hot spots) of the production process that need
further investigation to reduce the overall environmental
impact.
The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the produc-
tion of LA from lignocellulosic residues (sugarcane bagasse
and leaves) and fossil feedstocks is described. The details of
the LCA methodology and inventory used in this work are
given in Section 3, followed by Section 4 which provides an
60 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70
Fig. 1 – An overview of LA production processes: (a) microbial fermentation from renewable recourses and (b) chemical
synthesis from non-renewable recourses.
analysis of the results. Finally, the paper finishes with Sec-
tion 5, where the main conclusions are reviewed.
2. Lactic acid production
The two methods with industrial importance for the produc-
tion of LA are microbial fermentation, and chemical synthesis
as depicted in Fig. 1. Chemical synthesis from petrochemi-
cal resources always result in a racemic mixture of dl-lactic
acid, while an optically pure d(−) or l(+) LA can be pro-
duced via microbial fermentation. Moreover, microbial LA
fermentation offers an advantage in terms of the utilization
of renewable carbohydrate biomass, low production tem-
peratures, low energy consumption, and the production of
optically high purity LA by selecting an appropriate strain.
While homopolymer polylactic acid, PLA, forms regular struc-
tures and develops a crystalline phase, copolymerization with
d(−) and l(+) LA leads to the interruption of the regular struc-
tures and the formation of amorphous materials. In order to
achieve the desired polymer properties, high purity d(−) or l(+)
LA monomers are necessary (Yebo and Fengjie, 2010). Biobased
and fossil based LA production process are presented in Sec-
tions 2.1 and 2.2 respectively.
2.1. Lactic acid from renewable resources
The demand for LA has increased due to an increase in the
range of applications, with an increased focus on the use of
low-cost non-food materials for LA production. In this regard,
lignocellulosic biomass, SCBL, is a promising feedstock for LA
production considering its availability, sustainability, and low
cost compared to refined sugars. However, the commercial use
of lignocellulose for LA production is still challenging due to
its complexity. The major constituents of lignocellulose are
cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin polymers that are inter-
connected, hence the recalcitrance of this type of biomass
to biological conversions (Abdel-Rahman et al., 2011; Mazzoli
et al., 2014; Benjamin et al., 2014).
The conventional processes for producing LA from lig-
nocellulosic biomass, depicted in Fig. 1a, includes four
main steps (Taherzadeh and Karimi, 2008): (a) pretreatment
(Sreenath et al., 2001) – breaking down the structure of the
lignocellulosic matrix, (b) enzymatic hydrolysis – depolymer-
izing lignocellulose to fermentable sugars, such as glucose
and xylose, by means of hydrolytic enzymes, (c) fermentation-
metabolizing the sugars to LA using homolactic acid strains
(Tamakawa et al., 2012; Ying et al., 2014; Zhao et al., 2013) (d)
separation and purification of LA – purification of LA to meet
the standards of commercial applications.
A rigorous process model was developed for the produc-
tion of LA from sugarcane lignocelluloses in Aspen Plus® V8.6
process simulation software. The Aspen Plus® model is based
on literature data and includes the pretreatment, hydrolysis,
fermentation and LA separation and purification as outlined
in Fig. 2.
In this study, steam explosion pretreatment (Rocha et al.,
2012; Oliveira et al., 2013; Agbor et al., 2011) is used to fraction-
ate the lignocellulosic matrix and break down the inter- and
intra-molecular linkages so as to separate the hemicellulose
and improve the accessibility of the cellulose for enzymatic
hydrolysis and fermentation. Fermentation of the dissolved
liquid hemicellulose fraction and simultaneous saccharifi-
cation and fermentation (SSF) of the cellu-lignin solid fraction
are modeled.
During a typical LA fermentation, the low pH (due to LA
production) has an inhibitory effect on the metabolic activities
of the producing microbial cells (Hongo et al., 1986). The addi-
tion of Ca(OH)2 or CaCO3 to neutralize the LA is a conventional
operation to minimize the negative effects of undissociated
LA accumulation in industrial processes (Hongo et al., 1986;
Abdel-Rahman et al., 2013). However, additional operations
are required to regenerate undissociated LA from its salt, Ca-
Lactate, and to dispose of or recycle the neutralizing cation,
by an acidification reaction with H2 SO4 . One prominent envi-
ronmental issue related to this manufacturing method is the
coproduction of large amounts of gypsum (∼1 tonne CaSO4
per 1 tonne of LA), which has to be discarded (Abdel-Rahman
et al., 2013) as waste resulting in high chemical cost and waste
generation. To overcome this environmental burden, in this
work Mg(OH)2 is used as neutralizer which forms Mg-lactate
(Krieken, 2012). The latter will react with triethylamine(R3 N),
Eq. (1), forming Mg(OH)2 crystal and a triethylamine-LA com-
plex, (R3 N-LA) in an exchange reactor referred as a SWAP
reactor. The Mg(OH)2 crystal will be filtered and recycled
back to fermentation (SSF in case of LA from cellu-lignin)
and the triethylamine-LA complex will be thermally decom-
posed to release LA where triethylamine will be recycled back
to the SWAP reactor, Eq. (2). The lignin residues and cell
 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70 61

Lignocellulose, SCBL

Steam
Explosion

Hemicellulose Cellu-lignin
liquid fraction Filtration
solid fraction

Mg(OH)2 Fermentation Mg(OH)2 SSF

Cell Lignin &

Filtration Filtration
removal Cell removal

Evaporation Evaporation
CHP
SWAP R3 N
SWAP R3 N
Filtration
Filtration
Decomposition
Decomposition

Separation &
Purification

Lactic
Acid

Fig. 2 – A process flow chart for LA production from lignocellulosic biomass materials, sugarcane bagasse, leaves and tops
(SCBL).

pellets are used as energy in the combined heat and power distillation and recycled back (ETOH-REC) to the esterification
plant(CHP). section.

Mg-Lactate + R3 N → Mg(OH)2 ↓ +R3 N-LA-Complex (1) [Esterification]

C3 H6 O3 + C2 H5 OH  C3 H5 O3 C2 H5 + H2 O (3)
Lactic acid Ethanol [Hydrolysis] Ethyl lactate Water

R3 N-LA-Complex → R3 N + Lactic acid (2)

2.2. Lactic acid from non-renewable resources

The recovery of LA from the fermentation broth is difficult
because of its low volatility and the presence of nonvolatile
The commercial process for chemical synthesis from fossil
impurities and other organic acids. Several processes for the
fuels is based on lactonitrile (Wee et al., 2006), CH3 CH(OH)CN
recovery of LA from the fermentation broth have been stud-
as shown in Fig. 1b. Feedstock preparation involves extraction
ied and reported such as electrodialysis (Hábová et al., 2004;
of crude oil and refining to produce ethane. Ethane is then used
Wee et al., 2005), nanofiltration (González et al., 2008; Pal
to make ethylene and which is then converted to acetalde-
et al., 2009), adsorption (Sena et al., 2011), solvent extraction
hyde, CH3 CHO, as depicted in Eq. (4). Acetaldehyde is used as
(Udachan and Sahoo, 2014), membrane separation (Gudena
a raw material to produce lactonitrile (acetaldehyde cyanohy-
et al., 2013), ion-exchange resins (González et al., 2006), and
drin) by a catalytic reaction of acetaldehyde with hydrogen
reactive distillation (Chien-Yuan et al., 2013; Mo et al., 2011).
cyanide (HCN) in the presence of a base catalyst under high
Reactive distillation (Taylor and Krishna, 2000; Gezae Daful,
pressure, Eq. (5). Crude lactonitrile is then purified by distil-
2012) was found to be promising at the industrial scale, with
lation and subsequently hydrolyzed to LA, Eq. (6), by H2 SO4
some cost advantages (Chien-Yuan et al., 2013) and thus two-
(Pal et al., 2009; Narayanan et al., 2004). LA is then esterified
step reactive distillation processes are modeled in the present
using methanol to produce methyl lactate, Eq. (7), which is
work. LA recovery involves two catalyzed reversible reactions,
removed and purified by distillation and hydrolyzed by water
esterification and hydrolysis, as shown in Eq. (3). As depicted
under acid catalyst to produce LA and the methanol, Eq. (8),
in Fig. 3, in the esterification column LA from the fermentation
which is recycled. The chemical synthesis route produces a
broth is converted to the more volatile ethyl ester (ETLA) using
racemic mixture of dl-lactic acid whereas in most of the cases,
ethanol and this ethyl ester is then removed from the col-
l-lactic acid is the preferred product.
umn by distillation. Pure LA, (99 wt.% l(+) LA) is subsequently
recovered by hydrolysis of the ester with water, in a hydrol-
ysis reactive distillation column. The ethanol from the top
of hydrolysis reactive distillation will be purified by normal Crude oil → Ethane → Ethylene → acetaldehyde (4)
62 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70

Fig. 3 – Process flow sheet for the purification of crude LA from the fermentation broth via reactive distillation columns.

1. Addition of hydrogen cyanide and catalyst comparison purposes. The LCA for biobased LA production
covers the environmental impacts for all processes up to the
[catalyst] point where LA leaves the factory gate and includes all raw
CH3 CHO + HCN → CH3 CH(OH)CN (5)
Acetaldehyde Hydrogen cyanide Lactonitrile materials and emissions of sugarcane cultivations, sugar mill,
industrial activities related to auxiliary chemicals, distribu-
2. Hydrolysis by H2 SO4 tion of raw materials, processing of sugarcane bagasse and
harvest residues (brown leaves) into LA. The system bound-
1
CH3 CH(OH)CN + 2H2 O + H2 SO4 → CH3 CHOHCOOH ary is thus described as a “cradle-to-gate” analysis including
Lactonitrile 2 Lactic acid
sugarcane cultivation, harvesting and transport, sugarcane
1 milling, auxiliary chemicals production, harvesting, trans-
+ (NH4 )2 SO4 (6)
2 Ammonium salt port, and production of LA as depicted in Fig. 4. All external
inputs are also included in the background processes for the
production and delivery of fertilizers, pesticides, electricity,
3. Esterification
harvesting and transport. Farm machinery and infrastructure
as well as the sugar mill infrastructure have not been included
CH3 CHOHCOOH + CH3 OH → CH3 CHOHCOOCH3 + H2 O
Lactic acid Methanol Methyl lactate as the large throughput and long lifetimes of farm and sugar
(7) mills make the impacts of their establishment and decom-
missioning per unit of product output insignificant (Renouf,
2006). To perform the LCA the intermediate products at each
4. Hydrolysis by H 2O stage require an allocation. For this study, allocation and sys-
tem expansion were relevant for all production units within
CH3 CHOHCOOCH3 → CH3 CHOHCOOH + CH3 OH (8) the system boundary considered. An economic allocation is
Methyl lactate Lactic acid Methanol
applied for the sugar mill among the products sugar, molasses
and bagasse. System expansion is used for accounting the
3. Methodology of Life Cycle Assessment avoided environmental impacts of fossil based LA production
upon replacing it with biobased LA.
The potential environmental impacts of a lignocellulosic The biobased and fossil based LAs are assumed to be func-
biomass based LA process have been investigated by means tionally equivalent because they can be used in the same
of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) (Guinée et al., 2004). An LCA way. All resources, refers to the consumption and depletion of
was carried out for L(+) lactic acid (LA) from lignocellulosic
SCBL and compared with fossil-based LA, as described in Sec-
tions 2.1 and 2.2 respectively. The LCA complies with ISO (ISO,
2006a,b) standards, consisting of four stages: goal and scope
definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and inter-
pretation.

3.1. Goal and scope definition

In this section, the system boundaries, reference system, func-

tional unit, level of detail, the impact categories and the
allocation method are identified. The goal is to assess the
potential environmental impacts of an LA production process
unit annexed to an existing South African sugar mill which
is represented using a generic sugar mill and consider how
this compares to fossil based LA production. Thus the func-
tional unit is 1 tonne of LA at the factory gate, in South Africa.
Though a racemic mixture of dl-lactic acid is obtained from
the fossil resources while the biobased LA produced in this Fig. 4 – System boundary for a biobased LA production,
work is an optically pure l(+)-lactic acid (as discussed in Sec- that comprises sugarcane cultivation including collection
tion 2), it is assumed that both have similar functionality for and transportation, sugar mill and LA production.
 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70
Table 1 – Environmental impact categories considered
for comparison of biobased LA and fossil based LA
production for the LCA study.
Symbol Description
ADP Abiotic depletion potential measured in kg of
Substance eq.
AP Acidification potential measured in kg SO2 eq.
FWEP Freshwater eutrophication potential measured in kg
PO3−
4 eq.
MEP Marine eutrophication potential measured in kg NO−
3
eq.
GWP Global warming potential measured in kg CO2 eq.
ODP Ozone layer depletion potential measured in kg
CFC-11 eq. (chlorofluorocarbon)
HTP Human toxicity potential measured in kg 1,4-DB eq.
(DB:dichlorobenzene)
FWAETP Fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity potential measured in
kg of 1,4-DB eq.
MAETP Marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential measured in kg
1,4-DB eq.
TETP Terrestrial ecotoxicity potential measured in kg 1,4-DB
eq.
POCP Photochemical oxidation potential measured in kg
C2 H4 eq.
MDP Metal depletion potential measured in kg Fe eq.
IRP Ionizing radiation potential measured in kBq U235 eq.
PM Particulate matter formation potential measured in kg
PM10 eq.
WDP Water depletion potential measured in m3 water used
ALO Agricultural land occupation measured in m2 a
ULO Urban land occupation measured in m2 a
NLT Natural land transformation measured in m2
abiotic and biotic resources, used by all process units depicted
in Fig. 4 and their respective emissions to air, water and solid
wastes are considered.
As can be observed from Fig. 4 there are different blocks in
the system boundaries: Sugarcane cultivation and harvesting
phases including sugarcane transportation block, sugar mill
block and the LA production block, and all associated inputs
and emissions.
The software package SimaPro® v8.0 and ReCiPe Mid-
point(H) methodology were used as tools for the envi-
ronmental impact assessment. The environmental impacts
the biobased LA production are evaluated through several
environmental impact categories, depicted in Table 1. The
functional unit is 1 tonne of LA produced. The fossil based LA
production is used as a reference system for the evaluations
of these environmental impacts. The results were interpreted,
analyzed and sets of conclusions are formulated in the follow-
ing section.
3.2. Data inventory
The inventories of the biobased LA production were based on
the computer simulations of the process developed in Aspen
Plus® v8.6 and described in Section 2.1. For sugarcane cul-
tivation stages average data were taken from literature and
from the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI).
Data for the sugar mill were taken from literature. Eco-invent
database was employed for all external input chemicals and
for the fossil based LA production.
3.2.1. Sugarcane cultivation
Most of the sugarcane cultivation in South Africa occurs in the
province of KwaZulu Natal, on the east coast. Approximately
20 million tonnes of sugarcane are produced per year, from
63
approximately 400,000 ha and delivered to 15 factories vary-
ing in size between 90 and 550 tonnes per hour, with an
average of 300 tonnes per hour or 1.5 million tonnes of sugar-
cane per annum (Mashoko et al., 2010, 2013; Smithers, 2014).
The South African sugar industry is diverse in location, typ-
ical sugarcane cultivation, that can be representative of the
diverse cultivation practices that differs from place to place is
considered. Data covering the inventory analysis of such typi-
cal sugarcane cultivation is derived from literature (Smithers,
2014; SASA; Mashoko et al., 2010, 2013; Groot and Borén, 2010;
Ramjeawon, 2004) and the South African Sugarcane Research
Institute (SASRI), as depicted in Table 2. Only 20% of the sug-
arcane cultivation area and 35% of the sugarcane produced
are under irrigation as most of the cane areas rely on rain-
fall (Mashoko et al., 2010). The total fossil energy required for
farming purposes is 38.65 (Mashoko et al., 2010) MJ/tonne of
sugarcane produced.
3.2.2. Sugarcane milling
The assessment has been carried out based on a typical South
African sugar mill with an intake of sugarcane to produce raw
sugar, molasses, and electricity. An average sugar mill with an
average sugarcane throughput of 300 tonnes/h over an eight
to nine month crushing season during which time the mills
operate continuously has been considered (Mashoko et al.,
2010). Relevant literature data (Mashoko et al., 2010, 2013) are
summarized in Table 3.
The resource inputs for production (Mashoko et al., 2010,
2013) of 1 tonne of raw sugar are 846 tonnes of sugar cane,
17,000 m3 raw water, 0.15 ha of land. Emissions to soil from
production of 1 tonne of raw sugar include 368 kg of ashes and
silage and 0.03 kg of hazardous waste. The emissions to air and
water per tonne of raw sugar produced is depicted in Table 3.
Two byproducts with annual mean (Mashoko et al., 2013) of
0.38 tonne of molasses and 0.56 tonne of filter cake per tonne
of raw sugar produced are considered. An economic allocation
was applied to emissions and their associated environmen-
tal impacts from the sugar mill among the different products,
raw sugars, molasses and bagasse based on their respective
market prices (760, 250, 7$/tonne, for raw sugars, molasses
and bagasse respectively) (Dias, 2011). The integrated system
of sugar mill and LA production is energy self-sufficient and
emissions associated with the CHP unit are added up to cal-
culate the emissions per kg of raw sugar produced as shown
in Table 3.
3.2.3. Biobased LA production
In the inventory analysis for biobased LA production, the mass
and energy balance from an Aspen Plus® simulation, devel-
oped as described in Section 2.1, was used. The resources and
utilities used and generated waste are given in Table 4. The
plant capacity is considered to produce 3624.10 kg/h from a
feedstock of 200 tonne/day (8333.33 kg/h) bagasse and brown
leaves. Auxiliary chemicals used in the production, magne-
sium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2 ), triethylamine (TEA), and ethanol
are recycled, with the make-up streams shown in Table 4. The
eco-invent database of SimaPro® was used for the environ-
mental profile of the auxiliary chemicals and for the substrate
and nutrients used in fermentation.
3.2.4. Fossil based LA production
Data for the most important processes of the chemical syn-
thesis of LA described in Section 2.2, were taken from the
Eco-invent database of SimaPro® .
64 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70

Table 2 – Data used for a typical sugarcane cultivation (Mashoko et al., 2010; Groot and Borén, 2010; Ramjeawon, 2004) in
South Africa.
Value Unit

Sugar cane agriculture

Cultivation area 400,000 ha
Average cane harvest 60 t/ha
Irrigation water requirements 8000 m3 /ha
Electricity consumption for irrigation 108 kWh/ha
N2 O emissions from soil 1.5 (1.25% of N input) kg
NOx emissions from soil 0.6 (0.5% of N input) kg

Fertilizer application rate/ha

Urea N 120 kg
DAP P2 O5 30 kg
Potassium oxide KCl 125 kg
Herbicides use 1614 (26.9 g/tonne sugar cane) g
Herbicides loss in water bodies 3.228 (0.2%) g
Nitrogen loss in water bodies 161.4 (10%) g
Phosphorus loss in surface runoff/ha 1 kg
Pesticide use 132.6 g

Cane transportation
Transportation, average distance, by
Toad (94% of cane) 25 km
Rail (6% of cane) 50 km
Diesel consumption
Truck 1.08 MJ/tkm
Rail 0.68 MJ/tkm
Fertilizers and herbicides transport distance 60 km

4. Results and discussion depicted in Table 1. These environmental impact indicators

are analyzed using ReCiPe Midpoint(H) to better understand
The environmental loads associated with the production of LA the environmental significance of the inventory results and
from a lignocellulosic sugarcane bagasse and leaves have been identify areas with a substantial environmental impact within
evaluated and compared to the petrochemical equivalent. The the process. The environmental impact categories have been
environmental impacts are categorized into eighteen environ- assessed and compared for both biobased and fossil based
mental categories obtained from the SimaPro LCA analysis LA as shown in Fig. 6 and discussed in Sections 4.1–4.13.
As depicted in Fig. 6, 16 of the 18 impact categories had a
much lower environmental impact for biobased LA than fossil
Table 3 – Sugar processing and emissions to air and based LA. Exceptions were agricultural land occupation and
water, kg per tonne of raw sugar produced (Mashoko water depletion potential. The higher contribution from the
et al., 2010, 2013). biobased LA to agricultural land occupation was mainly due
Sugar processing to agricultural land use for sugarcane cultivation and thus
Sugar produced/ha 6.0 tonne expected to be higher (Lammens et al., 2011). Similarly the
Bagasse produced 27.8% of cane water depletion potential was slightly higher for biobased LA
Molasses produced 4.1% of cane due to the process water used in the LA production and the
Filter cake produced 6.8% of cane
sugar mill as well as water used in sugarcane cultivation.
Steam consumed/tonne of cane 520 kg
Electricity consumption/tonne of cane 35 kWh
Electricity generation/tonne of cane 150 kWh
Coal consumption/tonne of cane 8.4 kg Table 4 – Input and output flow rates of LA production
water used for cane processing/tonne cane 0.6 m3 from Lignocellulosic biomass, SCBL, from Aspen Plus®
Pollutant loadings of COD/tonne of cane 3320 simulation, based on 200 tonne of SCBL per day
Pollutant loadings of BOD5/tonne of cane 1590
Lactic acid (LA), kg/h 3624.10
Air emissions
Resources, kg/h
CH4 7.5
Feed (SCBL) 8333.33
CO2 196
Process water 14,833.97
N2 O 0.5
TEA 87.80
SO2 2.18
Mg(OH)2 194.65
NO2 7.5
Ethanol 49.46
NMVOC2 0.07
Strains &nutrients 549.12
Suspended particulate matter 0.85
Utilities
Water emissions
Steam LPS, kg/h 1545.31
BOD7 6.6
Steam HPS, kg/h 11,445.90
COD 19
Electricity, kWh 123.84
NO− 3
12
PO3−
4 0.15 Waste
Suspended solids 0.05 Solid waste 4477.93
Fe 0.00126 Waste water 13,339.69
 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70 65

99
97 98
100
96 97
94 95 95 96
90 91
Environmental Savings (%)
90
86
84
82 81
80

70

61
60
P

EP

CP

TP

T
AP

PM

TP

IRP

P
NL
GW

OD

ME

HT

ET

AD

MD
UL
FW

AE
TE
PO

MA
FW
Fig. 5 – Environmental savings in different impact categories upon replacing a tonne of fossil based LA produced with its
equivalent biobased LA.

The environmental savings of the rest of the impact cate-
gories upon replacing the fossil based LA with lignocellulosic
biomass based LA ranges from 81% for particulate forma-
tion potential to 99% for ozone layer depletion potential, as
shown in Fig. 5, with a 61% saving for terrestrial ecotoxic-
ity potential. These range of saving potentials (61–99%) of the
environmental impact categories are in agreement with other
LCA studies of other bioproducts in the literature (Hermann
et al., 2007; Adom et al., 2014; Lammens et al., 2011; Cok
et al., 2014; Borrion et al., 2012; Raman and Gnansounou, 2015;
Tsiropoulos et al., 2015; Hottle et al., 2013; Avolio et al., 2015;
Pietrini et al., 2007) discussed in Section 2. The main environ-
mental impact contributions for the total impacts of biobased
LA production are depicted in Fig. 7. The main contributions
for most of the environmental impact categories considered
are found to be associated with the lignocellulosic biomass
(which includes all environmental impacts associated with
the sugarcane cultivation, sugar mill per unit mass of

Fig. 6 – Comparison of environmental impacts for the production of 1 tonne of biobased LA production and the equivalent
fossil-based LA (using ReCiPe Midpoint(H)). Total environmental savings are shown as the difference between the
environmental impacts of the biobased and fossil based LA productions. Some impacts have been scaled to fit. To obtain the
original values of the impacts, multiply the values shown on the graph by the factor shown on the x-axis for relevant
impacts. For the symbols of the impact categories and their descriptions refer to Table 1.
 66
food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70
Fig. 7 – Environmental impact contributions of the main contributors for the total impacts for biobased LA production. SCBL: sugarcane bagasse and leaves, TEA: triethylamine, EtOH:
ethanol, MgOH2 : magnesium hydroxide.
 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70
sugarcane bagasse and leaves), and auxiliary chemicals used
in the LA production particularly triethylamine, magnesium
hydroxide and ethanol as depicted in Fig. 7a–r.
Considering that this work is based on several assumptions
and data collected from literature sources (as discussed in
Section 3) uncertainty analysis by Monte Carlo method within
SimaPro® v8.0 was carried out to check robustness. Accord-
ing to the recommendation from SimaPro® tutorial (Goedkoop
et al., 2013) lognormal distribution was assumed. The results
show that for all scenarios Climate change impact obtained
from biobased LA production is lower than impacts from asso-
ciated fossil based LA, i.e. the reference system. The results
shown that for almost all environmental impacts obtained
from biobased LA production is lower than impacts associated
with fossil based LA in 100% cases, except for terrestrial tox-
icity, water depletion, agricultural land occupation. Analysis
for water depletion potential and agricultural land occupa-
tion show the reference system is environmentally friendlier
in 75% and 100% of cases respectively. However, for terres-
trial toxicity potential the biobased LA is environmentally
friendlier than the fossil based LA in 80% of the Monte Carlo
runs. Comparison results of uncertainty analysis and relative
results of LCA, showing the LCA results are consistent and
robust.
4.1. Global warming potential (GWP)
Global warming potential (Valdivia et al., 2013; Perimenis et al.,
2011) is the ability of greenhouse gases to trap heat in the
atmosphere relative to carbon dioxide, which serves as the
reference gas. The global warming potential of biobased and
fossil based LA are 412.50 and 4338.14 kg CO2 eq./tonne of LA
respectively, giving total environmental saving of 3925.65 kg
CO2 eq./tonne of LA upon replacing the fossil based LA
with biobased LA, i.e. reducing the environmental burden by
90.5%. The main GWP contribution for the biobased LA comes
from the Mg(OH)2 and triethylamine (TEA) productions with
324.0 kg CO2 eq. and 73.55 kg CO2 eq. respectively, as depicted
in Fig. 7a.
4.2. Acidification potential (AP)
Acidic gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2 ) react with water in
the atmosphere to form ‘acid rain’, where it causes ecosystem
damage of varying degree, depending upon the nature of the
landscape ecosystems. Biobased LA contributes an acidifica-
tion potential of 1.09 kg SO2 eq./tonne of LA, while the fossil
based LA contributes an acidification potential of 19.32 kg SO2
eq./tonne of LA, resulting in a net environmental saving of
18.23 kg SO2 eq./tonne of LA produced upon replacing the
fossil based LA with biobased LA, i.e. reducing the environ-
mental burden by 94.3%. The terrestrial acidification potential
of biobased LA is largely due to Mg(OH)2 and triethylamine, as
shown in Fig. 7q.
4.3. Eutrophication potential (EP)
Eutrophication is the accumulation of chemical nutrients in an
ecosystem which leads to abnormal productivity. Freshwater
eutrophication potential (FWEP) and marine eutrophication
potential (MEP) are considered in this study. The FWEP con-
tributions of biobased and fossil based LA are 0.046 and 1.01 kg
PO3−
4 eq./tonne of LA, respectively. Similarly the MEP contrib-
utions of biobased and fossil based LA are 0.256 and 6.15 kg
67
NO− 3 eq./tonne of LA. Thus the net environmental savings of
replacing fossil based LA with biobased LA are 0.966 kg PO3−
4
eq. per tonne of LA and 5.89 kg NO− 3 eq. per tonne of LA for
FWEP and MEP respectively. Thus reducing the environmental
burden by 95.4% and 95.8% for FWEP and MEP, compared to
fossil-derived LA. The eutrophication potential contribution
of biobased LA is attributed to the impacts associated with
Mg(OH)2 , triethylamine and ethanol production, depicted in
Fig. 7o and p.
4.4. Abiotic depletion potential (ADP)
This category covers a variety of sub-impacts with the main
concept, the consumption of non-biological resources such as
fossil fuels, minerals, metals, water, etc. In this work the value
of the abiotic resource consumption of crude oil is considered.
A negative impact indicants a saving in the abiotic resources.
The biobased LA is the best option with ADP of 60.97 kg fos-
sil fuel eq. per tonne of LA, while the fossil based LA needs
about 1803.02 kg fossil fuel eq. per tonne of LA, giving a sav-
ing of 1742.05 kg fossil fuel eq. per tonne of LA, i.e. reducing
the environmental burden by 96.6%. The ADP of biobased LA
production is primarily associated with the triethylamine and
Mg(OH)2 as depicted in Fig. 7b.
4.5. Ecotoxicity potentials (ETP)
Environmental toxicity is measured as three separate impact
categories which examine the effects on freshwater, marine
and land. The total terrestrial ecotoxicity potential (TETP),
freshwater Aquatic ecotoxicity potential (FWAETP), and
marine aquatic ecotoxicity (MAETP) from biobased LA are
approximately 0.57, 8.45 and 7.29 kg 1,4-DB eq. per tonne of
LA, respectively. While these impact categories from fossil
based LA production are 0.71, 51.42 and 50.76 kg 1,4-DB eq.
per tonne of LA, respectively, giving a net environmental sav-
ings of 0.14, 42.97 and 43.48 kg 1,4-DB eq. per tonne of LA
for TETP, FWAETP and MAETP respectively, i.e. reducing their
respective environmental burdens by 19.1%, 83.6% and 85.6%.
The total environmental impact regarding TETP, FWAETP and
MAETP is negative, showing an order of magnitude saving in
freshwater and marine ecotoxicity potential. Considering the
total eco-toxicity potentials, ETP, 16.30 and 102.89 kg 1,4-DB
eq. per tonne of LA for biobased and fossil based LA produc-
tions respectively, resulting a net environmental benefit of
86.59 kg 1,4-DB eq. per tonne of LA upon replacing the fossil
based LA with biobased LA. Mg(OH)2 is the major contributor
for the MAETP and FWAETP (see Fig. 7i and j) while ethanol
contributes to TETP, as shown in Fig. 7k.
4.6. Human toxicity potential (HTP)
The human toxicity potential is a calculated index that reflects
the potential harm of a unit of chemical released into the
environment, and is based on both the inherent toxicity of a
compound and its potential dose. The human toxicity poten-
tial of producing LA from lignocellulosic biomass and that of
fossil resources results in 137.05 and 1433.22 kg 1,4-DB eq. per
tonne of LA respectively. Thus the total environmental sav-
ing in terms of HTP upon replacing the fossil based LA with
biobased LA is 1296.16 kg 1,4-DB eq. per tonne of LA produced,
i.e. reducing the environmental burden by 90.4%. As shown in
Fig. 7n Mg(OH)2 is the major contributor for HTP.
68 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70
4.7. Ozone layer depletion potential (ODP)
Ozone-depleting gases cause damage to stratospheric ozone
or the ‘ozone layer’. There is great uncertainty about the
combined effects of different gases in the stratosphere, and
all chlorinated and brominated compounds that are stable
enough to reach the stratosphere can have an effect. Chlo-
rofluorocarbons (CFCs), halons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons
(HCFCs) are the major causes of ozone depletion. The ozone
layer depletion potential for biobased and fossil based LA pro-
duction are 7.69 × 10−6 and 5.73 × 10−4 kg CFC-11 eq. per tonne
of LA produced respectively, giving a net environmental saving
potential of 5.65 × 10−4 kg CFC-11 eq. per tonne of LA pro-
duced up on replacing the fossil based LA with biobased LA,
i.e. reducing the environmental burden by 98.7%. As shown in
Fig. 7r Mg(OH)2 and triethylamine are the major contributors
for ODP.
4.8. Photochemical oxidant creation potential (POCP)
Ozone is protective in the stratosphere, but on the ground-
level it is toxic to humans in high concentrations. Also known
as, photochemical ozone, it is formed by the reaction of
volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides in the pres-
ence of heat and sunlight. The photochemical oxidant creation
potential measures the potential for the creation of photo-
chemical (summer) smog due to the reaction of relevant
chemical compounds when exposed to sunlight. The POCP
for biobased and fossil based LA productions are 2.44 and
13.08 kg C2 H4 eq. per tonne of LA produced respectively, giving
a net environmental saving potential of 10.64 kg C2 H4 eq. per
tonne of LA produced upon replacing the fossil based LA with
biobased LA, i.e. reducing the environmental burden by 81.3%.
Electricity is the main contributor for POCP (not shown) along
with triethylamine and Mg(OH)2 are the major contributor for
POCP as shown in Fig. 7m.
4.9. Water depletion potential (WDP)
The water depletion potential is higher for the biobased LA
production, 15.48 m3 , than its equivalent from fossil based LA
12.09 m3 . This is due to the impact associated with sugarcane
cultivation for biobased LA production amounts as shown in
Fig. 7d.
4.10. Metal depletion potential (MDP)
The potential for metal depletion of biobased and fossil based
LA are 5.48 and 259.46 kg Fe eq. per tonne of LA respectively,
resulting in a net environmental saving of 253.97 kg Fe eq. per
tonne of LA upon replacing the fossil based LA with biobased
LA, i.e. reducing the environmental burden by 97.9%. The
contributions for this impact category for the biobased LA
production are 63.47% associated with triethylamine, 23.06%
associated with Mg(OH)2 and 10% associated with ethanol, as
shown in Fig. 7c.
4.11. Ionizing radiation potential (IRP)
Ionizing radiation is an impact category in LCA relating to
the damage to human health and ecosystems that is linked
to the emissions of radionuclides throughout a process. The
ionizing radiation potentials of biobased and fossil based LA
productions are 13.16 and 410.95 kBq U235 eq. per tonne of LA
respectively, giving a net environmental saving of 397.79 kBq
U235 eq. upon replacing the fossil based LA with biobased LA,
i.e. reducing the environmental burden by 96.8%. About 72%
of the ionizing radiations of biobased LA is associated with
Mg(OH)2 production while 24.2% of the IRP is associated with
triethylamine as depicted in Fig. 7h.
4.12. Particulate matter formation (PM)
Particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of extremely
small particles. Particle pollution can be made up of a number
of components, including acids (such as nitrates and sulfates),
organic chemicals, metals, and soil or dust particles. A mul-
titude of health problems, especially of the respiratory tract,
are linked to particulate pollution. PM is measured in PM10
equivalents, i.e. particles with a size of 10 ␮m. The potential
particulate matter formation for the biobased LA production
is 1.24 and that of fossil based LA 6.55 kg PM10 eq. per tonne of
LA produced. The total environmental saving is thus, 5.31 kg
PM10 eq. per tonne of LA produced up on replacing the fossil
based LA with biobased LA, i.e. reducing the environmental
burden by 81.1%. Mg(OH)2 is the major contributor for the PM
of the biobased LA production as depicted in Fig. 7l.
4.13. Land use (LU)
The total land use potential for agricultural land occupation
(ALO) and urban land occupation (ULO) is 6.62 × 106 m2 a and
157.31 m2 a per tonne of LA produced for biobased and fos-
sil based LA respectively, which is mainly contributed from
the agricultural land use for sugarcane cultivation. Of the
total land use potential 99.9% is associated with the agri-
cultural land occupation for the biobased while 75.9% of
the land use potential for fossil based LA is associated with
the urban land occupation. Land use for the production of
biobased LA was mainly due to sugarcane cultivation to
provide the lignocellulosic biomass SCBL as feedstock. Land
use for biobased chemicals is generally expected to be higher
than that for equivalent fossil based products (Lammens et al.,
2011; Hermann et al., 2007).
Similarly, it can be seen that the natural land transfor-
mation (NLT) per tonne of LA produced from lignocellulosic
biomass and fossil sources are 0.016 and 0.394 m2 respectively,
giving a net saving of 0.378 m2 per tonne of LA up on replacing
the fossil based LA with biobased LA, i.e. reducing the envi-
ronmental burden by 95.9%. The major contributor for NLT
and ULO are Mg(OH)2 and triethylamine as depicted in Fig. 7e
and f, while the feedstock (sugarcane bagasse, leaves and tops)
contributes to ALO as depicted in Fig. 7g.
5. Conclusion
This study evaluated the environmental performance of LA
produced from lignocellulosic biomass SCBL and petrochem-
ical sources using a life cycle approach. Functional similarity
is assumed for both biobased and fossil based LA, and eco-
nomic allocation and system expansion are applied for the
sugar mill and the biobased LA production units respectively.
From this analysis it has been found that biobased LA has
lower values in almost all environmental impact categories
considered, except for water depletion potential and agricul-
tural land occupation with uncertainties of 75% and 100% of
the cases respectively. The dominant environmental impacts
of the analyzed categories from which large environmental
 food and bioproducts processing 9 9 ( 2 0 1 6 ) 58–70
savings obtained per tonne of LA produced are global warm-
ing potential (3925.65 kg CO2 eq.), abiotic depletion potential
(1742.05 kg fossil fuel eq.), human toxicity potential (1296.16 kg
1,4-DB eq.), ionizing radiation potential (397.79 kBq U235 eq.)
and metal depletion potential (253.97 kg Fe eq.). About 80–99%
of the environmental burdens of most of the environmental
impact categories of the fossil based LA can be reduced upon
replacing with its biobased equivalent. The Monte Carlo uncer-
tainty analysis shows almost 100% of the cases in most of the
impact categories biobased LA is environmentally friendlier
than its fossil based equivalent. Thus, the percent study
quantitatively shows that the biobased LA is environmentally
superior to the fossil based LA.
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a research project, ‘Greener Cities in
South Africa’, funded by the Green Fund, an environmental
finance mechanism implemented by the Development Bank
of Southern Africa (DBSA) on behalf of the Department of
Environmental Affairs (DEA). The authors would like to thank
South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI), for pro-
viding data for the sugarcane cultivation stages. Aspen Plus®
is a registered trademark of Aspen Technology Inc.
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