Exergoeconomic, Exergoenvironmental, and Renewability Assessment of Corn Stover and Sugarcane Bagasse PLA Biorefineries With Co-Product Valorization.
4 affiliations
- 1School of Mechanical Medical and Process Engineering Faculty of Engineering Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Australia.
- 2Centre for Agriculture and Bioeconomy Faculty of Science Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Australia.
- 3ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Australia.
- 4ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology Queensland University of Technology Brisbane Australia.
Abstract
Lignocellulosic polylactic acid biorefineries face challenges due to high energy demand, complex downstream processing, and underutilized co-products. Although lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock, the sustainability, and economic impacts of integrating multiple value-added products remain unclear. This study develops an integrated thermodynamic, exergoeconomic, exergoenvironmental, and renewability assessment of bagasse- and corn stover-based biorefineries producing polylactic acid, electricity, and co-products including succinic acid, xylitol, and adhesives. Sugarcane bagasse exhibits higher fuel exergy input (103.94-138.47 GJ per functional unit (FU)) than corn stover (97.41-128.49 GJ/FU), with marginally higher product exergy output. Overall exergy efficiencies remain comparable (44%-64% for corn stover and 47%-65% for bagasse). Electricity-integrated configurations show poorer thermodynamic performance, with exergy destruction exceeding 55 GJ/FU, whereas adhesive-integrated configurations reduce destruction to 45.45-50.75 GJ/FU (corn stover) and 47.39-47.72 GJ/FU (bagasse), achieving efficiencies up to 65%. Exergoeconomic results indicate that downstream purification dominates cost formation. Succinic acid purification costs increase from 344.19 to 958.85 USD/GJ (corn stover to bagasse), while xylitol purification reaches 566.57 and 288.04 USD/GJ, respectively. Exergoenvironmental analysis identifies purification and pretreatment as hotspots. Renewability analysis shows that electricity-based configurations remain non-renewable (renewability indicator (RI)<0), whereas adhesive-integrated scenarios achieve partial renewability (RI = 0.35-0.47). Overall, co-product strategy and downstream processing influence system performance more strongly than feedstock selection.
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BibTeX
@article{hessampour2026exergoeconomic,
title = {{Exergoeconomic, Exergoenvironmental, and Renewability Assessment of Corn Stover and Sugarcane Bagasse PLA Biorefineries With Co-Product Valorization.}},
author = {Reza Hessampour and Ali Jahanian and Jerome Ramirez and Ian O'Hara},
journal = {Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ)},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/gch2.70164},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42927296},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Exergoeconomic, Exergoenvironmental, and Renewability Assessment of Corn Stover and Sugarcane Bagasse PLA Biorefineries With Co-Product Valorization.
AU - Reza Hessampour
AU - Ali Jahanian
AU - Jerome Ramirez
AU - Ian O'Hara
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
JO - Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ)
DO - 10.1002/gch2.70164
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42927296
AB - Lignocellulosic polylactic acid biorefineries face challenges due to high energy demand, complex downstream processing, and underutilized co-products. Although lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock, the sustainability, and economic impacts of integrating multiple value-added products remain unclear. This study develops an integrated thermodynamic, exergoeconomic, exergoenvironmental, and renewability assessment of bagasse- and corn stover-based biorefineries producing polylactic acid, electricity, and co-products including succinic acid, xylitol, and adhesives. Sugarcane bagasse exhibits higher fuel exergy input (103.94-138.47 GJ per functional unit (FU)) than corn stover (97.41-128.49 GJ/FU), with marginally higher product exergy output. Overall exergy efficiencies remain comparable (44%-64% for corn stover and 47%-65% for bagasse). Electricity-integrated configurations show poorer thermodynamic performance, with exergy destruction exceeding 55 GJ/FU, whereas adhesive-integrated configurations reduce destruction to 45.45-50.75 GJ/FU (corn stover) and 47.39-47.72 GJ/FU (bagasse), achieving efficiencies up to 65%. Exergoeconomic results indicate that downstream purification dominates cost formation. Succinic acid purification costs increase from 344.19 to 958.85 USD/GJ (corn stover to bagasse), while xylitol purification reaches 566.57 and 288.04 USD/GJ, respectively. Exergoenvironmental analysis identifies purification and pretreatment as hotspots. Renewability analysis shows that electricity-based configurations remain non-renewable (renewability indicator (RI)<0), whereas adhesive-integrated scenarios achieve partial renewability (RI = 0.35-0.47). Overall, co-product strategy and downstream processing influence system performance more strongly than feedstock selection.
SN - 2056-6646
ER -