Life cycle assessment of bilirubin oxidase production and its use for enzymatic solubilization of lignin at neutral pH
Abstract
Lignin is the largest renewable source of aromatic building blocks, yet it remains largely underutilized due to its structural complexity and poor water solubility. Enzymatic lignin treatment under mild, solvent-free conditions has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional chemical methods, but its environmental performance has not yet been assessed from a life cycle perspective. This study presents a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of bilirubin oxidase production and its application for enzymatic lignin solubilization at neutral to basic pH. Using laboratory-scale data, environmental impacts were quantified across eighteen midpoint categories to identify the main process contributors to environmental impacts. The results show that enzyme production dominates the environmental profile, primarily due to electricity consumption and the upstream impacts of growth media and chemical reagents. Treatment of lignin with the enzyme contributes a relatively smaller but significant share of impacts, mainly through auxiliary inputs such as oxidant supply. Sensitivity analyses highlight the strong influence of the electricity mix and demonstrate that substituting pure oxygen with ambient air could reduce oxidant-related impacts under the laboratory assumptions considered without altering the reaction chemistry. By extending life cycle assessment to enzymatic lignin treatment, this work addresses a gap in the lignin LCA literature, which has been focused predominantly on extraction and thermochemical valorization. The findings emphasize the importance of energy sourcing and process integration in the sustainable development of biocatalytic lignin technologies.
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BibTeX
@article{koyamparambath2026life,
title = {{Life cycle assessment of bilirubin oxidase production and its use for enzymatic solubilization of lignin at neutral pH}},
author = {Anish Koyamparambath and Daye Lee and Olga P Fuentes and Emmanuel Mignard and Sébastien Gounel and Wilfrid Neri and Philippe Poulin and Nicolas Mano and Guido Sonnemann},
journal = {Cleaner Environmental Systems},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1016/j.cesys.2026.100486},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05732668v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Life cycle assessment of bilirubin oxidase production and its use for enzymatic solubilization of lignin at neutral pH
AU - Anish Koyamparambath
AU - Daye Lee
AU - Olga P Fuentes
AU - Emmanuel Mignard
AU - Sébastien Gounel
AU - Wilfrid Neri
AU - Philippe Poulin
AU - Nicolas Mano
AU - Guido Sonnemann
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
JO - Cleaner Environmental Systems
DO - 10.1016/j.cesys.2026.100486
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05732668v1
AB - Lignin is the largest renewable source of aromatic building blocks, yet it remains largely underutilized due to its structural complexity and poor water solubility. Enzymatic lignin treatment under mild, solvent-free conditions has emerged as a promising alternative to conventional chemical methods, but its environmental performance has not yet been assessed from a life cycle perspective. This study presents a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment of bilirubin oxidase production and its application for enzymatic lignin solubilization at neutral to basic pH. Using laboratory-scale data, environmental impacts were quantified across eighteen midpoint categories to identify the main process contributors to environmental impacts. The results show that enzyme production dominates the environmental profile, primarily due to electricity consumption and the upstream impacts of growth media and chemical reagents. Treatment of lignin with the enzyme contributes a relatively smaller but significant share of impacts, mainly through auxiliary inputs such as oxidant supply. Sensitivity analyses highlight the strong influence of the electricity mix and demonstrate that substituting pure oxygen with ambient air could reduce oxidant-related impacts under the laboratory assumptions considered without altering the reaction chemistry. By extending life cycle assessment to enzymatic lignin treatment, this work addresses a gap in the lignin LCA literature, which has been focused predominantly on extraction and thermochemical valorization. The findings emphasize the importance of energy sourcing and process integration in the sustainable development of biocatalytic lignin technologies.
SN - 2666-7894
ER -