Economic viability and life cycle assessment of levulinic acid and hydrochar production via catalytic hydrothermal process of waste lignocellulosic biomass: A comparison of feedstock types

Abstract

Techno economic (TEA) and life cycle assessments (LCA) were conducted to compare the feasibility for scaling up of levulinic acid (LA) and hydrochar (HC) production from five biomass types. This investigation demonstrated for the first time the potential of reusing HC as fuel for LA production. Molasses (ML) yielded the highest LA product, while corn stalk (CS) demonstrated superior economic viability (22.81 % internal rate of return) due to its lower feedstock cost and HC reuse as an energy source. While, ML-based LA had the lowest environmental impact (27.61 kg CO2 eq./kg LA), emphasizing the importance of biomass selection.