Plenary, Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12)
How systems thinking affects biomass conversion research
Philip G. Jessop Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
As a chemist, I used to assume that the most important and potentially the most harmful step in the conversion of biomass to products is the chemical reaction. For that reason, I believed that making the conversion reaction greener was the best way to reduce the environmental harm of the product material. That’s flawed thinking. I now call that attitude “the chemist’s myopia”. The opposite of myopia is systems thinking. Looking at the entire process of collection of biomass, conversion, isolation, and purification is necessary if we are to maximize the energetic efficiency and minimize the environmental impact of biomass conversion. For example, life cycle assessments (LCA) have shown that many otherwise green conversion processes are problematic in the separation steps, not the reaction step. Post-reaction separation of organic products from water is so environmentally and economically costly that biomass- derived products struggle to compete against petrochemicals. The major issue is often the high energy required for water removal. That situation must change if we are to attain a sustainable society in the future. As an example of how LCA data has guided biomass conversion research, I will describe how the chemistry of waste CO2 can be harnessed to lower the environmental and economic cost of separations. This will include new processes by which CO2 chemistry can help separate organics from water: high pressure switchable water (HPSW), solvent-assisted switchable water (SASW), and supercritical extraction from switchable water (SESW). It’s important to be aware that LCAs aren’t perfect; they have a myopia of their own. I will describe how researchers can compensate for the blind spots of LCAs.
© The Author(s), 2023
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