Towards new approaches for assessing the climate change mitigation potentials of novel biopolymers from lignocellulosic biomass

A transition to a low carbon economy is necessary to achieve climate neutrality targets and sustainable development goals. In the chemical sector, biomass is a promising renewable feedstock to replace conventional fossil polymers. However, for some applications that need to maintain shape and mechanical strength at elevated temperatures (e.g., automotive, coating, construction, and hard packaging) the potential of biopolymers remains largely unexplored. Most of biopolymers with high glass transition temperature, high crystalline melting point, and high molecular weight are at an early-stage development with low technology readiness level (TRL). Thus, they cannot be fairly compared with their fossil counterparts, and a proper assessment of their environmental impacts is challenging. The identification of environmental hotspots and bottlenecks, possible synergies and recovery of materials is key to improve biopolymers environmental performance before their large-scale market penetration. An early-stage assessment can provide feedbacks to technology developers on potential improvements that maximize environmental benefits and realize sustainability-driven innovation. In this study, we develop novel approaches aiming at integrating early-stage and prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) for the analysis of new biopolymers produced from forest residues, blending methods for the scaling-up of environmental impacts of laboratory or pilot scale technologies with analysis of the influence of future socio-economic scenarios in the background economy. The maximization of biomass composition can deliver biopolymers with same functionality and services from fossil polymer, and new ones, as improved biodegradability, that can possibly reduce plastic pollution in the environment. After a fair benchmark of this emerging technology with commercial fossil equivalents (based on the same functionality or services from the polymer), our analysis can quantify the environmental performances of the novel biopolymers from forest residues. It helps to optimize production chain to maximize climate change mitigation benefits, select most promising processes, and guide the development of a sustainable biochemical sector. Emerging bio-based technologies will play a significant role in the decarbonization of our fossil economy. Therefore, the selection of promising technologies requires sustainability-driven innovation to guide their development.