Exergoeconomic, Exergoenvironmental, and Renewability Assessment of Corn Stover and Sugarcane Bagasse PLA Biorefineries With Co-Product Valorization.

Authors

Reza Hessampour, Ali Jahanian, Jerome Ramirez, Ian O'Hara

Published in

Global challenges (Hoboken, NJ). Volume 10. Issue 10. Pages e70164. Epub Oct 24, 2026.

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.

PMID:
42927296
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 25 Oct 2026.

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