PHA Biocomposites from Lignocellulose: Scalability and Sustainability Analyses through Dynamic Simulation, LCA, and TEA

Abstract

Lignocellulosic residues are underutilized carbon resources for circular, inherently climate-negative biopolymer manufacturing. This study presents the first integrated dynamic simulation, life cycle assessment, and techno-economic analysis (DS-LCA-TEA) of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biocomposite production from lignocellulose. A kinetic and mass transfer-based bioreactor model was developed and calibrated using experimental data for Cupriavidus necator cultivated on lignocellulose-derived sugars, reproducing transient biomass and intracellular PHA accumulation (0.55 w/w PHA/substrate and 0.67 w/w PHA/cell dry weight). Dynamic outputs informed plant-wide mass and energy balances for a 1 kt/y PHAbiocomposite process integrating biomass pretreatment, fermentation, natural deep eutectic solvent-based PHA recovery, fiber-PHA compounding, and end-of-life circularity. The LCA results using ReCiPe (M) (H) show a global warming potential (GWP) of 1.51 kg CO₂e/kg PHA, which shifts to a net GWP of 0.21