Life cycle assessment and techno-economic analysis of ethanol production: A review

Abstract. Fossil fuels are considered one of the most contributing for increasing the rate of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. On the other hand, renewable energy derived from biomass promising to reduce significantly the CO2 emissions, promoting less environmental impacts for the future generations. Nowadays, the cost and the environmental impacts of the process are the challenges for producing a green product with lower cost. Numerous research has been published over the lasts decades, but gaps remain in understanding the sustainability and the environmental impact of the ethanol production. The techno-economic analysis is designed in order to optimize one process, and the life cycle assessment is one tool for assessing the environmental performance of complex systems. The key objective of this study is to review and discuss the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) of cellulosic ethanol production that were done in previous studies.