Environmental impacts and techno-economic assessments of biobased products: A review

Concerns over climate change and fossil resources depletion are drivers for increasing efforts to global transition from fossil-based to biobased products. The development of bioenergy and bioproduct systems, however, faces challenges in terms of resource use, environmental impacts, and production costs. Thus, identifying key areas to reduce costs and environmental impacts of biobased products is crucial. Based on the review of recent literature, this study aims to provide insights into the technical feasibility, costs, and environmental impacts of biobased products produced from different renewable biogenic resources, especially in reference to their fossil-based counterparts. Although biobased products are very diverse, this study focuses on the most promising set of biobased materials such as bio-chemicals, bioplastics, bio-adhesives, bicarbonates, nanocellulose, biochar, and activated carbon. By identifying the bottlenecks for reduction of costs and life cycle environmental impacts and the directions for future research needed in this area, this study would be useful for stakeholders of bioeconomy including researchers, policymakers, and producers who want to achieve the costs and environmental impacts reduction goals for sustainable development of biobased products.