Ranking economic and environmental performance of feedstocks used in bio-based production systems

Biotechnology offers renewable alternatives for producing food, materials, and numerous functional compounds. While rampant human activities are disrupting planets’ geophysical flows, it is urgent to develop sustainable solutions with novel feedstocks and innovative valorization pathways. With the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance circularity, new raw materials termed the next-generation feedstocks (NGFs), such as carbon dioxide, methane, methanol, formic acid, and acetic acid, have emerged as potential feedstocks for bio-based processes. So far, no such review exists that compares the performance of conventional, sugar, lignocellulosic, algae-based feedstocks, and NGFs, which biotechnology could upcycle into a wide range of products. In this review, the economic and environmental performances of the feedstocks are analyzed, and quantifications are presented and standardized based on techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment models. The main parameters for comparison included the geographical location, unit production cost, and environmental impact categories. The results show that the economic and environmental performances are highly variable among the different feedstocks and their processing routes, also depicting evident tradeoffs. Carbon dioxide, sugar cane molasses and glycerol from waste streams are performing better on assessed indicators overall than other potential feedstocks. Nonetheless, this designed data source is the first step for reliable feedstock selection based on sustainability criteria.