Life cycle assessment of wheat straw lignocellulosic bio-ethanol fuel in a local biorefinery prospective

The WS-E10 environmental profile was driven by the gasoline input in the blend, whilst the WS-E85 results showed the relevance of the crop phase. The comparison of the different blends and the gasoline-fuelled car highlighted for E10-blends similar profiles for almost all the impact categories, nearly overlapping with the conventional vehicle. Differently, for E85 vehicles, the differences between the bio-based systems appeared amplified according to the specific impacts of the feedstock supply and the conversion steps. On the whole, Fiber Sorghum-E85 system showed the worst environmental profile whilst WS-E85 entailed the best performance.