Evaluating and guiding the development of sustainable biorenewable chemicals with feasible space analysis

•Feasible space approach is introduced to evaluate the sustainability of bio-based products.•Performance targets can be determined using the feasible design space.•Feasible space analysis can be used to minimize technology development resources.

The economic and environmental performance of a biorenewable chemical process is analyzed by defining its cost, energy, and greenhouse gas feasible design spaces in terms of process parameters. Delimiting the feasible space of a process allows developers to set development targets and quantify performance trade-offs among unit processes. Feasible space analysis is demonstrated for the biocatalytic synthesis of C10 saturated fatty acid from glucose. Capric acid yield from glucose of ≥0.25 g g−1, titer of ≥40 g l−1, and volumetric productivity of 2 g l−1 h−1 are found to result in cost, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy consumption as good as or better than the conventional process for production of fatty acids from coconut oil.