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A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)

Includes abstract.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Harding, Kevin
Other Authors: Harrison, STL
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Harding, Kevin
author2 Harrison, STL
author_browse Harding, Kevin
Harrison, STL
author_facet Harrison, STL
Harding, Kevin
author_sort Harding, Kevin
collection Thesis
description Includes abstract.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5324
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:45.765Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research
publisherStr Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/5324 A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA) Harding, Kevin Harrison, STL Bioprocess Engineering Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references. The intrinsic environmental advantages of industrial scale bioprocesses over chemical processes remain a discussion point owing to limited objective analysis. Studies to date are often limited to energy or global warming considerations with little regard for full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyses. This, in part, may be owing to the difficulty in obtaining the material and energy balance inventory required for such assessment at an early stage in process development. However, these studies are important in designing and selecting environmentally beneficial processes for the conversion of renewable resources to commodity and energy products. The overall objective of the thesis is to obtain the data required to perform these LCA analyses. To achieve the overall objective, the thesis presents a methodology to obtain the material and energy balance data estimates required for the LCA of industrial bioprocesses through a generic flowsheet model. The flowsheet was presented as a MS-Excel spreadsheet allowing aerobic or anaerobic production of intra- or extracellular products using batch or continuous microbial processes. A database presented in the model facilitates the use of a variety of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus inputs and provides relevant constants and physical data. Typically downstream processing units were taken into account and included downstream chemical inputs (reacting or inert). The model was built using a stoichiometric approach, first principles and rules of thumb. 2014-07-31T11:09:42Z 2014-07-31T11:09:42Z 2008 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5324 eng application/pdf Centre for Bioprocess Engineering Research Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Bioprocess Engineering
Harding, Kevin
A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)
title_full A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)
title_fullStr A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)
title_full_unstemmed A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)
title_short A generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment (LCA)
title_sort generic approach to environmental assessment of microbial bioprocesses through life cycle assessment lca
topic Bioprocess Engineering
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/5324
work_keys_str_mv AT hardingkevin agenericapproachtoenvironmentalassessmentofmicrobialbioprocessesthroughlifecycleassessmentlca
AT hardingkevin genericapproachtoenvironmentalassessmentofmicrobialbioprocessesthroughlifecycleassessmentlca