Recently, the European Commission announced their intention to restrict intentionally added microplastics to reduce the amount emitted by 0.5 million tons per year. Findings on microplastics indicate toxic behavior for biota, yet many mechanisms remain in the dark. Microplastics also pose a challenge in life cycle assessment as methods are actively being developed. Considering this recent decision, an anticipatory life cycle assessment was performed, comparing the impacts of natural grass pitches with artificial grass pitches using bio-based infill materials as well as polymeric ones made from recycled and virgin materials. The aim was to confirm if microplastics are in fact a considerable environmental hazard when compared to more traditional impacts. The microplastics’ impact was modeled after the MarILCA group’s work on the new midpoint of physical effects on biota. The results showed that the influence of the microplastics remains negligible when using the method provided. For most midpoint categories, the wood-based infill showed the best results, often closely tied with the infill made from recycled rubber from tires. A sensitivity analysis revealed that neither the physical effects on biota nor the greenhouse gas emissions from degradation in a marine environment are deciding factors when assessing the endpoint of ecosystem damage.

Isobutene (IBN, C₄H₈) is widely used in industry. Currently, IBN production relies on petrochemical processes. The current work assesses the comparative environmental sustainability of bio‐based IBN production routes based on first‐ and second‐generation sugar compared with fossil IBN by applying the ISO 14044‐based Life Cycle Assessment methodology. In total nine scenarios are examined. Scenarios 1–6 used first‐generation sugar for IBN fermentation and scenarios 7–9 use cereal straw‐based second‐generation sugar. The scenarios also differ in their process energy source. The savings in Global Warming Potential for first‐generation IBN are up to 68% (scenario 1); for second‐generation IBN, the savings reach 105% if an avoided burden approach for utilizing lignin as an energy source is applied (scenario 8). It is found that applying renewable process energy is a prerequisite to maximizing greenhouse gas savings. Special attention has to be drawn to the eutrophication potential, were none of the scenarios show savings. This is driven by sugar crop cultivation owing to fertilizer usage, thermal energy from solid biomass or natural gas due to NO_x emissions and nutrient use for fermentation (e.g. ammonia). Scenarios 4, 7 and 8 show savings in the acidification potential compared with fossil IBN. A driver of acidification is biomass‐based process energy generation, mainly due to SO₂ and NO_x emissions from biomass combustion. In contrast, all scenarios show a better environmental performance concerning the freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential, the abiotic depletion and the photochemical ozone creation potential. Process development should focus on conversion efficiencies and a fully renewable process energy supply. © 2022 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The European Union is planning a new program to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. In this context, the Icelandic government plans to ban new registrations of fossil fuel cars after 2030 as one of the strategies to make Iceland a carbon-neutral country by 2040. Upgraded biogas can be directly used in vehicles with CNG engines, reducing CO₂ emissions by 80%. In this paper, several alternatives of biogas plants, simulated in previous research, were evaluated by considering techno-economic and environmental criteria through the application of multi-criteria decision-making tools. Twelve alternatives were analyzed using the Definite 3.1 software. A weighted summation algorithm, which transforms all criteria into the same scale by multiplying them by weights and then summing them to obtain the results, was used in the analysis. The multi-criteria analysis of the twelve proposed alternatives included eleven criteria (three technical, five economic, and three environmental) whose weights were changed in a total of eleven scenarios. From a global perspective, when all criteria were considered (9.1% weight) the best alternative with a score of 0.58 was the single-stage biogas plant working with municipal solid waste. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses also demonstrated that the multi-criteria results obtained were robust and reliable.