Environmental footprints of bio-based products for the chemical industry

The petrochemical industry is an important facilitator of our modern society by producing thousands of products. At the same time, the petrochemical industry is a major contributor to climate change, and thereby co-responsible for an unprecedented threat to our society. Decarbonizing the petrochemical industry is essential to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets and to substantially reduce its environmental impacts. Key strategies to make this industry more sustainable might include the use of biomass feedstock and developing new and cleaner technologies. The sustainability of bio-based chemicals and their expected environmental benefits is, however, currently under discussion, as (1) the environmental consequences of emerging bio-based technologies at a future, more technological developed level are uncertain, and (2) the potential tradeoffs between climate change, biodiversity loss, water availability, and pollution of replacing fossil feedstocks by bio-based resources in the chemical industry are still to be fully investigated. The main aim of my thesis is to quantify the environmental footprints of emerging bio-based products for the petrochemical industry compared to their fossil equivalents, which represent a pivotal element for evidence-based support of current and future policies.