Toward Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emission: Techno–Economic and Life Cycle Analyses of Routes for Triacetic Acid Lactone (TAL) Bioproduction

A global shift toward sustainable manufacturing is underway, with companies and governments across the globe pledging to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the path to net-zero is full of challenges, and without substantial changes to manufacturing practices, “net-zero” is unachievable. Biobased manufacturing could be a more sustainable alternative to traditional chemical production processes. We use triacetic acid lactone (TAL) produced from an engineered strain of Yarrowia lipolytica as a model system to explore the economic plausibility and environmental impact of several distinct routes to net-zero carbon emission manufacturing. Shifting away from conventional sugar-based fermentation, we employ a multiroute structure investigating alternative feedstocks including ethanol (2-ET), acetic acid (3-AA), and methanol (4-ME) as potential options for cost-effective and eco-friendly TAL production. Through comprehensive evaluation via bioprocess modeling, techno–economic analysis (TEA), and life cycle assessment (LCA), we evaluate the minimum selling price (MSP) and the intensity of GHG emissions for each production route and the environmental impact of raw material selection to gain clarity around net-zero emission strategies. The TEA shows that glucose-based TAL has the most favorable MSP of $28.60/kg at a production scale of 100 metric tons per year. In contrast, the MSPs of the TAL for scenarios 2-ET, 3-AA, and 4-ME are higher than glucose-based (1-GL) TAL. At 135 kiloton per year scale, acetic acid-based TAL, where the acetic acid was obtained from industrial off-gas fermentation, is the most cost-effective solution with an MSP of $6.06/kg. This strategy not only outcompetes the MSP of the glucose-based TAL by 8% but reaches net-negative CO 2 emissions. The study underscores the economic and environmental benefits of incorporating CO 2 utilization into manufacturing practices for net-zero production of TAL and other high-value compounds. Through the use of TAL as an example, this research showcases a cost-effective way to produce one bioproduct with net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and also provides perspective on the economic outlook of bioproduction from substrates generated using carbon capture technologies when competing against traditional sugar-based fermentation.