To burn or valorise bark from a pulp mill: Environmental sustainability analysis using prospective consequential life cycle assessment

Abstract

Bark represents 10 % dry weight of spruce trees and is a major side stream from pulp production. Currently, pulp mills burn bark to produce energy with a low economic value, directly emitting biogenic carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Biorefining bark using a continuous flow-through fractionation process generates high added-value compounds (tall oil, starch, phenol, and pulp) that allow for extended carbon storage durations. This study assesses the potential future environmental impacts of valorising bark instead of burning it. We conduct a LCA study combining a prospective consequential modelling perspective with an input-related functional unit and account for the effects of storing biogenic carbon in the bark-based products. Our findings show that biorefining bark maintains lower environmental impacts than combustion, reducing time-differentiated climate impacts by up to 30 %, but only when the carbon dioxide used for pulping is recirculated and the fractionation processes are integrated with a co-located pulp mill supplying surplus waste energy, considered to have no associated environmental impacts. Storing biogenic carbon for a longer period of time has a positive effect on mitigating short-term climate impacts. However, our analysis reveals that while time-dependent climate impacts decrease, there is an increase in human toxicity and ecotoxicity impacts, with combustion performing better in these categories. This highlights the importance of expanding the scope of LCA studies to include impacts beyond climate change. Overall, this work demonstrates that combining a prospective consequential modelling perspective with an input-related functional unit is a relevant approach to study potential future impacts of emerging biorefineries and thus supports the development of a sustainable circular bioeconomy.