Life Cycle Assessment of an innovative polyhydroxyalkanoates biorefinery: addressing background data gaps for sustainable development

The synthesis of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from waste feedstock has gained increasingly relevance as it appears to be a more economical and sustainable way of production. In this context, the Horizon Europe project BioLaMer proposes to use the food eating black soldier fly larvae as the fermentation medium. To ensure the environmental sustainability of BioLaMer proof-of-principle, Life Cycle Assessment is performed since its beginning. Currently, Life Cycle Inventory is under development and some of the typical challenges when working with innovative processes are encountered. Among them, the lack of background data is particularly important. Here, the solution comprising the modelling of the missing datasets on LCA software will be proposed as the most appropriate one for innovative processes.