ECAB 5 The 5 th EUROPEAN CONGRESS OF APPLIED BIOTECHNOLOGY Florence 15-19 September 2019 Life Cycle Assessment of the replacement of hexane by ethanol in the soybean oil extraction Process Simone Miyoshi 2,* , Erich Potrich 1 , Felipe Furlan 2 ; Raquel Giordano 1,2 , Antonio Cruz 1,2 ; Roberto Giordano 1,2 1 Chemical Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of São Carlos, UFSCar, Via Washington Luiz, km 235, São Carlos, São Paulo 13565-905, Brazil. 2 Chemical Engineering Department, Federal University of São Carlos, UFSCar, Via Washington Luiz, km 235, São Carlos, São Paulo 13565-905, Brazil. * Corresponding Author. Email: simone.miyoshi@ufscar.br Highlights • Life cycle assessment of the extraction was performed with ethanol as solvent. • Carbon footprint of bioethanol-extracted soybean oil is smaller than hexane- extracted. • Bioelectricity may be co-product of the ethanol-soybean oil plant. 1. Introduction The replacement of non-renewable solvents in industrial process will contribute to the consolidation of the low-C economy. In 2015, Brazil signed the Paris agreement and committed to reduce 37% of greenhouse gases emissions, based on 2005, until 2025. Other commitment was to reach 45% of renewable energy sources on the Brazilian energy grid and to promote clean technologies in the industrial sector. Brazil is the second larger producer of soybean, responsible for 35.38% of the worldwide production in 2015. According to [1], the 2020 soybean production forecast is 114.7 million metric tons and 10 million of tons of soybean oil. Although hexane is the conventional solvent used for soybean oil extraction the extraction of oilseeds with ethanol is a sustainable and technically feasible alternative [2,3,4]. Both anhydrous ethanol and hydrous ethanol (1G bioethanol from sugarcane) can be used for seed oil extraction. Besides, in order to contemplate a future biorefinery integration, vapor and electricity demands may be supplied in a cogeneration system using sugarcane bagasse. This work aims to simulate these oil extraction process, and to quantify the environmental impacts of this solvent replacement through LCA. 2. Methods The process was simulated in the equation-oriented Environment for Modelling Simulation and Optimization (EMSO). The process consists of a cracker, conditioner, flaker, expander, extractor, desolventizer, toaster, evaporator, degumming, deacidified and solvent recovery section. Four scenarios assessed, using the solvents hexane, hydrous ethanol, anhydrous ethanol recovered by glycerol extractive distillation, and anhydrous ethanol recovered by mono ethylene glycol (MEG) extractive distillation. The solid fraction from the extraction proceed to the desolventizer-toster in