| Abstract | It is now common practice to conduct either a life cycle assessment (LCA) or techno-economic analysis (TEA) to assess the feasibility and sustainability profiles of specific technologies or product supply chains. Although numerous studies have proposed integrated frameworks for combining LCA and TEA for specific sectors, such a framework has not been proposed for the pulse protein processing sector to date. The goal of the current analysis was to propose such a framework including, in addition, integration of process simulation and optimization capabilities, that can enable assessing and improving the sustainability of existing and emerging pulse protein extraction pathways (i.e., dry fractionation, wet fractionation, hybrid) based on a combination of technical, economic, and environmental performance criteria. A systematic review of published articles was used to identify the key characteristics of sector-specific integrated frameworks and to subsequently propose a comparable framework for pulse processing pathways, taking into consideration relevant attributes of LCA and TEA studies of agri-food processing systems. Different system boundaries and functional units are commonly utilized for LCA (cradle to gate) and TEA/process simulation (gate to gate), but the proposed framework proposes using the same functional units (both mass and functionality based) based on output material. In addition to adhering to the ISO 14044 standard for LCA and established TEA methodologies, the proposed framework recommends integrating process simulation, genetic algorithm-based multi-objective optimization, GIS models for spatially explicit raw material production scenarios, and use of analytical hierarchy process to facilitate multi-criteria decision making. |
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