Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Water Process Engineering, cilt.88, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Cheese whey is an abundant and valuable resource; however, its widespread production and highly polluting nature pose serious environmental challenges. This article employs the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach to evaluate the sequential production of chemicals—such as whey protein, lactose, whey powder, and succinic acid—and the generation of energy (electricity, heat, and biogas) from cheese whey, using data from both real-scale and pilot-scale plants. The world's first-of-a-kind integrated cheese whey biorefinery has been developed to address waste disposal challenges in the dairy industry by converting dairy side streams into high-value biochemicals and bioenergy. Three main scenarios were examined. The production of lactose and whey powder, conducted at a real-scale facility, is common to all scenarios and is referred to as Process 1. Scenario 1 evaluates the current wastewater treatment technology used in the real-scale plant. Scenario 2 investigates an alternative wastewater treatment technology for the existing production process. Process 2 involves the production of succinic acid, and Scenario 3 explores integrating Process 2 into the alternative wastewater treatment system. Among the scenarios, Scenario 1 was the most severe and exhibited the highest environmental impact, particularly in terms of marine aquatic ecotoxicity and eutrophication. This is primarily due to the existing conventional wastewater treatment process and the absence of an energy recovery system. In contrast, Scenario 3, which implements a resource recovery system to produce multiple end products, was the most environmentally friendly. Scenario 3 significantly reduces cumulative energy demand. However, the fermentation process used to produce succinic acid requires large amounts of water, thereby increasing the water footprint. This study introduces an innovative cascade valorisation approach, enabling the simultaneous production of high-value biochemicals and renewable energy, aiming to achieve zero waste. This groundbreaking study delivers the first-ever integrative and multidimensional LCA-based framework in the literature, uniquely assessing both current and future production strategies of cheese whey. The findings not only expand the potential applications of cheese whey but also establish a new standard for sustainable biowaste management within the circular economy.