Environmental impact assessment of water hyacinth pyrolysis to produce bio‐oil

The future of sustainable chemicals lies in the adoption of renewable sources such as biomass conversion. One unique biomass that can be utilized is water hyacinth. Apart from being able to overcome river pollution, its valorization can produce bio‐oil. In this study, the environmental impacts of water hyacinth pyrolysis were assessed. It employed the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach with a cradle‐to‐gate system boundary and a functional unit of 50 kg of bio‐oil. The pyrolysis of 250 kg of pretreated water hyacinth at 400°C demonstrated a yield of 19.45% ± 1.02% for bio‐oil. Following the results, the pyrolysis process predominantly contributes to 66.2%–99.7% of environmental impacts due to the high liquid petroleum gas (LPG) requirement. The sensitivity results exhibit a meaningful change of impacts under alteration of ±10% LPG consumption. The findings underscore the environmental benefits of converting water hyacinth into bio‐oil to address its ecological challenges while simultaneously enhancing sustainability.