Abstract:
AbstractLiterature suggests that depletion of nonârenewable resources is the most concerning environmental impact category in the life cycle of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC), mainly due to the fossil feedstock for ethylene. Therefore, bioethanol is considered as another source for ethylene in the PVC production chain. The objective of this review was to perform a cradleâtoâgate attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) of bioethanolâbased PVC resin. We created two scenarios for bioethanolâbased PVC (2010 and 2018), and compared them with fossilâbased PVC. We used primary data from Solvay S.A. and secondary data from the literature, for the life cycle inventory. For the impact assessment, we used several midpoint indicators and the ReCiPe Endpoint H/A. At midpoint level, bioethanolâbased PVC from 2010 and 2018 presented better results than fossilâbased PVC for nonârenewable resource use (13.8, 13.4, and 44.8 MJex/kg of PVC resin, respectively) and climate change (â0.09, â0.19, and 1.52 kg CO2eq/kg of PVC resin, respectively), but worse results for other environmental impact categories (e.g. ecotoxicity). At endpoint level, the two bioethanolâbased PVC scenarios showed better results overall than fossilâbased PVC (up to 66% lower). Within the bioethanolâbased PVC scenarios, the results for 2018 were better than for 2010 (up to 43% lower for the endpoint single score results) corroborating that higher efficiency (at the crop field and bioethanol production) and reduction of burnt harvest ought to reduce environmental impacts. Even though bioethanolâbased PVC had better results in comparison to fossilâbased, improvements should be sought to minimize other environmental impact categories, for example, biodiversity and ecotoxicity. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
