|
6E - Life cycle management (MOP/212) Procedure for the estimation of LCIs for the production of fine and speciality chemicals. Geisler, Georg1, Hofstetter, Thomas1, Hungerbuehler, Konrad1, 1 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland ABSTRACT- For the improvement of the environmental performance of chemical products or services, especially via comparisons of chemical products, LCA is a suitable evaluation method. However, no procedure to obtain comprehensive LCI-data on the production of fine- and speciality chemicals is available to date, and information on such production processes is scarce. Thus, a procedure was developed for the estimation of LCIs of chemical production process steps, which relies on only few, publicly available input data. A generic input-output scheme of chemical production process steps was set up and equations to calculate inputs and outputs were established. For most parameters in the resulting estimation procedure default values were derived from on-site data on chemical production processes and heuristics. Uncertainties in the estimated default values were reflected as best- and worst-case scenarios. Results of a case study showed, that the estimation procedure enables comparisons of chemical products by LCA. In a verification of parts of the case-study LCI, data from existing processes yielded results within the range of the estimated best- and worst-case scenarios. From the verification results it is inferred that LCIs from existing processes of chemical production will more frequently correspond to the LCIs estimated in the best-case scenario than to those estimated in the worst-case scenario. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the estimation procedure was carried out. Solvent demand was found to be the most crucial parameter in the environmental performance of the chemical production processes assessed. Key words: production, chemicals, solvent, life cycle inventory (LCI) |
