Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Tall Oil-Based Polyols Suitable for Rigid Polyurethane Foams
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- TOFA epoxidation using ion exchange resin [38];
- chemical synthesis of TOFA based bio-polyols, their characterization and chemical structure and development of rigid PU foam thermal insulation from the said bio-polyols and their characterization (published by our group’s researcher, Kirpluks et al.) [37].
- Screening LCA of bio-polyol synthesis method (present paper).
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Description of the Production Processes
2.1.1. Step 1: TOFA Epoxidation
2.1.2. Step 2: Bio-Polyol Synthesis
2.1.3. Characterization of the Developed TOFA Based Bio-Polyols
2.2. Goal and Scope Definition
2.3. Life Cycle Inventory, Limitations and Assumptions
- The production of the catalyst LiOCl4 was not available in the Ecoinvent v3.5, NaOCl4 used as a proxy for LiOCl4.
- The production of polyfunctional TMP is not available in the Ecoinvent v3.5. The production of TMP is assumed to be similar to the production of other polyols [40]. Pentaerythritol was used as a proxy.
- The production of the ion exchange resin Amberlite IR-120 H was not available in the Ecoinvent v3.5, cation exchange resin dataset was used as a proxy.
- The potential environmental impacts of chemical‘s packaging materials are not included and are assumed to be negligible.
- The transportation of raw materials to the production site is not considered. These operations are deemed marginal, indicating that transport aspects of the chemical industry are minor to the LCA analysis as a whole [41].
2.4. Life Cycle Impact Assessment
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. CED as a Screening Impact Indicator
- ETOFA/TEOA: 67.9% is contributed to ETOFA, 24.2% to TEOA, 7.6% to electricity and 0.2% to catalyst;
- ETOFA/TMP: 68.7% is contributed to ETOFA, 16.8% to TMP proxy, 14.5% to electricity and 0.03% to catalyst;
- ETOFA/DEG: 69.7% is contributed to ETOFA, 15.9% to DEG, 23.6% to electricity and 0.2% to catalyst.
3.2. Life-Cycle Impact Assessment: IPCC 2013 GWP 100a
3.3. Life-Cycle Impact Assessment: ReCiPe 2016 Endpoint (H) V1.03/World (2010) H/A
4. Conclusions
- the bio-based feedstock was the main environmental hot-spot in the bio-polyol production process;
- the other large environmental hot-spots are the used polyfunctional alcohols for the ring-opening and the use of electricity for the bio-polyol synthesis;
- the impact of catalyst is negligible;
- the efforts to improve the environmental performance of bio-polyols should be put on the production phase of the ETOFA.
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Polyol | OH Value, mg KOH/g | Viscosity (25 °C), mPa·s | Acid Value, mg KOH/g | wH2O, % | Density (20 °C), g/cm3 | fn | Mn | TOFA Content in Bio-Polyol, % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ETOFA/TMP | 390 ± 15 | 77,000 ± 1000 | 7 ± 2 | <0.1 | 1.056 | 9.3 | 1264 | 62.2 |
ETOFA/DEG | 260 ± 10 | 1060 ± 40 | 5 ± 2 | <0.1 | 1.039 | 5.8 | 1854 | 67.9 |
ETOFA/TEOA | 500 ± 15 | 7400 ± 100 | 3 ± 2 | <0.5 | 1.047 | 7.9 | 888 | 59.5 |
Inputs | Unit | ETOFA/TMP | ETOFA/TEOA | ETOFA/DEG | Comments/Data Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ETOFA | kg | 0.69 | 0.66 | 0.76 | TOFA dataset from Ecoinvent v3.5 |
Catalyst | kg | 0.0035 | 0.0033 | 0.0038 | NaOCl4 used as a proxy for LiOCl4 |
Polyfunctional alcohol Pentaerythritol | kg | 0.41 | - | - | Used as a proxy for TMP |
Polyfunctional alcohol TEOA | kg | - | 0.44 | - | |
Polyfunctional alcohol DEG | kg | - | - | 0.36 | |
Electricity | kWh | 1.62 | 0.81 | 1.90 | |
Outputs | |||||
TOFA based bio-polyol | kg | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
Wastewater | kg | 0.05 | 0.05 | 0.05 | Negligible |
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Fridrihsone, A.; Abolins, A.; Kirpluks, M. Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Tall Oil-Based Polyols Suitable for Rigid Polyurethane Foams. Energies 2020, 13, 5249. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13205249
Fridrihsone A, Abolins A, Kirpluks M. Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Tall Oil-Based Polyols Suitable for Rigid Polyurethane Foams. Energies. 2020; 13(20):5249. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13205249
Chicago/Turabian StyleFridrihsone, Anda, Arnis Abolins, and Mikelis Kirpluks. 2020. "Screening Life Cycle Assessment of Tall Oil-Based Polyols Suitable for Rigid Polyurethane Foams" Energies 13, no. 20: 5249. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13205249