Environmental impact assessment of man-made cellulose fibres and

recycled polyester fibre

Dr. Li Shen (li.shen@wur.nl) LEI, Wageningen University and Research Centre

(Formally Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS), Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University)

[avniR] LCA in business Conference 2011

3-4 November 2011 Lille, France

Copernicus Institute Research Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation

Part I Comparative LCA of man-made

cellulose fibres Published in Resources, Conservation and

Recycling (2010) 55:34-52.

2

World fibre production 1920-2005 (kton)

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

30,000

35,000

1915 1925 1935 1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005

Cotton

Synthetic (petro-based)

Man-made cellulosic

Why man-made cellulose fibres are interesting?

So

urc

es: U

SD

A (

20

06

), J

CF

A (

20

06

), U

llma

nn

(1

99

7),

Te

xtile

on

line

lib

rary

(2

00

6)

3

LCA of man-made cellulose fibres

• Goal:

1) assess the impacts of man-made cellulose fibres;

2) compare with cotton, PET and PP.

• Functional unit:

– 1 metric tonne of staple fibre

• System boundary:

– cradle-to-factory gate

– cradle-to-factory gate plus post-consumer waste incineration with energy recovery

4

Man-made cellulose fibres - Viscose Asia - Viscose Austria - Modal - Tencel - Tencel 2012 Cotton (US and China) PET and PP fibres (Western Europe) (PLA)

Lenzing data

Literature data

Types of fibre and data sources

5

Viscose, Modal and Tencel

Fibre name Pulp source Process Process energy

Viscose Asia Market Pulp

Separate

production

Local electricity, coal, gas,

oil

Viscose Austria Lenzing Pulp

Integrated

production - Biomass

- Energy from MSWI

- Fossil fuels Modal

Lenzing Pulp Integrated

production

Tencel

Mixed

Market pulp &

Lenzing pulp

Separate

production

- Biomass (30%)

- Natural gas (70%)

Tencel, 2012 - Energy from MSWI

(100%)

6

Net NREU (GJ/t fibre), Cradle-to-factory gate plus post-consumer waste incineration with energy recovery

(recovery rate = 60%primary energy)

Cotton (U

S&CN)

PET (W.Europe)

PP (W.Europe)

PLA fibre, w

ithout w

ind

PLA fibre, w

ith w

ind

Lenzing Viscose Asia

Tencel, Austria

Lenzing Modal

Tencel, Austria

, 2012

Lenzing Viscose Austria-40

-20

0

20

40

60

80

100

Net NREU

Net NREU, lower range

Net NREU, higher range93

85

62

43

2536 22 19

-10 -14

-29

-9 -9 -9 -9 -9

Cradle-to-factory gate

Recovered energy from

waste incineration

(energy recovery rate 60%)

Cotton: 26

-11 -11

66

39

7

Environmental impact categories (CML) Cradle-to-factory gate, 1 tonne fibre (cotton = 100)

abiotic depletio

n

ozone layer d

epletion

human toxicity

fresh w

ater aquatic

ecotox.

terrestria

l ecotoxicity

photochemical oxidant fo

rmatio

n

acidificatio

n

eutrophicatio

n0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

300%

Cotton

PET

PP

Lenzing Viscose Asia

Lenzing Viscose Austria

Lenzing Modal

Tencel Austria

Tencel Austria 2012

8

Cotton (U

S&CN)

Lenzing V

iscose A

sia

PET fibre

(W.E

U)

PP fibre

(W.E

U)

Tencel, Austri

a

Lenzing M

odal

Lenzing V

iscose A

ustria

Tencel, Austri

a 2012

NO

GE

PA

Sin

gle

-sc

ore

po

ints

(Fir

st

no

rma

lise

d t

o W

orl

d 1

995

)

0

1050

60

70

80

90

100

Global warming

Abiotic depletion

Ozone layer depletion

Human toxicity

Fresh water ecotoxicity

Terrestrial ecotoxicity

Photochemical oxidation

Acidification

Eutrophication

Single-score result (III) NOGEPA weighting factors (normalised to world) 1 tonne fibre, cradle-to-factory gate, cotton =100

Weighting factors (NOGEPA)

Climate Change 32

Abiotic depletion* 8

Ozone layer depletion 5

Human toxicity 16

Fresh water ecotoxicity 6

Terrestrial ecotoxicity 5

Photochemical oxidation 8

Acidification 6

Eutrophication 13

Total 99

Source: Huppes et al (2003), except for abiotic depletion (marked with *), which is not excluded by Huppes et al. and is determined based on own estimation.

9

Part II LCA of bottle-to-fibre (B2F) recycling

Published in Resources, Conservation and Recycling (2010) 55:34-52.

Product systems (FU = 1 metric tonne of fibre)

Product systems Type of fibre Location Data sources

1.Mechanical

recycling Staple W. Europe Company data

2. Semi-mechanical

recycling Filament (POY) E. Asia Company data

3. Back-to-oligomer

(BHET) recycling Filament (POY) E. Asia Company data

4. Back-to-monomer

(DMT) recycling Filament (POY) W.Europe Literature data

Ref. Virgin PET fibre Staple/Filament W.Europe Literature data

11

Allocation: open-loop recycling

• Cut-off approach: – The first life (bottle) does not have influence on the

second life (fibre)

• Waste valuation approach: – Bottle waste contains part of the burden from first life

(economic allocation)

• System expansion approach: – Do not distinguish first and second life, but do assume

products from 1st and 2nd life are functional equivalent

– Do take into account the “grave” stage

12

Cradle-to-factory gate NREU & GWP100a based on the “cut-off” method

Mech. recyc

ling (s

taple)

Semi-mech. re

cyclin

g (POY)

Chem. recyc

ling (B

HET route, P

OY)

Chem. recyc

ling (D

MT route,POY)

V-PET (W

.EU, staple/POY)

GJ/t

0

20

40

60

80

100

13

23

39

51

95

Mech. recyc

ling (s

taple)

Semi-mech. re

cyclin

g (POY)

Chem. recyc

ling (B

HET route, P

OY)

Chem. recyc

ling (D

MT route,POY)

V-PET (W

.EU, staple/POY)

kg

CO

2 e

q./

t0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

960

1,880

2,590

3,080

4,062

NREU (GJ/t) GWP (kg CO2 eq./t)

13

Cradle-to-factory gate NREU & GWP100a Based on the “waste valuation” method

Mech. recyc

ling (s

taple)

Semi-mech. re

cyclin

g (POY)

Chem. recyc

ling (B

HET route, P

OY)

V-PET (W

.EU, staple/POY)

GJ/t

0

20

40

60

80

100

NREU based on "cut-off"approach

Shifted energy from the first life

26

26

26

13

23

40

95

Mech. recyc

ling (s

taple)

Semi-mech. re

cyclin

g (POY)

Chem. recyc

ling (B

HET route, P

OY)

V-PET (W

.EU, staple/POY)

kg C

O2 e

q./

t0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

GWP based on cut-off approach

Shifted GWP from the first life

960

1,880

2,590

4,060

1,070

1,070

1,070

NREU (GJ/t) GWP (kg CO2 eq./t)

14

NREU and GWP100a (cradle to grave excl. use phase)

Virgin PET

(staple&POY)

Mechanical

recycling

(Staple)

Semi-

mechanical

recycling (POY)

Chemical

recycling, back

to BHET (POY)

VPET fibre

RPET fibre

Incineration with credits

79

23

33

48

Virgin PET

(staple&POY)

Mechanical

recycling (Staple)

Semi-mechanical

recycling (POY)

Chemical recycling,

back to BHET

(POY)

Incineration with credits

VPET fibre

RPET fibre

5,540

1,330

2,210

2,820

NREU (GJ/t) GWP (kg CO2 eq./t)

15

Bio-based and recycled polymers for cleaner production

An assessment of plastics and fibres

http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2011-0308-200310/UUindex.html