A tiered approach to estimate inventory data and impacts of chemical products and mixtures

Purpose: Mixtures of organic chemicals are a part of virtually all life cycles, but LCI data exist for only relatively few chemicals. Thus, estimation methods are required. However, these are often either very time-consuming or deliver results of low quality. This article compares existing and new methods in two scenarios and recommends a tiered approach of different methods for an efficient estimation of the production impacts of chemical mixtures. Methods: Four approaches to estimate impacts of a large number of chemicals are compared in this article: extrapolation from existing data, substitution with generic datasets on chemicals, molecular structure-based models (MSMs, in this case the Finechem tool), and using process-based estimation methods. Two scenarios were analyzed as case studies: soft PVC plastic and a tobacco flavor, a mixture of 20 chemicals. Results: Process models have the potential to deliver the best estimations, as existing information on production processes can be integrated. However, their estimation quality suffers when such data are not available and they are time-consuming to apply, which is problematic when estimating large numbers of chemicals. Extrapolation from known to unknown components and use of generic datasets are generally not recommended. In both case studies, these two approaches significantly underestimated the impacts of the chemicals compared to the process models. MSMs were generally able to estimate impacts on the same level as the more complex process models. A tiered approach using MSMs to determine the relevance of individual components in mixtures and applying process models to the most relevant components offered a simpler and faster estimation process while delivering results on the level of most process models. Conclusions: The application of the tiered combination of MSMs and process models allows LCA practitioners a relatively fast and simple estimation of the LCIA results of chemicals, even for mixtures with a large number of components. Such mixtures previously presented a problem, as the application of process models for all components was very time-consuming, while the existing, simple approaches were shown to be inadequate in this study. We recommend the tiered approach as a significant improvement over previous approaches for estimating LCA results of chemical mixture

A comprehensive environmental assessment of petrochemical solvent production

Background, aim, and scope: Organic solvents are used in large quantities in the chemical, metal and electronics industries as well as in many consumer products, such as coatings or paints, and are therefore among the most important chemicals. The petrochemical production of organic solvents is a relevant environmental issue because fossil resources are needed (crude oil and natural gas), synthesis processes are energy-intensive and cause considerable amounts of emissions. So far, comprehensive data on the environmental impact are rather scarce. The aim of this paper is to therefore present a systematical environmental assessment of the main petrochemical solvent production routes using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. Methods: Fifty organic solvents were selected covering the most important representatives from the various chemical groups (e.g., alcohols, esters, ketones). To conduct the LCA, 40 new Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) were established and existing LCI were improved. The petrochemical solvent production was structured into four production routes. In these production routes, the single chemical unit processes (e.g. esterification, carbonylation or hydrogenation) were analyzed in order to determine characteristic environmental impacts. Results and discussion: The four solvent production routes including the unit processes and intermediates are presented. Additionally, energy profiles of these production routes are shown using the Cumulative Primary Energy Demand (CED) as an indicator for the environmental impact. The results were cross-checked with the Global Warming Potential and the Eco-indicator 99 method and good correlations were found. Processes that show high environmental impacts are the dehydration of butylene glycol to tetrahydrofuran, the carbonylation of methanol to methyl formate, the hydrogenation of acetone to methyl isobutyl ketone, and the Reppe synthesis of formaldehyd/acetylene to butylene glycol. Based on the energy profiles, ranges of environmental impacts are determined for all unit processes. On the one hand, esterification and alkylation processes cause high CED values because complex ancillaries are needed and hydroformylation and carbonylation processes are energy-intensive. On the other hand, in hydration, hydrogenation, hydrolysis, and oxidation processes, ancillaries with low CED are added to the chemical structure that result in low CED ranges for these unit processes. Dehydrogenation and molecular sieve separation processes seem to be energy efficient and no ancillaries are required. Therefore, these unit processes cause the lowest CED values. Perspectives: Subject of further research in this field should be the environmental analysis of further process steps that include the presented unit processes and a subsequent statistical analysis in order to derive reliable data ranges for all unit processes. Such statistically robust ranges could be used in the approximation of missing life-cycle inventory data of other chemical products and intermediate

Life cycle assessment of fine chemical production: a case study of pharmaceutical synthesis

Background, aim, and scope: Pharmaceuticals have been recently discussed in the press and literature regarding their occurrence in rivers and lakes, mostly due to emissions after use. The production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) has been less analyzed for environmental impacts. In this work, a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the production of an API from cradle to factory gate was carried out. The main sources of environmental impacts were identified. The resulting environmental profile was compared to a second pharmaceutical production and to the production of basic chemicals. Materials and methods: Detailed production data of a pharmaceutical production in Basel, Switzerland were used as the basis of this work. Information about the production of precursor chemicals was available as well. Using models and the ecoinvent database to cover remaining data gaps, a full life cycle inventory of the whole production was created. Using several life cycle impact assessment methods, including Cumulative Energy Demand (CED), Global Warming Potential (GWP), Eco-Indicator 99 (EI99), Ecological Scarcity 2006, and TRACI, these results were analyzed and the main sources of environmental burdens identified. Results: Pharmaceutical production was found to have significantly more environmental impacts than basic chemical production in a kilogram-per-kilogram basis. Compared to average basic chemical production, the API analyzed had a CED 20 times higher, a GWP 25 times higher and an EI99 (H/A) 17 times higher. This was expected to a degree, as basic chemicals are much less complex molecules and require significantly fewer chemical transformations and purifications than pharmaceutical compounds. Between 65% and 85% of impacts were found to be caused by energy production and use. The fraction of energy-related impacts increased throughout the production process. Feedstock use was another major contributor, while process emissions not caused by energy production were only minor contributors to the environmental impacts. Discussion: The results showed that production of APIs has much higher impacts than basic chemical production. This was to be expected given the increased complexity of pharmaceutical compounds as compared with basic chemicals, the smaller production volumes, and the fact that API production lines are often newer and less optimized than the production of more established basic chemicals. The large contributions of energy-related processes highlight the need for a detailed assessment of energy use in pharmaceutical production. The analysis of the energy-related contributions to the overall impacts on a process step level allows a comprehensive understanding of each process' contribution to overall impacts and their energy intensities. Conclusions: Environmental impacts of API production were estimated in a cradle-to-gate boundary. The major contributors to the environmental impacts in aggregating methods were resource consumption and emissions from energy production. Process emissions from the pharmaceutical manufacturing plant itself were less of a concern in developed countries. Producers aiming to increase their sustainability should increase efforts to reduce mass intensity and to improve energy efficiency. Recommendations and perspectives: Pharmaceutical companies have increased their efforts to optimize resource efficiency and energy use in order to improve their environmental performance. The results of this study can be used as a first step to perform a full cradle to grave LCA of pharmaceutical production and use, which could include other important phases of the pharmaceutical product life cycle. To assess a commercial pharmaceutical, the results of API production have to be compared to the contributions of other ingredients and formulatio

Resource Footprints are Good Proxies of Environmental Damage

Environmental footprints are increasingly used to quantify and compare environmental impacts of for example products, technologies, households, or nations. This has resulted in a multitude of footprint indicators, ranging from relatively simple measures of resource use (water, energy, materials) to integrated measures of eventual damage (for example, extinction of species). Yet, the possible redundancies among these different footprints have not yet been quantified. This paper analyzes the relationships between two comprehensive damage footprints and four resource footprints associated with 976 products. The resource footprints accounted for >90% of the variation in the damage footprints. Human health damage was primarily associated with the energy footprint, via emissions resulting from fossil fuel combustion. Biodiversity damage was mainly related to the energy and land footprints, the latter being mainly determined by agriculture and forestry. Our results indicate that relatively simple resource footprints are highly representative of damage to human health and biodiversity

Behavioral responses of free-flying Drosophila melanogaster to shiny, reflecting surfaces

Active locomotion plays an important role in the life of many animals, permitting them to explore the environment, find vital resources, and escape predators. Most insect species rely on a combination of visual cues such as celestial bodies, landmarks, or linearly polarized light to navigate or orient themselves in their surroundings. In nature, linearly polarized light can arise either from atmospheric scattering or from reflections off shiny non-metallic surfaces like water. Multiple reports have described different behavioral responses of various insects to such shiny surfaces. Our goal was to test whether free-flying Drosophila melanogaster, a molecular genetic model organism and behavioral generalist, also manifests specific behavioral responses when confronted with such polarized reflections. Fruit flies were placed in a custom-built arena with controlled environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, and light intensity). Flight detections and landings were quantified for three different stimuli: a diffusely reflecting matt plate, a small patch of shiny acetate film, and real water. We compared hydrated and dehydrated fly populations, since the state of hydration may change the motivation of flies to seek or avoid water. Our analysis reveals for the first time that flying fruit flies indeed use vision to avoid flying over shiny surfaces

The ecoinvent database version 3 (part II): analyzing LCA results and comparison to version 2

Industrial Ecolog

A tiered approach to estimate inventory data and impacts of chemical products and mixtures

ISSN:0948-3349ISSN:1614-750

Non-celestial polarization vision in arthropods

Most insects can detect the pattern of polarized light in the sky with the dorsal rim area in their compound eyes and use this visual information to navigate in their environment by means of 'celestial' polarization vision. 'Non-celestial polarization vision', in contrast, refers to the ability of arthropods to analyze polarized light by means of the 'main' retina, excluding the dorsal rim area. The ability of using the main retina for polarization vision has been attracting sporadic, but steady attention during the last decade. This special issue of the Journal of Comparative Physiology A presents recent developments with a collection of seven original research articles, addressing different aspects of non-celestial polarization vision in crustaceans and insects. The contributions cover different sources of linearly polarized light in nature, the underlying retinal and neural mechanisms of object detection using polarization vision and the behavioral responses of arthropods to polarized reflections from water.</p

Contribution-based prioritization of LCI database improvements: the most important unit processes in ecoinvent

Improving the quality and quantity of unit process datasets in Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) databases affects every LCA they are used in. However, improvements in data quality and quantity are so far rather directed by the external supply of data and situation-driven requirements instead of systematic choices guided by structural dependencies in the data. Overall, the impact of current data updates on the quality of the LCI database remains unclear and maintenance efforts might be ineffective. This article analyzes how a contribution-based prioritization approach can direct LCI update efforts to datasets of key importance