Environmental Benefits of Circular Ethylene Production from Polymer Waste
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Date
2024-09-16
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
The linear nature of the current plastics economy and increasing demand for polymers poses a pressing global problem. In this work, we explore the environmental and economic performance of a circular alternative for polymer production through chemical plastic recycling following the waste-to-methanol-to-olefins (WMO) route. We assess the life-cycle environmental impacts and techno-economic feasibility of this novel circular production route (CPR) in 2020 and 2050, and compare them to the existing linear production route (LPR), deploying naphtha steam cracking for olefin production, and a mix of landfill and incineration as end-of-life treatment. Our results showcase that CPR could enable significant impact reductions, notably in 2050 assuming a low-carbon electricity mix based on renewables. However, the shift from linear to circular comes with burden-shifting, increasing the impacts relative to LPR on five environmental indicators in 2020 (i.e., terrestrial and freshwater eutrophication, particulate matter formation, acidification, and metal/mineral resources use). From the techno-economic viewpoint, we found that ethylene from waste polymers could become competitive with fossil ethylene when deployed at large scale. Moreover, it is significantly cheaper than its green analogs, which deploy methanol-to-olefins with green methanol from captured CO2 and electrolytic H2, showcasing the potential of implementing high-readiness level technologies to close the loop for polymers.
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
12 (37)
Pages / Article No.
13897 - 13906
Publisher
American Chemical Society
Event
Edition / version
Methods
Software
Geographic location
Date collected
Date created
Subject
ethylene; methanol; chemical plastic recycling; circularpolymers; life cycle assessment
Organisational unit
03871 - Pérez-Ramírez, Javier / Pérez-Ramírez, Javier
09655 - Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo / Guillén Gosálbez, Gonzalo
Notes
Funding
180544 - NCCR Catalysis (phase I) (SNF)