Life-Cycle Assessment Principles for the Integrated Product and Process Design of Polymers from CO2

Abstract

To minimize environmental impacts, coupling integrated product and process design with life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a powerful yet challenging approach. A challenge in LCA is the proper accounting for all co-products occurring along the entire supply chain, known as allocation problem. In this paper, we provide a systematic analysis for LCA-based product and process design including alternative allocation methods. We apply the approach to polyol production from CO2. Here, alternative allocation methods lead to very different polyol products and processes. Finally, we derive general principles regarding co-product allocation in LCA-based product and process design.