Greening the Life Cycle of Polylactide

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This project has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework
Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° [309802].
Greening the Life Cycle of Polylactide:
Why we need transparency in LCA
Olivier Talon, Björn Bergmann
Lille, 05/11/2014

Polylactide (PLA)
Major
producer
NatureWorks (US), Ingeo made from corn.
Biobased
plastic
Made from corn starch, cane sugar, beet sugar… or any
fermentable sugar.
corn
production
starch
extraction
lactic acid
fermentation /
purification
lactide
oligomerization /
cyclization
PLA
Ring Opening
Polymerization

InnoREX in one picture
« Continuous, highly precise production of PLA using alternative
energies and metal-free catalysts for reactive extrusion »

InnoREX consortium
For more information about InnoREX:
www.innorex.eu
Info@InnoREX.eu

InnoREX project:
From a Life Cycle point of view
crop
(corn)
sugar
lactic
acid
use
chemical
recycling other EOL
PLA Life Cycle
InnoREX focus
lactide
PLA
synthesis
pelletization
shaping

Expected environmental benefits
Highly targeted energy use
By-pass of pelletization step
Alternative catalysts
 energy for synthesis
 diminution of energy-related
impacts (climate change, …)
energy saving
 diminution of energy-related
impacts (climate change, …)
 toxicity
 diminution of toxicity-related impacts
for production and use steps, possible
indirect impact on end-of-life

LCA, a tool for answering 2 questions
How much could
we lower the impact?
How much do
we lower the impact?
LCA should help us quantifying the contribution of the steps we work on
to the overall impact of the Life Cycle of PLA
1st step:
Focus on cradle-to-
gate inventory for
PLA pellets

What we expect LCI data to be…
corn
production wet
milling
lactic
acid
production
lactide
production
PLA
production
- Modular
- Disaggregated
- Transparent

…so that we can:
corn
production wet
milling
lactic
acid
production
lactide
production
InnoREX
PLA
production
- Identify hotspots and
major contributors
- Replace process
steps in new models

What LCI data are…
NatureWorks eco-profile
1 kg PLA
Ecoinvent 3 dataset
1 kg PLA
- slightly less aggregated
- 1,507 kg corn

It looks like data are not
always as modular,
disaggregated and
transparent as we expect

Transparency: the keyword of LCA?
« Transparency is the quality of being done
in an open way without secrets »
Cambridge online dictionary
« Transparency: open, comprehensive and
understandable presentation of information »
ISO 14040 & 14044 standard
The word transparency appears 7/8 times in the text of the standards…
… but NOT in the « inventory » section
So… the way data are used has to be transparent…
… but opacity can be admitted for the way data are obtained???

Who guarantees the reliability of the data we use?
Trust in my
data…
Only trust does, because
lack of transparency prevents
us from checking them
Feedback on databases for continuous improvement is encouraged (and mostly
efficient)… but opacity makes it uneasy and time-consuming for practitioners.
Third part review may confirm that data were generated following best practices,
but are « best practices » enough strictly defined?

Let’s say we trust.
How can we go on
further with our study?

Home-made disaggregation based on
published studies and inventories?

Almost impossible…(and highly time-consuming)
NatureWorks eco-profile
1 kg PLA
EI3 dataset
1 kg PLA
Different goals and scopes…
Different (and not really transparent) modelling hypotheses…
Different mass balances !!!

Different mass balances???
The strange case of Dr. Corn and Mr. PLA
How much corn is needed to produce 1 kg PLA?

And yet, corn in itself is a
major contributor to the impact
of the Life Cycle of PLA…

EI3 PLA impacts: corn contribution
calculation with
ILCD2011 Midpoint+ v1.04

But how to correct this in EI3 dataset?
Change corn input?
Modify all other inputs and
emissions accordingly?
Results would obviously not be the same…

PLA vs. modified PLAs
calculation with ILCD2011 Midpoint+ v1.04

The next PLA eco-profile: A new hope?

The case of PLA may not be
representative of all data…
… but it is for sure not isolated.

The strange case of Dr. Styrene and Mr. PS
Is polymerization the answer to global warming?
datasets from EI3, calculation with ILCD2011 Midpoint+ v1.04

Seems nonsensical…
To say the least, these datasets are not
compatible…

What could possibly go wrong
with opacity, anyway?

Case study: substitution of PET by PLA for bottle application.
Evaluation with a LCA webtool.
results
interpretation
decision

But… what are these data?
Non transparent (and obviously not compatible) datasets
used in the same database...
results
interpretation
decision

The quest for transparency: an ancient history…

What could be done?
1. Rethink the definition of transparency in the standards
2. Put some of it in the « inventory » section of the standards
3. Define more strictly the methodology for data generation…
4. …thus ensuring compatibility of datasets and
interoperability of databases
LCA should become a science.
Verifiability and refutability should be guaranteed by
enhanced transparency.
A compromise between transparency and confidentiality shall
be reached to preserve intellectual property.
But confidentiality cannot always win.

Who could benefit from more transparency?
Industrial
data
provider
Database
provider
User of
LCA
results
LCA
practitioner
- less risk of greenwashing
accusation
- less risk of misuse of data by
others
- more reliable input data from
suppliers
- less time wasted
- better models
- sounder interpretations
- better trust in the results
- wiser decisions
- more reliable DB
- better compatibility of
datasets
- better modularity

Thanks for your attention
contact:
olivier.talon@materianova.be
InnoREX coordinator:
bjoern.bergmann@ict.fraunhofer.de

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