Life cycle assessment of bioethanol-based PVC. Part 2: Consequential approach

From the results of the attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) of the bioethanol-based polyvinyl chloride (PVC), shown in the first part of this work, changing the feedstock from fossil- to bioethanol-based ethylene appears to be a way to decrease the environmental impacts of that product on climate change and non-renewable resources. Although, other environmental concerns may rise related to the effects of indirect land-use change (iLUC) caused by sugarcane expansion. Therefore, the objective of the second part of this work was to make a consequential LCA of the bioethanol-based PVC, assessing the effects of iLUC as the key side-effect of the implementation of that product in the market on 2018, at different degrees of iLUC (three scenarios were created). The life cycle inventory was collected from literature, databases, and primary data from Solvay S.A. We used midpoint and endpoint indicators for life cycle impact assessment. At the midpoint indicators, the environmental impact categories responded differently for the different degrees of iLUC, and some of them generated gains to the environment in the three scenarios, including non-renewable resource use. At endpoint level, the results showed overall environmental gains if iLUC was kept below 5.7% of the sugarcane cultivation area. The effects of iLUC are based on assumptions, and therefore subject to uncertainties, but the assessment performed in this paper was important to provide quantitative information for the stakeholders on how the environmental gains of the bioethanol-based PVC should not be nullified by iLUC impacts. (c) 2013 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd