Comparative cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment of bio-based and petrochemical PET bottles

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148642
• Publication Date: 2021-06-24T23:04:25Z
• Authors: Iris Vural Gursel; Christian Moretti; Lorie Hamelin; Line Geest Jakobsen; Maria Magnea Stei...; Martin Junginger; Linda Høibye; Li Shen
• Keywords: Petrochemical; Baseline (sea)

This article presents a life cycle assessment of bio-based polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles with cradle to grave scope and provides comparison petrochemical PET for 13 environmental impact categories. Besides the baseline bottles, which are produced from Brazilian sugarcane reflecting status-quo, two alternative hypothetical product systems were considered: European wheat straw crops market mix composed maize, sugar beet. The land-use change (LUC) impacts assessed based on deterministic model. end-of-life was using EASETECH Baseline performed overall worse than conventional offering only better performance (about 10%) in abiotic depletion (fossil fuels). Comparable is observed climate (2% difference without LUC, 7% LUC impacts). Using ethanol production (alternative 1) instead resulted performance, due lower yields attained compared sugarcane. When considered as biomass feedstock 2), similar seen.