Abstract
Conventional plastic products present a serious burden to the environment, especially during their end-of-life phase. To tackle the rapid growth in plastic production, use and pollution, it is desirable to produce plastic materials more sustainably. Amongst these plastic materials which could be produced sustainably are Melamine Etherified Resin (MER) fibres, which have a wide range of potential uses, such as in mobility, filtrations, for thermal protective clothing and other applications. This paper explores the potential for sustainable MER fibre production, where all the required feedstocks could be from either renewable or waste origin. To investigate more sustainable pathways, the conventional process is compared to two alternatives processes which utilize waste CO 2 and wood-based methanol for formalin production. A comparative environmental impact assessment is conducted, where selected environmental footprints, potential environmental impacts and eco-costs are analysed based on 1 kg of produced MER fibres. Results show that greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint could be reduced by over 68% and human toxicity potential by over 75%, while eco-costs could be reduced by up to 44%. Moreover, the results present the first step towards producing MER fibres in a sustainable way, contributing to the circular economy.
Highlights
The chemical industry is nowadays increasingly implementing more sustainable practices (Stock et al, 2018), by transiting from linear production processes to circular ones
The highest greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint is obtained to produce fossil-based Melamine Etherified Resin (MER) fibres, followed by MER fibres produced by using flue gas and sustainable hydrogen from water electrolysis
MER fibres produced by using wood-based methanol yield the lowest GHG footprint, with 5.21 kg CO2 eq per kg of MER fibres produced
Summary
The chemical industry is nowadays increasingly implementing more sustainable practices (Stock et al, 2018), by transiting from linear production processes to circular ones. Industries increasingly use renewable and alternative resources in the production of a variety of materials and products, such as fuels, plastics, resins, and solvents (Zhu et al, 2016). Production systems nowadays mainly follow linear supply chains, from cradle (extraction) to grave (final disposal) (Clift et al, 2000). These kinds of linear economies lead to resource depletion and environmental degradation (Merli et al, 2018).
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