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Module Title: Sustainable Development for Engineering Practitioners

Module Code: KB7040

Title: Life Cycle Assessment of a PET Bottle

Engagement Report: Last Name BIYYALA BOINIPALLY BOPPANA BOX-POOK BUJANGAM CHANAWAN

Contents: 1|Page

First Name Vijay Kumar Nikhil Sai Vamshi Elliott Goutham Reddy Chadaporn

Username w19050701 w19044702 w19046136 w16021217 w19047080 w19043223

Engagement 0% 0% 90% 100% 90% 100%

1.0 Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3 1.1 Background and Key Processes........................................................................................................3 1.2 Goal and Scope................................................................................................................................4 1.3 Assumption......................................................................................................................................5 2.0 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).............................................................................................................6 2.1 Impact –Characterization Overall.....................................................................................................7 2.2 Impact -Damage Assessment...........................................................................................................8 2.3 Weighting........................................................................................................................................9 2.4 Single Score....................................................................................................................................10 3.0 Interpretation of Results and Critical Analysis...............................................................................10 4.0 Social and Ethical Dimensions........................................................................................................11 5.0 Future Work and Recommendations:............................................................................................12 6.0 References.....................................................................................................................................13

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1.0 Introduction: The report methodically analyses a life cycle assessment (LCA) which was carried out on a plastic bottle, this component has been analysed using the software SimaPro. Throughout the LCA strict guidelines and regulations have been followed, known as the ISO 14040 which outlines the environmental management of the LCA in term of principles and framework (Pryshlakivsky and Searcy, 2013). As stated in the ISO 14040 there are four stages to be assessed when seeking to analysis a component using LCA, these can be defined as goal and scope (ISO 14041), Inventory analysis (ISO 14042), impact analysis (ISO 14043) and interpretation of results (ISO 14044) (Liu and Jiang, 2011). For the LCA of a plastic bottle, an overview of environmental, ethical and social issues, as well as the processes involved in the manufacturing of the product will be identified in section 1.1. Due to the high volume of processes in which SimaPro can analyse, only three processes will be identified for their environmental impact significance.

1.1 Background and Key Processes 13 Billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles are used throughout the UK each year; more concerning is that only 27% of the bottles will be recycled to produce new products (Shen, Worrell and Patel, 2010). The vast majority will end up subject to the environment or in landfill sites whereby it is estimated to take up to 1000 years to decompose naturally, within this duration a substantial amount of toxins and C02 is emitted to the air, soil and water systems. As well as it taking 3 litres of water and 250ml of oil to produce a 1 litre bottle (Marathe, Chavan and Nakhate, 2019). A single PET bottle undergoes around 12 processes throughout the cradle to grave of life phases. There are high environmental issues associated with the processes of PET from extraction of the raw material crude oil; production requires fossil fuels, energy wastage in the sense of transportation, storage, final disposal of the end product, extraction of water resources and harm to ecosystems (Heidbreder, Bablok, Drews and Menzel, 2019). In the following report a critical and detailed observation into the life cycle analysis of a PET bottle. The process of PET bottles starts with the raw material of crude oil, secondly formed into pellets which form the basis of the plastic manufacture, thirdly the bottle is typically manufactured using injection moulding or blow moulding then filled with water or other substances, fourthly transported to stores for purchase and consumption, fifthly the user disposes of the bottle where it will either go to landfill or recycled (NAKATANI, OKUNO, FUJII and HIRAO, 2011). Fig 1 indicates the flowchart of a PET bottle life cycle.

Figure 1: Flowchart PET Bottle Life Cycle Stages

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1.2 Goal and Scope The goal of the report is to perform a complete life cycle assessment (LCA) of a PET bottle, analyzing the environmental impact subjected throughout the processes of the three choice areas of raw materials, manufacturing and transportation. PET is the most used material for bottle production equating to 97% of all bottles produced in 2018 (Toto, 2018). The purpose of the investigation is to compile and evaluate the environmental impact of sourcing raw material, the production and transportation. The LCA will be defined by four main stages outlined within the International Organisation for Standardisation ISO 14040. Fig 2 indicates the LCA framework. The focus of the report is aimed at the academic field and environmental industry through the application of LCA analysis, aimed at academics, students and experts.

Figure 2: LCA framework

The scope will identify system boundaries, data requirements within the Simapro software, assumptions, limitations and alternatives relating to raw material extraction, manufacturing and transportation. Fig 3 shows the system boundaries of the process of PET bottles. As well as assessing the potential human health, ecosystem quality and resource metrics.

Figure 3: Flowchart of PET Boundaries

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(Shen, Worrell and Patel, 2010).

1.3 Assumption The system boundaries, assumptions and limitations for each process are as follows: Raw Material Extraction: The raw material is crude oil which is needed for the production of PET; the main inputs are fossil fuels for energy, electricity and transportation to the manufacturing plant. The outputs are greenhouse gases subject to the water, air and soil. Manufacture: The manufacturing process assumes that the process used to produce the PET bottle is injection moulding, producing 10 kg. The inputs are electricity used for the injection moulding machinery and factory, as well as fossil fuels to power the power plant, water consumption. The main outputs are in the form of greenhouse gases consisting of emissions to the air, water and soil. Transportation: The main assumption is that the product is transported via international air freight from the place of manufacture in India 6700km to the UK for distribution and sale. The product when analysed takes into account 10kg of finished PET material in this case. The main input is in terms of fossil fuel burnt by the aircraft, kerosene has been identified as the input taking into consideration the 9-hour flight time. The main output is greenhouse gases emitted to the environment. Limitations: The main limitations are that of limited data for the inputs and output such as energy, heat, water, emissions to environment in the form of greenhouse gases by air, water and soil pollution. Data Inputs:

Data Outputs:

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2.0 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Figure 4: Network Analysis Three Processes

The network analysis illustrated in Fig 4, shows the network of the three process being raw material, manufacturing process and the transportation. The processes are defined as 1kg material, taking into account the electricity and fossil fuels needed and its impact on the environment. The process of manufacturing uses a substantial amount of resources and energy totaling 87.6% due to needing electricity to power the injection moulding machines and other factory equipment through power plants using natural gas and oil as a fuel. As well as resources needed to source the raw material to the factory to be manufactured equating for 8.46% and transportation via aircraft from India to the UK shown as 12.4%.

Figure 5: Detailed Network of the Manufacturing process and Air freight

Figure 5 illustrates a detailed network of the manufacturing and transportation by air for 1kg of material. There are many processes which damage the environment from sourcing crude oil to create kerosene for aircraft fuel. As shown in Fig 5, the process of producing 1kg of PET has the most impact on the environment compared to transportation. The network gives a good indication the amount of material used in each part of the process in kilograms, this system is useful for making decisions when trying to reduce impacts on the environment.

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2.1 Impact –Characterization Overall

Figure 6: Characterization for Raw Material, Manufacturing and Transportation

The purpose of characterization within the life cycle assessment is to quantify numerous factors which have a detrimental effect on the eco-toxicity and human toxicity (Characterization Factor, 2017). As observed in Fig 4, this graph indicates the raw material extraction in cream / yellow, whereas the manufacturing is indicated in blue and the transportation of goods are indicated in red and green in the form of fossil fuels and electricity. The impact categories include the following aspects; Carcinogens, Respiratory organics, respiratory inorganic, climate change, radiation, Ozone layer, eco-toxicity, acidification / eutriophication, land use, minerals and fossil fuels. Analysing the data in Fig 4, sourcing raw materials impacts respiratory organic, climate change and fossil fuel the most, whereas manufacturing has the highest impact of carcinogens, respiratory organic, eco-toxicity and acidification / eutriophication. More concerning this that of transport, effecting the vast majority of the categories with high values. As transport affected a large amount of the characterization categories a comparison has been carried out between air (Red) and sea freight (Blue), the findings in Fig 5 indicates sea freight will dramatically reduce negative effects on all categories. The data is based upon air distance of 6700km and sea distance of 8000 km as the sea fright must go around the land mass.

Comparing transportation modes – air and sea

Figure 7: Comparing Air and Sea Freight as a mode of Transport

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2.2 Impact -Damage Assessment

Figure 8: Damage assessment of the three main processes

Figure 6 illustrates the damage assessment of raw material extraction, manufacturing and transportation based upon the categories of human health, eco-system quality and resources. From observation the manufacturing process has the highest impact on human health and eco-system as seen in blue, having a value of 92% and 94% respectively. However, the raw material extraction and transportation in the form of energy have a high impact on resources, electricity and fossil fuel for transportation equate to 57% indicated in red and green, where as the material impact on resources has a value of 43%.

Human Health PET which is well known as polyethylene terephthalate has some positive impacts and as well as some negative impacts in the consideration of human health. As plastic is used and utilized all over the world. PET is thermoplastic and can be molded any number of times to convert it into different shapes and different sizes, the segregated waste is collected and recycled in order to make it into bottles. These bottles containing a chemical called Bisphenol A, or BPA will cause harm us when we drink the water from PET bottle, the chemical is ingested into our body along with the water and causes cancer and rises some hormonal problems (Bisphenol A (BPA), 2020).

Ecosystem Quality Polyethylene terephthalate is one of the polymers. Where polymer is a Greek word in which ‘poly’ means many and ‘mers’ means units. The reduced greenhouses gases, energy conservation, resource conservation and reduced pollution are the major advantages. As creating new materials from existing raw materials will consume energy and a lot of time. There are many impacts on the environment in which both land and marine life is spoiled creating pollution and releasing harmful chemicals into the water. PET is a form of plastic where it is used globally for the production of bottles replacing metals, wood and other materials. Energy consumption of 3D printing leads to one the environmental impact.

Climate Change 

By plastic bottles more amount of co2 (greenhouse gases) are released.

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Most of the bottles are burnt, landfill or leak into the environment or oceans.

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Plastics pollution affects the oceans.

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More amount of oil consumption is used for PET bottles.

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By burning more plastic, it affects the nature.

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The bottles are mostly not recycled will be thrown outside, which causes disease

Resources 

PET is ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid

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Crude oil is used for the making the PET bottle.

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PET is a thermoplastic synthetic material, heated to get the shape.

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Fuel consumption and co2 emissions are used for high transport efficiency.

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The weight reduction of PET bottle disposal makes the conversion of resources.

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Recycling compressor is used to recycle the bottles after using.

Normalization

Figure 9: Normalization of three processes

As indicated within the regulations of ISO standard 14044, normalization is a method of calculating the vast amount of results of the impacting category human health, ecosystem and resources, relative to the average product impact within the market (Aymard and Botta-Genoulaz, 2017). Fig 7 signifies that manufacturing has the highest value of human health as well as eco-system quality due to the toxic material being ingested when the bottle is in use, along with the bottle only being 27% recyclable (Shen, Worrell and Patel, 2010). The remaining product will either be discarded in the form of landfill or burnt, where as the eco-systems are affected by decontaminated water leaking into the soil for crop and agricultural land of food consumption and leaking into the world’s oceans further polluting the eco-system.

2.3 Weighting

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Figure 10: Weighting of LCA

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The weighting of a life cycle assessment is useful as it immediately indicates the environmental impact of processes and helps with decision making when considering alternative material or processes (Brilhuis-Meijer, 2014). The weighting results are obtained by multiplying the normalization data for each category factor. Like that of normalization the highest impact is that of human health and eco-system quality impacted by the manufacturing process. The resources needed to process a PET bottle equates to around 25% through the form of energy in the form of electricity and fossil fuels for transportation.

2.4 Single Score

Figure 11: Single Score of LCA

The single score in Fig 9, displays a simplified graph of environmental impact of the weighting using a single score rather than the overall total. The manufacturing process has the highest value of 3.45mpt, followed by that of transportation energy whereby oil and electricity is needed at a value of 0.8 combined. The raw material extraction indicated on the graph PET bottle, with a value of 0.5mpt.

3.0 Interpretation of Results and Critical Analysis Firstly, reviewing the networks for the PET bottle life cycle assessment phrase as represented in figure 4 and 5. Figure 4 illustrates the three key environmental impacting processes from raw material extraction, manufacturing and the transportation from the region of manufacture in India to the country of distribution and sales being the UK 6700km via air freight. Through analysis it has come to one’s attention that manufacturing is of a great concern throughout the life cycle assessment due to having a high percentage of 87.6%, transport of the PET equates to 12.4% and raw material extracting accounting for 8.46% of the manufacturing process within the network analysis. Through observation the highest impacting process is that of manufacturing followed by transportation, they have the largest detrimental effects on the environment as shown in Fig 8 by contributing to long term human health issues such as cancers and hormonal problems by microparticles been present in soil, air and water infrastructure which humans are drinking, breathing and for agriculture purposes (Parker, 2020). Furthermore, the processes stated further contributed toward the damage of eco-system quality, this could stem from rivers to oceans and other wildlife habitats. The processes have a high dependence on resources to source raw material, all the logistics of transportation between each stage as well as energy through fossil fuels and electricity. The characterization impact as illustrated in Fig 6, is useful to determine which factors of the process are affected the most and it is characterized into 11 different categories. Within these results it is defined as the transportation process that affects all 11 categories, these are associated with eco-toxicity and human toxicity. Transportation affects all categories due to the distance of transportation from India to the UK, the

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transport from raw extraction to the manufacturing plant and the use of fossil fuels throughout the experiment within SimaPro. Overall the process of producing a PET bottle has detrimental effects to all aspects from the environment, human health and resources. This is due to the toxic bio-product from extracting crude oil, manufacturing emitting emissions to the soil, water and air, and that of transportation fueled by fossil fuels damaging the planet through climate change. The demand of PET within the industry is due to it being strong, light in weight, resistant to attack by micro-organisms and will not degrade easily (Ko, Kwon, Lee and Jeon, 2019). However, it is of a great concern the reliance of fossil fuel, the raw material of crude oil is slowly decreasing and the demand for a product that is not 100% recyclable, at only 27% of the product been recycled (Shen, Worrell and Patel, 2010). The accuracy of the data and results obtained through SimaPro are acceptable as through investigation into previous research into the field reference the processes. Nevertheless, assumptions have been used regarding the exact material weight and the energy usage through raw extraction, manufacturing and transportation.

4.0 Social and Ethical Dimensions Despite the multiple benefits of plastic use, plastics raise several environmental concerns throughout their life cycle, PET is considered as non-biodegradable plastic (Milios, Esmailzadeh Davani and Yu, 2018). According to non-biodegradable material, there are some impact assessments from PET manufacturing, transportation, and recycling stage to society and the environment. Most plastic bottles are made...