Decarbonisation Technology - May 2024 Issue

Cradle-to-grave and cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment

By embracing these two key dimensions of LCAs at scale – full portfolio coverage and unlimited access to information – chemical companies can unlock a transformative pathway towards more sustainable production (see Figure 1 ). This article explores these two dimensions of scalability, highlighting how transparency at scale empowers businesses with data-driven insights. Through effective scaling strategies, businesses can not only mitigate environmental risks but also capitalise on opportunities for innovation and sustainable growth, contributing to a more resilient and prosperous global ecosystem. Dimension 1: Transparency on every product Achieving a truly profound shift towards a sustainable future requires the chemical industry to understand the environmental impact of each product at a granular level. Unlike other global industries, such as automotive and electronics, with their sequential, one-directional product flows, the chemical industry operates quite differently. It is characterised by non-linear value chains and multi-output processes, resulting in a broadly diversified portfolio of various products and corresponding properties and extensive regional site clustering, while at the same time being linked globally. The spectrum ranges from high-volume basic chemicals like sulphuric acid to specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and highly specialised polymers. A single reaction step can often result in several products, which may already be desired sales products, starting products for subsequent reactions, or less desired Cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) determines the environmental footprint over the full life cycle of a product, from extraction and processing of raw materials through production, use, end-of-life treatment, recycling and final disposal (ISO 14040:2006 and 14044:2006). Cradle-to-gate LCA determines a product’s environmental footprint from raw materials extraction until the point at which the product leaves the factory gate of the reporting company, excluding

byproducts. The latter is fed back to a previous process stage as recycling material, either in its original form or often via an intermediate reaction step, contributing to waste reduction and better resource preservation. This interconnectedness fosters the development of regional chemical clusters, where production plants are strategically located near one another to take advantage of shared infrastructure, streamlined logistics, and collaborative knowledge exchange. To enable access to diverse resources, adaptation to various markets, and significant cost savings, large corporations maintain production facilities worldwide. Consequently, process steps for a specific sales product can span several continents. Given the complexity of the global chemical industry, conventional LCA methods are often unable to fully map these interdependencies. This is mainly due to the reliance on manual data gathering with spreadsheets or traditional LCA software tools, which introduces inaccuracies in the environmental impact assessment by relying mostly on simplified material flow models, assumptions, and averages. Additionally, the selection of products for LCA can be biased, often based on factors like sales volume, environmental perception, and strategic importance. As a result, critical environmental hotspots may stay unknown. Moreover, the dependence on individual experts’ discretion can lead to inconsistencies in the analysis. The requirement for third-party reviews further extends the process, making it both time-consuming and resource-intensive. Consequently, conventional LCA methods in the chemical industry often fall short of delivering the transport to use location, use, and end- of-life management (WBCSD, 2014). A cradle-to-gate approach is particularly useful in assessing the LCA of chemical products used as intermediates and the business-to-business context in which chemical companies frequently operate. It is recommended in the sector-specific guidance on conducting LCA calculations of Together for Sustainability and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (Together for Sustainability, 2024).