Comparative life cycle assessment of suspension polyvinyl chloride production: case for the Indonesian industry, Chinese industry, and European database

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a global plastic commodity with the third-highest rank in production volume after polyethylene and polypropylene. Unfortunately, the chlorine element therein can be detrimental to the environment. Thus, a life cycle assessment (LCA) for the PVC industry becomes important. We conducted a process-level LCA with a gate-to-gate system boundary of suspension PVC (S-PVC) production in the Indonesian industry using primary industrial data. The results were then compared with the Chinese PVC industry in Anhui Province and the EU27 database from Ecoinvent 3.8. The assessment was carried out using OpenLCA 1.11 software with the CML-IA baseline method. According to the results of this study, the Indonesian and Chinese PVC industries have a lower impact on marine aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity, and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity compared with the EU27 database. In contrast, the Chinese PVC industry has the highest impact on global warming potential (GWP). This study also demonstrates that chlorine from stripped vinyl chloride monomer and PVC dust release is the cause of marine aquatic ecotoxicity, with portions of 30.82%, 59.02%, and 23.86% for the Indonesian PVC industry, the Chinese PVC industry, and the EU27 database, respectively. The organic additives also add to the impact of human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity. In addition, the utilization of refrigerant compounds and carbon dioxide and methane emissions during the process cause GWP. Finally, a ± 5% change in the input amount causes an alteration in marine aquatic ecotoxicity of -7.02% to 12.97% for the Indonesian PVC industry, -26.43% to 18.99% for the Chinese PVC industry, and -11.55% to 9.77% for the EU27 database.