Profiling the Environmental Performance of Manufacturing Chemicals in the UK

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Abstract

The chemical industry in the UK plays a crucial role in the economic and social growth of the country as it is a major export-oriented and investment dependent industry. It manufactures numerous products on diverse sites from bulk chemicals to high value speciality chemical products using processes which deplete our natural resources, contribute to environmental degradation and climate change impacts. The industry is under pressure to intensify its environmental sustainability actions due to the increased awareness of the environmental burdens of chemicals and the potential impacts on our fragile ecosystem. Current regulations such as the UK Climate Change Act 2008 and the need to secure a competitive edge for alternative resources and efficient processes in a sustainable future, are the drivers for sustainability agendas in the industry; through which process efficiencies and climate change mitigation actions are implemented. Despite the industry's current climate change mitigation profile, a holistic perspective of environmental sustainability enabling a comprehensive understanding of the industry's impacts and the sectoral contributions is still lacking. Additionally, the potential environmental impact contribution of each chemical subsector to the environmental footprint of its downstream sector is unknown. Similarly, the overall impact of the UK chemical industry and the cumulative influence of its products and processes on the environmental footprint of its downstream sectors, the manufacturing industry and the UK remains largely unknown. Furthermore, inventory data limitation, proprietary challenges and lack of transparent environmental accountability remain a huge impediment to environmental sustainability of the chemical industry in the UK and limit wider participation in the climate change mitigation actions. This study serves as a springboard for a comprehensive environmental assessment of the chemical industry via a sectoral analysis using an alternative simplistic approach that incorporates the readily available chemical production inventory with generic datasets based on life cycle thinking to generate the potential environmental burdens of the chemical industry and the impacts across their supply chain. It aims to provide an overview of the potential impacts of these component sectors of the chemical industry and allow the use of this simplistic and generic approach on other large-scale industries using sectoral contribution. The study was focused on carrying out a profiling of the environmental performance of manufacturing chemicals in the UK in which 60 chemical sectors were examined based on available production volume from government statistical datasets and environmental data profile from generic life cycle inventory results. The study highlighted silicon subsector as an energy and resource intensive subsector with CF, PE and ADP fossil values of 43 kg CO2 eq/kg, 967 MJ/Kg and 597 MJ/kg respectively and the potential of increased environmental impacts because of the increase in demand and production of silicon. Paints and varnishes was identified as the industry's environmental hotspot based on to the volume of production and the heavy reliance on fossil reserves which contributes significantly to many of the impact indicators particularly CF, PE and ADP fossil with values of 3 x 107 t CO2 eq/year, 6.3 x 107 GJ/year and 5.9 x 107 GJ/year respectively. While the transition to water-based paints has reduced the VOCs associated with solvent-based paints, the huge demand and production of water-based paints is putting intense pressure on our natural resources with huge emissions and toxicity related burdens as reflected in the significant yearly environmental impacts based on production volume. MAETP was identified as the most significant impact indicator for paints and varnishes highlighting the impact of the production activities of coatings on our marine habitat. Finally, the potential of crediting the system with carbon displacements from avoided burden through investing in renewable materials like material from waste and biomass was highlighted as a potential way of cutting back on the emissions alongside the current environmental sustainability strategies. While the study was focused on the chemical industry, the hotspot contributory analysis is generic in its application, requires less technical expertise and is based on publicly available data, hence can be achieved without infringing on proprietary patents. The focus of the chemical industry and all stakeholders should be on chemicals and chemical sectors where the environmental impacts of the raw materials and manufacturing stages can have significant influence on the environmental footprint across the industry. Environmental sustainability of the industry should also extend beyond environmental performance evaluation and incorporate transparent environmental accounting and assessment to support the inclusion of all stakeholders and yield holistic mitigation efforts with sustainable outcomes.

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Keyword(s)

Environmental footprint; Life cycle approach; Paint life cycle; Chemical footprinting; Chemical production; Chemical sub-sectors; Chemicals manufacturing; Environmental sustainability; Life cycle thinking; Sustainability

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