New Life Cycle Assessment data available for UPRs and Vinyl Esters

In the past year, a detailed Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) study has been done by EY consultancy, commissioned by five European resin manufacturers (AOC, INEOS Composites, Polynt, Scott Bader, SIR Industriale; all members of the Cefic UP/VE Sector Group). These resin manufacturers provided detailed information to EY for their respective products on energy consumption, emissions, and waste generation, per production plant and per product chemistry (Ortho, Iso, DCPD, Maleic, rPET, and Vinyl Ester resins).

EY aggregated the data and sent average datasets per chemistry to Ecoinvent. Then Ecoinvent calculated the footprint and published details on all relevant output categories, including the commonly used CO₂ emissions (GWP, Global Warming potential), and resource usage (ADP Fossil, Abiotic Depletion Potential). The calculation was conducted based on an representative average formulation as agreed by the manufacturers for each resin chemistry.

Great results

The GWP data for Unsaturated Polyester (UP) and Vinyl Ester (VER) resins from Ecoinvent 3.11 are shown to be 2-8 % lower than the equivalent values from Ecoinvent 3.10 (which is the combined effect of changes deriving from resin manufacturing and from raw material contributions). The GWP of resins based on rPET waste is 16 % lower than the GWP average of Ortho, DCPD, Iso, and Maleic resins, indicative of the positive effect of using recycled raw materials on the eco-footprint of resin manufacturing.

LCA data reliability