E3S Web of Conferences (Jan 2021)

Preliminary environmental and economic assessment of polyurethane foam produced by microwave-assisted liquefaction of riparian shrubs

  • Cardarelli Alessandro,
  • Cotana Franco,
  • Baffo Ilaria,
  • Cavalaglio Gianluca,
  • Barbanera Marco

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202131212007
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 312
p. 12007

Abstract

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The study aims to develop a full-scale plant to produce biobased PU foam from microwave liquefaction of riparian shrubs and to evaluate its environmental burden using a cradle-to-gate, scaled-up LCA approach. Life Cycle Inventory was built on experimental data for polyol synthesis by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to maximize the liquefaction yield. Bio-based PU foam was also compared with the petrochemical counterpart. Life Cycle Assessment was carried out using SimaPro 9.0 software and impacts were evaluated with EPD 2007 method. The results indicate that the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate production and the energy consumption for the liquefaction step are the major sources of impacts. Overall, the environmental superiority of biobased polyurethane cannot always be claimed with respect to their fossil counterpart. Finally, a simplified economic assessment showed that for the bio-based PU foam an interesting profitability could be obtained for a market price of 4.5 €/kg.