Life Cycle Analysis for the Selection of Entrainer for Candelilla Wax Extraction

Abstract

The present study analyzes the environmental implications of the use of citric acid and sulfuric acid for the extraction of wax from the candelilla plant using gate-to-gate LCA methodology and two methods, Eco-Indicator99 and ReCiPe. The extraction process uses sulfuric acid since last century with no improvements so far. Despite this, candelilla wax is highly valued in the market and used in several industries. Midpoints and endpoints indicators were selected due to operational implications, soil, freshwater, and human health damage are the principal topics. Calculations about emissions and resources were fixed from field and laboratory data for the inventory and computed with SimaPro software for both scenarios. Results show that, for most of the categories, citric acid has a higher impact because its production process has a greater environmental effect. Thus, there is a trade-off for using citric acid as a substitute for sulfuric acid.