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Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Understanding the Environmental Impact of Our Technologies and Products

What is a Life Cycle Assessment?

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is fundamental to understanding how Avantium’s technologies compete with fossil-based alternatives, as well as the potential sustainability benefits of our technologies. LCA is the most recognised method to quantitatively assess potential environmental impacts of products, services or processes.

An LCA assesses the whole value chain of a product, from the extraction or cultivation of raw materials through production, use and disposal of the product (“cradle to grave”). Environmental impacts that are usually evaluated include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, impacts on natural resources, ecosystems and human health. An LCA can be used as scientific basis to compare different products and to identify and prioritise opportunities for improvement.

PEF LCA

LCA Releaf® (PEF) Applications 500mL bottle (2023)

PlantMEG LCA

LCA PlantMEG (2022)

LCA PlantMPG™

LCA PlantMPG™

Use of Renewable Carbon

One of the inherent advantages of Avantium’s plant-based products Releaf® and plantMEG is the temporarily storage of carbon dioxide, since all plants absorb carbon during growth. Some international companies report carbon-negative climate change results for their biobased materials, taking this short-term carbon storage into account.

European LCA standards and methods do not allow carbon discounting based on temporary storage and therefore this is not included in the LCA’s that Avantium conducted. The two latest updates of the Swiss ecoinvent database, which is the basis for many European LCA’s, have started to address some of these imbalances as they include updated data on fossil raw materials and plastics. In ecoinvent versions 3.9 and 3.10 (end of 2023), new data on the supply of crude oil and natural gas have been implemented, which for the first time include unintended methane emissions during extraction and processing.

It is proven that the use of renewable carbon feedstocks for the production of plant-based chemicals and plastics has a clear link to reducing the risk of climate change. The carbon absorbed by plants is used to produce chemical materials, which is then released at the end of the product lifecycle, with a net neutral impact on the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. In contrast to this, fossil-based materials and plastics use fossil carbon, such as petroleum, which was previously stored underground and release this additional CO2 to the atmosphere.

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Our Sustainability Strategy

Sustainability is at the heart of Avantium. Our goal is a fossil-free world, realized through innovation and robust governance.

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PEF and FDCA

PEF is a 100% plant-based, recyclable, and high-quality polymer with a wide range of applications in areas such as bottles & packaging, textiles. and many more.

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PlantMEG

Avantium’s PlantMEG is a 100% plant-based building block for PET and PEF, with no compromise on quality or performance.

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