Page 161 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

3.7 Illustration of the Inventory Phase by an Example 145

Material/product Data basis

The data record covers production of HDPE granulates starting with the
extraction of raw materials from deposits including associated processes.
The data refer to a period around 1999. They were procured from a total of 24
polymerisation plants. The plants considered cover an annual production of
3 870 000 tons. The European total production in 1999 was approximately
4 310 000 tons. The data thus represent 89.7% of Western European HDPE
production PlasticsEurope (2005b)
PP production Polypropylene results from catalytic polymerisation of unsaturated propy-
lene to long chained polypropylene. The two most important procedures
are low pressure-, precipitation- and gas- phase-polymerisation. In a con-
cluding step the polymer powder is processed to granulates by extrusion
The data record covers production of PP granulate starting by the
extraction of raw materials from deposits including associated processes.
The data refer to a period around 1999. They were procured from a total of 28
polymerisation plants. The plants considered cover an annual production of
5 690 000 tons. The European total production in 1999 was approximately
7 400 000 tons. The data thus represent 76.9% of Western European PP
production PlasticsEurope (2005c)
PA (Nylon 66) Nylon is either produced by direct polymerisation of amino acids or by
production reaction of a diamine with a two proton acid. Nylon 66 is formed in the
reaction of hexamethylenediamine and adipic acid
The data record covers production of PA 66 starting with the extraction
of raw materials from deposits including associated processes. The data
refer to a period around 1996 PlasticsEurope (2005d). Information on plants
considered and the representativity of the data records is not available
PET Data on the primary production of PET are of special importance for this
production study. The PET data record used here was compiled on behalf of PETCORE
IFEU (2004) (PET of container recycling Europe) in the context of an LCA.
Data on the production of PET granulates are so far not yet published;
from the point of view of the authors greater transparency of this data
record is a strong argument for its use compared to the corresponding
data record of PlasticsEurope. (The specific environmental impact for the
eligibility of PET would be higher by use of the PlasticEurope data as with
application of the newer data record described here.)
The following manufacturing process is at its basis:

Reformate -
Crude oil benzene prod. p-xylene Terephthalic
extraction Naphta production acid product.
production PET Post-condensation
(amorphous) PET (bottle grade)
production
Ethylene
Natural gas Ethene glycol
extraction production
production
(Another manufacturing process by dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) how-
ever is rarely used in Europe, only applied in older, smaller plants and
thus not relevant in the context.)