Mass-Integrated PVC Production with Direct Recycling: An Environmental Evaluation Based on WAR Method

Over the past decades, global plastic demand has steadily increased due to the favorable physicochemical properties of these materials, including low weight, durability, versatility, and low production cost. Among synthetic polymers, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is one of the most widely produced, accounting for approximately 10% of global polymer production. Suspension polymerization is commonly used for its manufacture because of its high productivity and suitable operational control; however, this process is associated with considerable energy consumption and emissions with potential environmental impacts. In this work, the Waste Reduction (WAR) Algorithm was applied to evaluate the environmental performance of a PVC production process with mass integration and direct water recycling. The Potential Environmental Impact (PEI) was quantified under four scenarios, considering both generation and output rates, as well as different fuel sources. The results showed that the environmental performance of the system strongly depends on the selected system boundaries and on the incorporation of energy-related effects. Under the gate-to-gate scope considered, some scenarios exhibited negative net PEI generation values, indicating that the PEI associated with the outlet streams was lower than that of the inlet streams within the modeled system. However, when energy consumption was included, it became the main contributor to total PEI, reaching 2560 and 3070 PEI/day in Cases 3 and 4, respectively. The toxicological assessment showed that ATP was the only category with positive PEI generation, while natural gas presented the lowest potential environmental impact among the energy sources evaluated. Overall, the process showed comparatively favorable environmental performance within the assumptions and methodological boundaries of the WAR analysis.