Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Suspension PVC Production: Case for Indonesian Industry, Chinese Industry, and European Database

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a global plastic commodity with the third-highest rank in production volume after polyethylene and polypropylene. Unfortunately, the chlorine element therein can be detrimental to the environment. Thus, a life cycle assessment (LCA) for the PVC industry becomes important. This study conducted a process-level LCA with a gate-to-gate system boundary of suspension PVC (S-PVC) production in the Indonesian industry using primary industrial data. The results were then compared with the Chinese PVC industry in Anhui Province, as well as the EU27 database from Ecoinvent 3.8. The assessment was carried out using OpenLCA 1.11 software, using the CML-IA baseline method. Following this study, the Indonesian and Chinese PVC industries have a lower impact on marine aquatic ecotoxicity, human toxicity, and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity compared to the EU27 database. In contrast, the Chinese PVC industry has the highest impact on GWP. This study also demonstrates that chlorine from stripped VCM and PVC dust release is the cause of marine aquatic ecotoxicity, with respective portions of 30.82%, 59.02%, and 23.86% for the Indonesian PVC industry, the Chinese PVC industry, and the EU27 database. The organic additives also add to the impact of human toxicity and freshwater ecotoxicity. In addition, the utilization of refrigerant compounds, as well as CO2 and CH4 emissions during the process, causes GWP. Finally, a ± 5% change in the input amount causes an alteration in marine aquatic ecotoxicity by -7.02% to 12.97% for the Indonesian PVC industry, -26.43% to -18.99% for the Chinese PVC industry, and -11.55% to -9.77% for the EU27 database.