Does biobased polymer achieve better environmental impacts than fossil polymer? Comparison of fossil HDPE and biobased HDPE produced from sugar beet and wheat

Polymers are one of the most used materials and the majority of their production is based on fossil fuels. Due to the decrease of oil resources and concerns about climate change, alternatives are needed, the transformation of biobased ethanol into biobased polymer being one of them. This paper undertakes an environmental evaluation of the production of biobased polymer produced from two different feedstock cultivated in Belgium: sugar beet and wheat. Both crops cultivation are studied as well as their transformation into biobased ethanol, first, and then to biobased ethylene, focusing on high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as final product. These scenarios are analyzed and compared with the production of conventional polymer using the life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology with reference to relevant environmental impact categories. This study shows a reduction of impact of around 60% for both climate change and fossil fuel depletion categories when using biobased HDPE instead of its fossil counterpart. For all other impact categories, fossil HDPE achieves better results than the biobased product.