Process Data set: Ethanol production; technology mix; production mix, at plant; 100% active substance (en) en
A more recent version of this data set exists in the database.
Process information
| Key Data Set Information | |
| Location | RER |
| Reference year | 2017 |
| Name |
Base name
; Treatment, standards, routes
; Mix and location types
; Quantitative product or process properties
Ethanol production; technology mix; production mix, at plant; 100% active substance
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| Classification |
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| General comment on data set | TYPE OF DATASET For every chemical compound three datasets are created; the unit process (partially terminated system), the non-energy and transport component of the partially terminated system, and the cumulative life cycle inventory dataset (system process). For more information and flow chart see the report (ecoinvent, 2017, Data on the Production of Chemicals created for the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) pilot phase implementation, www.ecoinvent.org, ecoinvent Association, Z\xc3\xbcrich, Switzerland). This dataset represent the cumulative life cycle inventory dataset (system process). PROCESS DESCRIPTION This dataset represents the hydration of 1 kg of ethylene, which is a multi-output process which delivers the co-products ethanol 99.7% in H2O and diethyl ether 99.95% in H2O. Depending on its water content, preparation, and final use, several ethanol products exist on the market. The 99.7% alcohol (often referred to as absolute alcohol) is used extensively for tinctures and pharmaceutical preparations, as a solvent and preservative, as an antiseptic, and in perfume. Ethanol is an important functional component of alcoholic beverages, which are produced by fermentation of fermentable carbohydrates. The fermentation broth itself may constitute (after processing and aging) a beverage, e.g., in the case of beer or wine, or the alcohol can be concentrated from the broth to produce high-alcohol-containing spirits. If the alcohol is used for purposes other than as a beverage, it is denatured by the addition of substances such as methanol, pyridine, formaldehyde, or sublimate. The denatured alcohol is then used by industry and commerce, principally as a solvent, as a raw material for manufacturing chemicals, or as a fuel. Diethyl ether (CH3CH2\xe2\x80\x93O\xe2\x80\x93CH2CH3) is one of the most important ethers. It is a clear, mobile liquid with a sweetish, slightly pungent, characteristic odor. It is completeley miscible with common organic solvents, but only partially miscible with water. Two grades of diethyl ether are commercially available: technical-grade ether and anesthetic ether. There are no universally accepted specifications for technical-grade ether, but it is conventionally free of peroxides. Anhydrous technical-grade ether has a maximum water content of 500 mg/kg. Anesthetic ether has a neutral reaction, is free from foreign odors, passes the tests for peroxides and aldehydes, and has a maximum water content of 0.2 %. Diethyl ether is a good solvent for many oils, fats, resins, alkaloids, odorants, and dyes and, therefore, is widely used as a solvent and as an extractant. When mixed with ethanol, diethyl ether is used to gel nitrocellulose and to dissolve collodion wool. Ether is used as a reaction medium in the laboratory and in industry due to its chemical stability, low boiling point, and solvent properties for organometallic compounds (Grignard reagents). Ethylene can be hydrated in two ways: by indirect hydration or by direct hydration. This dataset represents the direct hydration process. From the reception of ethylene at the factory gate. This activity ends with the production of the co-products ethanol, 99.7%, and diethyl ether, 99.95%. This dataset includes the materials, energy uses, infrastructure and emissions. References ecoinvent (2017) Data on the Production of Chemicals created for the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) pilot phase implementation, www.ecoinvent.org, ecoinvent Association, Z\xc3\xbcrich, Switzerland Gendorf (2016) Umwelterkl\xc3\xa4rung 2015, Werk Gendorf Industriepark, www.gendorf.de Heitmann, W., Strehlke, G., Mayer, D.: Ethers, aliphatic, Chapter 2,4. In: Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Seventh Edition, 2004 Elec-tronic Release (ed. Fiedler E., Grossmann G., Kersebohm D., Weiss G. and Witte C.). 7 th Electronic Release Edition. Wiley InterScience, New York, Online-Version under: http://www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/ueic/articles/ arti-cles/a10_023/ Sutter, J. (2007) Life Cycle Inventories of Petrochemical Solvents. ecoinvent report No. 22. Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories, D\xc3\xbcbendorf, 2007. Water content of the reference product: 0.0 kg Biogenic carbon content of the reference product: 0.0 kg DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT The data quality ratings for the datasets were determined as the average of the 5 individual ratings for Technological Representativeness, Geographical Representativeness, Time-related representativeness, Precision/uncertainty, and implementation of the End of Life Formula. The final scores for these 5 descriptors were determined by the independent, external reviewer after a discussion with the internal reviewers. The basis for this determination was generally a contribution analysis of the material and energy inputs as well as direct resource uses and emissions. This process was required by the tender. The contribution analysis is based on the most important flows in the dataset, defined in the tender specifications as \xe2\x80\x9cthe unit processes contributing cumulatively to at least to 80% of the total environmental impact based on characterised and normalised results\xe2\x80\x9d. In addition to unit processes, direct emissions also qualified as input exchanges for this approach. For the normalization, the normalisation factors \xe2\x80\x9cEC-JRC Global (2010 or 2013), per person\xe2\x80\x9d available at http://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/?page_id=140 were used. For each parameter, the DQR scores were chosen to best reflect the conditions and quality of the amount value, the appropriateness of the chosen exchange for the specific needs of the system under analysis, and the quality of the foreground and background data for aggregated inputs of exchanges from the technosphere, i.e. not direct emissions or resource uses. ENERGY AND TRANSPORT INFORMATION SOURCE Energy and transport was used in both the foreground and background of this dataset. When building the dataset, energy and transport demands were supplied directly by datasets provided by thinkstep. The background for every other input from technosphere uses a modified version of the ecoinvent database, created specifically for the PEF. In this version, every instance of energy and transport supply, anywhere in the database, was replaced by a dataset from thinkstep. This ensures that every demand for energy and transport, in the foreground and in the background, is supplied by a thinkstep dataset. BILL OF MATERIALS The bill of material includes the following inputs: benzene: 0.00333652585656 kg chemical factory, organics: 3.93421450304e-10 unit ethylene, average: 0.611701504548 kg hydrochloric acid, without water, in 30% solution state: 0.00117073550955 kg phosphoric acid, industrial grade, without water, in 85% solution state: 0.000682903559677 kg water, deionised, from tap water, at user: 0.682903559677 kg wastewater, unpolluted: -0.0127509178623 m3 Electricity: 0.0396030039136 kWh Thermal energy (MJ): 3.37349576198 MJ sodium hydroxide, without water, in 50% solution state: 0.00175607267926 kg. NOT INCLUDED EXCHANGES The following exchanges have not been included in the inventory as they are not part of the official list of elementary exchanges published by the JRC. The EC and JRC were not able to provide an extended flow list during the duration of the data creation. If the JRC decides to include these exchanges in the master data, they may be added to the exchange section of the dataset by ecoinvent as part of a maintenance. The absence of these exchanges does not change the scores calculated with the ILCD recommended methods, but that might not be the case for other LCIA methods. inland water bodies, Resources, Land occupation: 4.82e-06 m2*a sodium hydroxide, Emissions to water, Emissions to water, unspecified: 1.94e-14 kg sodium hypochlorite, Emissions to water, Emissions to water, unspecified: 3.61e-14 kg PROCESS DIAGRAM LEGEND The file 'chemical_dataset_diagram.jpg' presents the relationship between partially terminated datasets, energy and transport from datasets from thinkstep, and the aggregated inputs dataset. The aggregated inputs dataset is available on the node, under the name 'Ethanol production, aggregated inputs, RER.xml' The following datasets from thinkstep are used as inputs of energy: 0.0396 kWh of Electricity from Electricity grid mix 1kV-60kV - EU-28+3 0.483 MJ of Thermal energy (MJ) from Thermal energy from hard coal - EU-28+3 0.725 MJ of Thermal energy (MJ) from Thermal energy from light fuel oil (LFO) - EU-28+3 2.17 MJ of Thermal energy (MJ) from Thermal energy from natural gas - EU-28+3 The following datasets from thinkstep are used as inputs of transport: 5.07e-05 metric ton*km of Transport from Barge - EU-28+3 0.000103 metric ton*km of Transport from Barge - ROW w/o EU-28+3 0.000152 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 3, Total weight >32 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 1.12e-05 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 3, Total weight 20-26 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 6.56e-05 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Total weight 20-26 t, mix Euro 0-5 - ROW w/o EU-28+3 4.92e-05 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Total weight 14-20 t, mix Euro 0-5 - ROW w/o EU-28+3 3.28e-05 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Total weight 28-32 t, mix Euro 0-5 - ROW w/o EU-28+3 5.58e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 3, Total weight 28-32 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 9.06e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 3, Total weight 14-20 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 8.52e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 3, Total weight <7.5 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 6.95e-07 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 3, Total weight 12-14 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 1.56e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 3, Total weight 7,5-12 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 0.000141 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 4, Total weight >32 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 4.59e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 4, Total weight 20-26 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 7.38e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 4, Total weight 12-14 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 9.68e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 4, Total weight 14-20 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 5.54e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 4, Total weight <7.5 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 1.11e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 4, Total weight 7,5-12 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 5.96e-05 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 5, Total weight >32 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 3.02e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 5, Total weight 12-14 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 1.86e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 5, Total weight 20-26 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 3.95e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 5, Total weight 14-20 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 2.21e-06 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 5, Total weight <7.5 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 5.21e-07 metric ton*km of Transport from Articulated lorry transport, Euro 5, Total weight 7,5-12 t (without fuel) - EU-28+3 0.00215 metric ton*km of Transporting capacity from Transoceanic ship, bulk - GLO 0.000282 metric ton*km of Transport from Freight train, diesel traction - EU-28+3 0.000322 metric ton*km of Transport from Freight train, electricity traction - EU-28+3 0.000117 metric ton*km of Transport from Freight train, average (without fuel) - EU-28+3 0.000409 metric ton*km of Transporting capacity from Transoceanic ship, containers - GLO |
| Copyright | Yes |
| Owner of data set | |
| Quantitative reference | |
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| Time representativeness | |
| Data set valid until | 2020 |
| Technological representativeness | |
| Technology description including background system | The catalytic hydration of ethylene is a heterogeneous process in gaseous phase on acid catalyst, where the catalyst is H3PO4, and takes place at a temperature of 300\xc2\xb0C and pressure of 70 bars. The ethylene conversion is only of 4% per passage. The reaction gas is recycled many times to increase total efficiency. The ethylene has to be of high purity to avoid inert gases concentration. The reaction gas is cooled to condense the liquid products and separate it from the ethylene to be recycled. Ethanol solution is concentrated and purified by extractive distillation. The ethanol selectivity is about 98%. Co-products of the direct hydration are diethyl ether (1 %), butene (0.6 %), and acetaldehyde (0.2 %). The diethyl ether is purificated in the ether distillation column. The other organic byproducts are recovered and fed into the steam generator. |
Modelling and validation
| LCI method and allocation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Type of data set | LCI result | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| LCI Method Principle | Attributional | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deviation from LCI method principle / explanations | The background data use the \xe2\x80\x9cRecycled content cut-off\xe2\x80\x9d approach to allocate end-of-life by-products and secondary materials. This allocation is explained in the description of the recycled content system model (http://www.ecoinvent.org/database/system-models-in-ecoinvent-3/cut-off-system-model/allocation-cut-off-by-classification.html). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Deviations from LCI method approaches / explanations | Allocation following the ISO 14044 hierarchy. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Modelling constants | All modelling constants follow the requirements listed in the Tender Specifications ENV.B.1/SER/2016/0038vl. Completeness: All known environmental flows are included. All known resource uses and emissions are listed in the inventory. Water use: water use is modelled at country level using separate flows for water withdrawal, water release and water evaporation. Cut-off: All known environmental flows are included. All known resource uses and emissions are listed in the inventory. Handling multi-functional processes: the following PEF multi- functionality decision hierarchy is applied for resolving all multi- functionality problems: (1) subdivision or system expansion; (2) allocation based on a relevant underlying physical relationship (substitution may apply here); (3) allocation based on some other relationship. Direct land use change: GHG emissions from direct LUC allocated to good/service for 20 years after the LUC occurs, with IPCC default values. Carbon storage and delayed emissions: credits associated with temporary (carbon) storage or delayed emissions up to 300 years are not be considered. Emissions off-setting: are not included. Capital goods (including infrastructures) and their End of life: they are included. System boundaries: system boundaries include all processes linked to the product supply chain (e.g. maintenance). Time period: emissions and removals are modelled as if released or removed at the beginning of the assessment method. Fossil and biogenic carbon emissions and removals: removals and emissions are modelled as follows: All GHG emissions from fossil fuels (including peat and limestone) are modelled consistently with the most updated ILCD list of elementary flows. The non-fossil (biogenic) carbon flows are modelled consistently with the most updated ILCD list of elementary flows. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deviation from modelling constants / explanations | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data sources, treatment and representativeness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data cut-off and completeness principles | All known environmental flows are included. All known resource uses and emissions are listed in the inventory. The dataset dry mass balance has been checked to ensure the inventory is complete. Capital goods (e.g. infrastructure) and their end-of-life are included. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deviation from data cut-off and completeness principles / explanations | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data selection and combination principles | These datasets include, in both their foreground and background data, links to energy and transport data provided specifically for the PEF pilot projects. The relevant background data on energy and transport are from the existing LCDN data node (http://lcdn.thinkstep.com/Node/). All other background data in the supply chain of this product are from the ecoinvent v3.3 database (www.ecoinvent.org). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deviation from data selection and combination principles / explanations | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Data treatment and extrapolations principles | Several data sources have been used to model the inventory. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deviation from data treatment and extrapolations principles / explanations | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Uncertainty adjustments | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Completeness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Completeness of product model | All relevant flows quantified | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Compliance Declarations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Compliance |
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Approval of overall compliance
Fully compliant |
Nomenclature compliance
Fully compliant |
Methodological compliance
Fully compliant |
Review compliance
Fully compliant |
Documentation compliance
Fully compliant |
Quality compliance
Fully compliant |
| Compliance |
Compliance system name
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Approval of overall compliance
Fully compliant |
Nomenclature compliance
Not defined |
Methodological compliance
Fully compliant |
Review compliance
Fully compliant |
Documentation compliance
Not defined |
Quality compliance
Fully compliant |
Administrative information
| Commissioner and goal | |
| Commissioner of data set | |
| Project | Provision of chemicals process-based product environmental footprint-compliant life cycle inventory datasets. Contract number ENV.A.1/SER/2016/0038vl |
| Intended applications | This dataset is to be used only within the pilot projects of the PEF/OEF. The dataset and background data contain modeling choices and data sources that are not generally recommended for use in LCAs beyond the PEF/OEF pilot projects. |
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| Data set generator / modeller | |
| Data entry by | |
| Time stamp (last saved) | 2017-05-13T02:00:00+01:00 |
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| Publication and ownership | |
| UUID | 9b02d32e-8a06-41e3-9762-6438b6353009 |
| Date of last revision | 2017-05-13T02:00:00+01:00 |
| Data set version | 03.00.008 |
| Owner of data set | |
| Copyright | Yes |
| Reference to entities with exclusive access | |
| License type | Free of charge for some user types or use types |
| Access and use restrictions | Free of charge for all final users implementing the data in one of the 24 PEFCRs/OEFSRs developed during the Environmental Footprint pilot phase. The final users using this dataset must agree with and submit to the ecoinvent End User License Agreement - EULA \'ecoinvent Production of Chemicals datasets created for the EU Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) implementation 2016 - 2020\' of ecoinvent (www.ecoinvent.org). Any use of this dataset or any derivative data not within the specific context of one of the PEF/OEF pilot projects or after the end of 2020 is not permitted. |
Inputs and Outputs
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LCIA results
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