A LCA case study of hand washing

with liquid and bar soap

Kasja Witlox, Regula Keller, Niels Jungbluth (jungbluth@esu-services.ch)
Margrit-Rainer-Strasse 11c, CH-8050 Zurich, +41 44 940 61 32, http://www.esu-services.ch

Goal and methodology Soap production

As part of an introductory course in Soap is produced through a process called saponification. Fatty acids in fats/oils are hy-
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), at ESU- drolysed with a base such as NaOH to produce a fatty acid salt (soap) and glycerol.
services in Zurich, this case study analysis O O
and compares the life cycle " from cradle- R O + 3NaOH 3R + HO
to-grave" of liquid- and bar hand soap. We O R ONa OH
O HO
studied the following processes: O
R
1 The production of 1 kg liquid hand O
soap from rape seed oil and NaOH, Fatty acid Lye Soap Glycerol
packaged in a PET dispenser.

2 The production of 1 kg bar hand Results & conclusion

soap from tallow and NaOH, A comparison between soap production from animal fat and soap from vegetable oil.
wrapped in foil and with glycerol as Processes Processes
co-product,. 2.0 Rape seed oil Rape seed oil
Tallow Tallow
kgCO2e/kg soap

kgCO2e/kg soap
0.6
Fatty acids Fatty acids
3 The comparison of 1 to 2 ex- 1.5 NaOH, 50% in H2O NaOH, 50% in H2O
NaCl, brine Tap water
pressed in 1000 hand-washing cy- 1.0 Chemical plant 0.4 Chemical plant
Electricity, MV Electricity, MV
cles. (2.3g liquid soap+0.64l wa- Heat Heat
0.2
ter/ cycle, 0.35g bar soap+0.91l wa- 0.5 Lorry transport
Rail transport
Lorry transport
Rail transport
ter/cycle [2]) Disposal, inert waste Disposal, inert waste
0.0 Waste water 0.0 Waste water
Vegetable Animal Vegetable Animal
The aim of this LCA is to describe in Bar soap production Liquid soap production
what way and how much the above enu-
merated processes affect the climate ex- • The production of animal soap results in a lower climate impact/kg soap because
pressed in kgCO2 equivalent over a pe- animal fat is considered a waste product
riod of 100 years. Therefore we used the • The climate impact of bar soap is higher because it requires more raw materials.
method that describes the impact on cli- Liquid soap from vegetable oil and bar soap from animal fat. a-c: Hand washing at
mate, based on IPCC 2013. The system different temperatures d: Soap at the supermarket.
geographical boundary is Switzerland.
kgCO2e/1000 washing cycles

kgCO2e/1000 washing cycles

7 12
Processes
For each goal we include energy use, 6 Processes 10
Liquid soap
transport to retailer and waste manage- 5 Liquid soap
8 Bar soap
4
Bar soap
ment. For bar soap, the purification of tal- Transport
Transport 6
3 Tap water, 40°C
low and glycerol is not included. For the Tap water, 10°C
4 Tap water, 10°C
2 Paper
comparison we include the home transport 1 Waste water 2
Paper
Waste water
of the hand soap by the consumer and dry- 0 0
ing hands with paper tissues. Bar Liquid Bar Liquid

a. Washing hands, [T=10°C] b. Washing hands, [T=20°C]

kgCO2e/1000 washing cycles

24 1.4
Data and tools Processes Processes
kgCO2e/kg soap

20 1.2
Liquid soap Liquid soap
1.0
We used generic data from the ecoinvent 16 Bar soap Bar soap
Transport 0.8 Distribution
V2.2 database and literature data [1, 2, 3]. 12
Tap water, 40°C 0.6 PET bottle
The software tool SimaPro 8 developed by 8
Paper 0.4 HDPE foil
Waste water Lorry transport
PRé Consultants is used to model the LCA 4 0.2
0
for both types of soap. Bar Liquid
0.0
Bar Liquid
c. Washing hands, [T=40°C] d. Supermarket
Literature • During the soap life cycle, the consumer phase shows the highest climate impact.
[1] Escamilla, M. et al (2012) ’Revision of European Ecolabel Criteria for Soaps, • In the consumer phase water T(◦ C) matters; washing hands with cold water results
Shampoos and Hair Conditioner‘ , in Tech report
[2] Koehler, A., Wildbolz, C. (2009) ’Comparing the Environmental Footprints of
in a higher climate impact for liquid soap because more soap is wasted per washing
Home-Care and Personal-Hygiene Products: The Relevance of Different Life-
Cycle Phases‘ , in Environ. Sci. Technol, vol.43, no.22, pp. 8643-8651 cycle; washing hands with warm water means a higher climate impact for bar soap
[3] Ramachandran, H., Amirul, A. (2013) ’Evaluation of unrefined glycerine
pitch as an efficient renewable carbon resource for the biosynthesis of novel
because more water is wasted per washing cycle.[2]
yellow-pigmented P(3HB-co-4HB) copolymer towards green technology‘ , in
Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering, vol.18, no.6, pp. 1250-1257
• PET packaging has a higher climate impact than HDPE foil, here mainly due to a
higher weight.