Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Resources, Conservation & Recycling

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/resconrec

Full Length Article

Life cycle assessment of polycarbonate production: Proposed optimization

toward sustainability
Xinying Zhou a, Yijie Zhai b, Ke Ren a, Ziyue Cheng a, Xiaoxu Shen a, Tianzuo Zhang a,
Yueyang Bai a, Yuke Jia a, Jinglan Hong a, c, *
a
Shandong Key Laboratory of Environmental Processes and Health, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, China
b
Shandong Academy of Macroeconomic Research, Jinan, 250014, China
c
Shandong University Climate Change and Health Center, Public Health School, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The global plastics industry urgently requires a shift to sustainable manufacturing, but only a mere fraction of
Polycarbonate production these plastics have been explored for their life cycle environmental impacts. Polycarbonate (PC), the top con­
Life cycle assessment sumer of engineering plastics, lacks due attention. This study quantified the industrial-level environmental im­
Sustainable manufacturing
pacts of two mainstream PC production processes in China, the world’s largest PC producer, via an integrated
Green factory
Polycarbonate recycling
and regionalized life cycle impact assessment model. The fossil depletion category contributed dominant envi­
ronmental impacts, accounting for approximately 60% in both scenarios. Bisphenol A production and coal
mining and combustion were identified as crucial processes, specifying optimal directions toward sustainability.
The PC green factories showed eco-effectiveness, with roughly 10% reductions in both non-carcinogens and
global warming categories at the leading level. The mechanically recycled PC production could yield 82.3%–
99.6% benefits in key categories. Moreover, green mines, ultra-low emission, bio-based plastics, and extended
producer responsibility are highly recommended.

1. Introduction non-phosgene production processes currently occupy the vast majority

Global demand for plastics has witnessed robust growth in the past,
placing plastics as one of the four pillars of the materials sector (i.e.,
steel, wood, cement, and plastics). Approximately 99% of plastics are
synthesized from petroleum derivatives (Rabnawaz et al., 2017),
resulting in the expectation that the global plastics industry will account
for 16% of oil consumption (Jiang et al., 2020) and 15% of carbon
emissions (Zheng and Suh, 2019) by 2050. Among the plastics, poly­
carbonate (PC), accounting for the top consumption of engineering
plastics, receives considerable attention and plays a central role in
various fields because of its superior properties (e.g., excellent trans­
parency and thermal stability) (Fukuoka et al., 2019). The prospect of
PC applications is compelling, especially in some fast-growing emerging
industries. For example, PC contributes substantially to enhancing the
lightweight property of electric vehicles, which is an effective way to
solve the challenges of electric vehicle range (Hynes et al., 2021), and is
the primary choice of manufacturing material for some 5G devices (Sai
et al., 2022). Bisphenol A PC (BPA-PC) based on phosgene and
of industrial production and applications of PC (Wnuczek et al., 2021).
Phosgene and BPA are polymerized into PC in the conventional phos­
gene process, which entails a range of environmental and safety issues
(e.g., the input of toxic phosgene and solvent, high water consumption,
and large wastewater discharges) (Contreras-Zarazua et al., 2017). To
overcome the abovementioned environmental problems, the
non-phosgene process adopting melt polycondensation is continuously
promoted as a new PC synthesis route (Wnuczek et al., 2021). Never­
theless, the consensus choice of BPA as a raw material in both methods
has also raised concerns due to its health hazards and properties as a
petroleum derivative (Zhu et al., 2018). Therefore, the limitations of PC
green production triggered the exploration of further technological
modifications, making it necessary to conduct a comparative analysis on
the potential environmental burdens of both PC production processes as
well as choose a route more in line with sustainable manufacturing re­
quirements. China’s PC capacity reached 1.79 million tons in 2020,
dominating the global PC industry with approximately 30% of the total
capacity (Zhang, 2021). The “14th Five-Year Plan” plastic pollution

* Corresponding author at: School of environmental science and engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 266237, China
E-mail address: hongjing@sdu.edu.cn (J. Hong).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106765
Received 5 July 2022; Received in revised form 17 October 2022; Accepted 8 November 2022
Available online 15 November 2022
0921-3449/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
X. Zhou et al.
control action plan of China requires the plastics industry to focus on key
aspects, promote the green production of plastics, and achieve plastic
pollution treatment of the whole chain (NDRC, 2021a). With the
strengthening of national efforts to manage the plastics industry, specific
and detailed information regarding input data, pollution emissions, and
impact quantification of various plastics is required to support the
government’s decision making. Therefore, choosing PC as an entry point
to explore the environmental impacts of the production process and
identifying critical factors for optimization are of vital importance for
the green manufacturing of the plastics industry in China and globally.
Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a standardized and systematic
approach to environmental assessment that characterizes the environ­
mental performance of a target product and avoids the transfer of
pollution between stages throughout its life cycle (ISO 14040, 2006).
The development and optimization of environmentally sustainable
Fig. 1. System boundary and methodology framework (Scenario 1: phosgene PC production scenario; Scenario 2: non-phosgene PC production scenario).
2
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765
products and processes rely on the support of the LCA methodology to
minimize environmental hazards (Sheldon, 2018). This method has
been widely implemented in several studies in the global plastics in­
dustry (e.g., plastics production (Ye et al., 2017), plastics recycling
(Khoo, 2019), and plastics spills (Loubet et al., 2022)) to quantify and
communicate the potential effects of the entire plastics chain. Current
research on PC has focused on innovative process development (Zhang
et al., 2020b), recycling methods (Kim, 2020), and composite material
synthesis (Xing et al., 2018), but only a few LCA studies have been
conducted to analyze the environmental impacts of PC production. Kua
and Lu (2016) analyzed the impacts of replacing tempered glass with PC
in Singapore, unfolding in seven impact categories (e.g., global warm­
ing, potential human toxicity, and acidification potential). Lacerda et al.
(2019) compared the effects of producing eyeglass temples from virgin
PC and recycled PC in the case of a Brazilian company. However, given
X. Zhou et al.
the regionalized variability of life cycle inventory (LCI) and the life cycle
impact assessment (LCIA) model, the aforementioned findings cannot
accurately represent the PC production situation in China (Bulle et al.,
2019). Based on the literature review, LCA for Chinese PC production is
not reported by previous studies, leading to limitations in plastics in­
dustry optimization and the absence of LCI for downstream emerging
industries. Therefore, it is a pressing task to bridge the research gap by
assessing the environmental impacts of PC production in China based on
the LCA approach with a view to facilitating environmental sustain­
ability. This study aims to (1) analyze the environmental burdens of the
PC production chain in China throughout its life cycle, (2) identify the
factors causing the main impact contributions and propose optimization
strategies, and (3) provide reliable data and scientific recommendations
for the path planning of PC green production.
2. Methodology
2.1. Functional unit
The functional unit is selected as a quantitative benchmark that
provides a scientific basis for input and output flow data within the
product system (ISO 14040, 2006). This study adopts 1 ton of PC as a
functional unit, with which the environmental impacts of PC production
can be quantitatively analyzed and comparability is available for various
LCA studies of PC. The specific information of the functional unit was
listed in Table S1.
2.2. System boundary
Fig. 1 illustrates the system boundary of PC production constructed
in this study following the cradle-to-gate principle. Relevant raw ma­
terials (e.g., sodium hydroxide, carbon monoxide, and phenol) and en­
ergy (e.g., electricity, water, and natural gas) were produced and
transported to the PC production site. Scenario 1 depicts the phosgene
PC synthesis chain, including chlorine and carbon monoxide to produce
phosgene, bisphenol A and sodium hydroxide to produce the sodium salt
of BPA, and finally phosgene and the sodium salt of BPA to synthesize PC
via interfacial polycondensation. Scenario 2 is the non-phosgene PC
synthesis process, including oxidative carbonylation of methanol to
produce dimethyl carbonate (DMC), phenol and DMC to produce
diphenyl carbonate (DPC), and finally DPC and BPA by melt poly­
condensation to produce PC. A more detailed description of the two PC
production scenarios can be found in Supplementary materials S2.
Pollutant emissions (e.g., phosgene, particulate matter, and BOD) and
waste disposal (e.g., wastewater treatment and industrial hazardous
waste incineration) associated with production processes were also
included in the system boundary.
2.3. Life cycle impact assessment method
The LCIA of PC production was performed in this study by adopting
an integrated model suitable to the Chinese context (Fig. 1). A total of 16
midpoint and 3 endpoint categories are covered in this model, enabling
the LCIA results of PC production to be converted into environmental
impact indicators at the midpoint and endpoint dimensions. The cate­
gories adopted in this study were extensively used for LCA studies about
plastic material production (Bishop et al., 2021). The characterization
factors for categories defined in the model were retrieved from the IPCC
report (Smith et al., 2021), the ReCiPe model (Goedkoop et al., 2009),
and the IMPACT WORLD+ model (Bulle et al., 2019), all of which are
internationally recognized and commonly used LCIA models. Moreover,
indicators associated with several categories (e.g., freshwater ecotox­
icity, carcinogens, and particulates formation) that are susceptible to
spatial differences were updated by Zhai et al. (2020) and Zhang et al.
(2020a) based on geographic environmental information from China.
More details about the framework of the model are provided in
3
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765
Supplementary materials S3. To achieve comparability between cate­
gories, the share of each category in the overall LCIA results was
calculated through the normalization procedure based on the latest
world emissions inventory in 2010 (Crenna et al. 2019). As for the un­
certainty analysis, the variation of the evaluation results was acquired
by performing Monte Carlo simulations.
2.4. Data sources and life cycle inventory
For the phosgene PC and non-phosgene PC scenarios, onsite data
were collected from typical PC production enterprises located in Shan­
dong and Henan provinces, China, respectively. To further pursue the
representativeness of the evaluation results, the industry-level envi­
ronmental performance of PC production was achieved in this study
according to the method of Hong et al. (2015). As shown in Fig. 1, in­
dustry average data as new inputs substituted for the input data of
identified key factors. The industry average data of PC production (e.g.,
BPA and coal consumption) were derived from the Requirements
Assessment for Green Factory in Polycarbonate Industry (MIIT, 2022).
The updated PC synthesis inventory was imported into the LCIA pro­
cedure and iterated until no new critical factors were generated. In this
way, industry-level LCI and LCIA results for PC production were ob­
tained. Table 1 summarizes the LCI for two PC production scenarios at
the industrial level. The background data required for both PC produc­
tion scenarios were sourced from the Chinese process-based LCI data­
base (Zhang et al., 2016), and missing chemical data (e.g., biphenyl)
were replenished with the Ecoinvent database (Ecoinventcentre, 2021).
Meanwhile, to minimize the regional effects of adopting European data,
the background processes (e.g., power generation and waste disposal) of
the corresponding data were replaced according to the actual situation
in China.
3. Results
3.1. LCIA and uncertainty analysis results
Table S2 exhibits the LCIA results for PC production at the midpoint
and endpoint dimensions. The variation range of LCIA results was
measured by performing the uncertainty analysis, expressed as squared
geometric standard deviation (GSD2). The LCIA values on the terrestrial
acidification category for phosgene and non-phosgene PC production
were 11.67 and 10.95 kg SO2 eq, with GSD2 of 1.26 and 1.30, respec­
tively. This result implied that the potential fluctuation of the terrestrial
acidification category for the abovementioned PC production scenarios
ranged from 9.26 kg SO2 eq to 14.70 kg SO2 eq and from 8.42 kg SO2 eq
to 14.24 kg SO2 eq at 95% confidence intervals, respectively. At the
endpoint level, the fluctuation ranges of ecosystem quality impacts
caused by phosgene and non-phosgene PC production were 2.40 ×
10− 4–4.90 × 10− 4 and 3.92 × 10− 5–1.99 × 10− 4, respectively. Analo­
gous computations can be carried out for the remaining categories.
3.2. Normalized midpoint results and key factor analysis
The normalized midpoint results for the PC production are illustrated
in Fig. S3. The dominant environmental impacts resulting from the fossil
depletion category constituted 56.2% in the phosgene PC scenario and
62.6% in the non-phosgene PC scenario. Particulates formation, water
depletion, non-carcinogens, freshwater ecotoxicity, and global warming
categories contributed to the additional effects, while the remaining
midpoint categories exerted trivial impacts.
Fig. 2 demonstrates the crucial processes and substances contrib­
uting to the significant midpoint categories for PC production. For the
particulates formation category, BPA production and direct air emis­
sions from coal combustion contributed the vast majority of the impacts
of two scenarios (Fig. 2a). BPA production exerted a dominant influence
in the water depletion category, contributing over 95% in two scenarios,
X. Zhou et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765

Table 1 a combined contribution of more than 99%. Hg to air was the dominant
Life cycle inventories of PC production. Values are presented per functional unit. contributor to the non-carcinogens category, with proportions of 90.0%
S1: phosgene PC production scenario; S2: non-phosgene PC production scenario. in the phosgene PC scenario and 93.3% in the non-phosgene PC sce­
Unit Amount nario. Cu to soil and Fe to soil respectively contributed 19.4% and 64.1%
S1 Raw materials Carbon monoxide ton 0.07
to the freshwater ecotoxicity category in phosgene PC production and
Liquid chlorine (≥ 99.8%) ton 0.17 33.8% and 32.6% in non-phosgene PC production.
Bisphenol A ton 0.90
Sodium hydroxide ton 0.32 3.3. Normalized endpoint results and key factor analysis
Triethylamine ton 0.01
Chloromethanes kg 2.58
Hydrochloric acid (31%) kg 5.62 Fig. 3 displays the normalized results coupled with key contributors
Heat stabilizer kg 0.68 for the three endpoints. For phosgene PC production, the resources
Sodium sulfate kg 0.23 category constituted the most significant proportion of the overall
Soft water m3 8.62 environmental impacts (75.9%), followed by the human health (13.9%)
Nitrogen gas m3 209.23
Compressed air m3 125.54
and ecosystem quality categories (10.2%). For non-phosgene PC pro­
Tap water ton 8.51 duction, human health, ecosystem quality, and resources categories
Coal ton 1.12 contributed 14.7%, 4.6%, and 80.7% to the overall environmental ef­
Transport tkm 454.04 fects, respectively.
Emission to air Volatile organic compounds kg 0.03
For the phosgene scenario, the most crucial contributor in endpoint
Particulates, < 10 um kg 0.01
Phosgene kg 3.20×10− 4 categories was BPA production, except for the ecosystem quality cate­
Waste to Industrial hazardous waste kg 0.75 gory in which sodium hydroxide production was the dominant source
treatment incineration (Fig. 3a). Direct air emissions from coal combustion played an essential
Wastewater treatment ton 8.00 role in the human health category, accounting for 34.1%. Coal mining
Municipal solid waste to landfill kg 1.52
was the second largest contributor to the resources category, repre­
S2 Raw materials Well water ton 3.98
Dimethyl carbonate ton 0.35 senting 23.1% of the total. Liquid chlorine production exerted a rela­
Phenol ton 0.03 tively small influence in three endpoint categories. In terms of the non-
Bisphenol A ton 0.73 phosgene scenario, DMC production, BPA production, and direct air
Sodium hydroxide kg 0.03
emissions from coal combustion contributed considerably to the human
Scale and corrosion inhibitor kg 0.02
Disinfectant kg 0.29 health category. BPA production was the most prominent process in the
Liquid ammonia kg 0.08 ecosystem quality category, with over 80% contribution. Resources, the
Denitrification catalyst kg 0.18 dominant endpoint category in the non-phosgene scenario, were mainly
3
Diphenyl kg 9.17×10− derived from DMC production (15.8%), BPA production (56.4%), and
Hydrogenated terphenyls kg 0.09
coal mining (25.2%). Phenol production exerted additional influence on
Titanium oxide kg 0.61
Sodium carbonate kg 4.77 endpoint categories. The contribution of main substances to the three
Benzene kg 0.03 endpoints is summarized in Fig. 3b. CO2 was the most significant
Coal ton 1.15 contributor in the human health category for both PC production sce­
Transport tkm 171.15
2
narios, followed by NOX and SO2. Most damages in the ecosystem
Emission to air Particulate kg 3.98×10−
Sulfur dioxide kg 5.81×10− 3 quality category resulted mainly from Cu and Fe emissions. In the two
Nitrogen oxides kg 8.72×10− 2 PC production scenarios, coal, water, and oil exhibited considerable
NMVOC kg 2.63×10− 4
influences on the resources category.
8
Methanol kg 3.38×10−
2
Carbon monoxide kg 3.57×10−
3.4. Sensitivity analysis
Emissions to COD kg 0.16
2
water BOD5 kg 1.23×10−
Suspended solids kg 6.24×10− 2
Changes in LCIA results were acquired by using the sensitivity
3
Ammonia nitrogen kg 1.50×10− analysis method after the key process as an input variable was changed
Waste to Industrial hazardous waste kg 16.77
by 5% (Fig. 4). A 5% decrease in BPA usage led to noticeable im­
treatment incineration
Wastewater treatment ton 2.31
provements in the key categories, particularly reducing the impacts of
Municipal solid waste to landfill kg 0.34 the water depletion category by 4.8% in both scenarios. Coal mining,
Sewage sludge to landfill kg 0.10 which occurs in both scenarios, exhibited significant sensitivity to global
warming and fossil depletion categories. Similarly, a reduction in direct
air emissions from coal combustion had a significant ameliorating effect
which was also the pivotal factor in the freshwater ecotoxicity category.
on the particulates formation, global warming, and non-carcinogens
In addition to BPA production and direct air emissions from coal com­
categories. A 5% reduction in sodium hydroxide input could reduce
bustion, the global warming and non-carcinogens categories were also
freshwater ecotoxicity by 2.8% in phosgene PC production. DMC pro­
ascribed to sodium hydroxide production in the phosgene PC scenario
duction exerted visible variability in the global warming (1.3%) and
and DMC production in the non-phosgene PC scenario. Coal mining and
fossil depletion (1.0%) categories for non-phosgene PC production.
BPA production played a decisive role in the fossil depletion category for
Moreover, liquid chlorine production in the phosgene process and
both scenarios, and notably, DMC production led an additional effect to
phenol production in the non-phosgene process showed additional
it in the non-phosgene scenario.
sensitivity to critical categories. This finding reconfirmed the above
In terms of substances (Fig. 2b), NOX made the most critical contri­
analysis of key factors and provided directional guidance for sustainable
bution to the particulates formation category, accounting for 48.2% in
optimization of PC production. Accordingly, optimizing production
the phosgene process and 50.0% in the non-phosgene process, followed
processes for key factors (e.g., BPA production and DMC production),
by particulates and SO2. The three substances that dominated the fossil
reducing coal use, and cleaning coal-fired emissions are the top prior­
depletion category were coal, natural gas, and oil. Water consumption
ities to mitigate the environmental burdens of PC production.
from the BPA production process was the primary contributor to the
water depletion category. In the two PC production scenarios, the global
warming category was principally attributed to CO2 and methane, with

4
X. Zhou et al.
Fig. 2. Contribution of key factors to main midpoint categories: a) processes; b) substances (S1: phosgene PC production scenario; S2: non-phosgene PC produc­
tion scenario).
4. Discussion
4.1. Environmental benefit analysis of PC production in green factory
benchmark
The prominent environmental impacts of PC production in key cat­
egories highlighted the urgency of the PC industry’s green trans­
formation. The “Made in China 2025” initiative prioritized the
construction of green factories (SCPRC, 2015) by shifting traditional
industries to an intensive, efficient, and sustainable green development
model as well as driving the goal of carbon peaking and carbon
neutrality. To explore the prospect of green optimization in the PC in­
dustry, this study further undertook the comparative LCIA of the PC
production based on the advanced-level and leading-level benchmarks
stipulated by the newly released Requirements Assessment for Green
Factory in Polycarbonate Industry (MIIT, 2022). More details about the
5
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765
green factory can be found in Supplementary materials S6. Fig. 5a shows
that PC production in green factories at advanced and leading levels
provides a significant environmental benefit over the industry average.
Improving the average level of phosgene PC production to the leading
level can diminish the environmental impacts by 0.8%–10.5% at the key
midpoints, with a maximum reduction of 10.5% being observed in the
non-carcinogens category owing to the green plant evaluation re­
quirements for BPA use and combined energy consumption restrictions.
The leading level of non-phosgene PC production could reduce the
environmental burdens by 2.8%–10.0% compared to the average level
at the key midpoints, with the largest reduction of 10% occurring in the
global warming category due to the reduction of BPA and DMC inputs
and coal use. The national benefits were further quantified in the context
of the current state of PC production in China for the four categories (i.e.,
particulates formation, fossil depletion, global warming, and
non-carcinogens) that exhibited noticeable reductions in environmental
X. Zhou et al.
Fig. 3. Contribution of key factors to endpoint categories: a) processes; b) substances (S1: phosgene PC production scenario; S2: non-phosgene PC produc­
tion scenario).
impacts. The environmental effects of PC production in China will be
reduced by 3.6 × 105 kg PM2.5 eq, 1.7 × 108 kg oil eq, 7.0 × 108 kg CO2
eq, and 79.8 cases in 2020, supposing that the levels of phosgene and
non-phosgene PC production are raised to the leading level (Fig. 5b).
Therefore, encouraging the transformation of PC manufacturers into
green factories is an effective path to alleviating the environmental
burdens of PC production. Relevant enterprises can enhance the utili­
zation efficiency of raw and auxiliary materials and energy in the pro­
duction process as well as adopt environmentally friendly and
energy-saving pollutant treatment technologies and facilities. For
instance, phosgene PC production plants can use energy-efficient tech­
nologies to recover phosgene and waste heat, while non-phosgene PC
production plants can choose environmentally friendly heat media
technologies. More importantly, the traditional green optimization
approach of PC manufacturers should be coupled with integrated sys­
tems thinking and life cycle thinking to avoid pollution transfer and
strive for a sustainable future (Zimmerman et al., 2020). With the pro­
motion of supporting policies (e.g., financial incentives and tax con­
cessions) (Ding et al., 2019), the creation of green factories is also the
general trend, and the PC production industry should seize the oppor­
tunity to achieve industrial optimization and upgrade and pursue green,
6
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765
high-quality development.
4.2. Green mining and clean utilization of coal
Coal mining contributed appreciably to the global warming and
fossil depletion categories for both PC production scenarios (Fig. 2a).
The coal mining process can bring a series of environmental pollution
besides resource consumption, embodied in the production of mine
waste, surface subsidence, and soil erosion (Wang et al., 2019). The coal
seam gas extracted from coal deposits is partly emitted to the environ­
ment, exacerbating resource waste and the greenhouse effect because of
its high methane content (Hong et al., 2019). Therefore, motivating coal
mining to be environmentally friendly, efficient, and energy-saving is
the key task that must be vigorously pursued. The goal of “all mines
reach the green mine construction standard by 2025” has been proposed
in many regions of China to promote the green transformation of the
coal industry (Qi et al., 2020). Advanced coal green mining technologies
(e.g., underground coal sorting, infill mining, and coal and gas
co-mining) should be selected preferentially to support the mining sus­
tainability strategy (Zhang et al., 2017). The air pollution caused by coal
combustion also deserves attention and commands a high share of the
X. Zhou et al.
Fig. 4. Sensitivity analysis results (S1: phosgene PC production scenario; S2: non-phosgene PC production scenario).
environmental impacts of PC production. An estimated 60%–90% of
coal is burned to generate electricity and heat in different countries
(Pyshyev et al., 2017), providing energy while increasing emissions of
pollutants (e.g., sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and heavy metals) due
to its complex composition (Zhou et al., 2022). In 2019, coal con­
sumption for production and supply of electric power and heat power
contributed to 23.8%, 23.5%, and 42.2% of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen
oxide (NBS, 2020), and carbon dioxide emissions (Guan et al., 2021),
respectively, in China. Under the circumstances, ultra-low emission
retrofitting has been selected as the effective air emission reduction
initiative in China. The installation of air pollutant control devices
(APCDs) could be encouraged to promote ultra-low emissions from coal
combustion. Previous studies have shown that the application of the
maximum technically feasible APCDs can achieve more than a 50%
reduction in NOx emissions from coal-fired power generation by 2030
compared to maintaining the average level in 2015 (Tong et al., 2018).
Meanwhile, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technolo­
gies offer significant advantages in addressing the problem of coal-fired
carbon emissions and realizing the resource utilization of CO2 (Cormos
et al., 2018). In conclusion, green mine construction, APCDs installation,
and CCUS application should be proposed to achieve the sustainable
development of coal mining and coal combustion.
4.3. Environmental improvement potential of recycled PC and bio-based
PC
BPA is produced indirectly from petroleum and poses environmental
toxicity and persistence challenges (Jiang et al., 2018), making the
environmental impacts generated by the BPA production process
dominant in most categories (Fig. 2). Moreover, BPA can leach out of
7
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765
waste PC and leak into the ecosystem, further intensifying the envi­
ronmental risk (Kim, 2020). Accordingly, recycled and bio-based plas­
tics are suggested to explore a green path without fossil raw materials for
PC production optimization.
As a reliable solution to meet the requirements of a green low-carbon
and circular economy, plastic recycling can effectively solve the problem
of plastic pollution and provide considerable raw materials for industrial
production to reduce the pollution of oil extraction (Saito et al., 2020).
The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Circular Economy
proposes to promote the construction of “urban minerals” and increase
the recycling of plastic materials (NDRC, 2021b). To explore the envi­
ronmental superiority of PC recycling, the environmental impacts of
mechanically recycled PC production were further quantified in this
study (Supplementary materials S7). According to the LCIA results, the
production of recycled PC from waste plastics can yield environmental
benefits of 82.3%–99.6% in key impact categories (Fig. S4). Compared
to the two PC production scenarios, 1 ton of recycled PC production
could remove about 4500 kg CO2 eq in the global warming category and
1450 kg oil eq in the fossil depletion category. Consequently, the envi­
ronmental impacts of PC production can be lessened by vigorously
developing recycled plastic production, structuring a scientific plastic
waste management system, and improving the proportion of resource
utilization. Meanwhile, the extended producer responsibility system,
which means that the producer’s responsibility for the resources and
environment of its products extends from the production stage to the
whole life cycle, was proposed to realize the greening of the whole in­
dustry chain (Sovacool et al., 2020). Recycling as a core aspect of the
extended producer responsibility will effectively improve the environ­
mental impacts of PC production with the further promotion of the
policy.
X. Zhou et al. Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765

Fig. 5. Environment benefit analysis of PC green factory: a) comparative environmental impact of graded indicators; b) environmental impact reduction (S1:
phosgene PC production scenario; S2: non-phosgene PC production scenario; A: average; AL: advanced level; LL: leading level).

Bio-based plastics are also attracting increasing interest due to the
feature of decoupling plastics from fossil fuel feedstocks (Spierling et al.,
2018). Faced with China’s high oil import dependence of nearly 70%
(Zhao et al., 2020), tapping the potential of bio-based plastics to sub­
stitute petroleum-based plastics is an important part of green reform in
the plastics industry. The previous study has estimated that 241–316 Mt
CO2 eq would be reduced annually when approximately two-thirds of
the world’s conventional plastics are substituted by bio-based plastics
(Spierling et al., 2018). However, bio-based plastics currently account
for a negligible percentage of the plastics production market (European

8
X. Zhou et al.
Bioplastics, 2021). The vast majority of research on bio-based PC plas­
tics is still almost at the laboratory stage, and applications in the prac­
tical field still need to continue to advance. Exploring the prospects for
conversion of fossil-based PC to bio-based PC has important implications
for mitigating the energy challenges and environmental impacts of PC
production. Meanwhile, issues regarding the high production cost of
bio-based materials and the environmental impacts due to the use of
chemicals (e.g., fertilizers) still need to be addressed with further sup­
port and solutions from policies and technologies (Siracusa and Blanco,
2020).
5. Conclusions
In this study, the environmental impacts of two mainstream PC
production processes in China were assessed at the industry level via the
LCA methodology, and key factors were identified with a view to making
improvements. The fossil depletion category contributed the most to the
overall environmental impacts in the midpoints, accounting for 56.2%
in the phosgene scenario and 62.6% in the non-phosgene scenario. The
identification of key factors indicated that reducing BPA and DMC inputs
and cutting pollution emissions from coal mining and combustion could
effectively mitigate the environmental burdens of PC production. The
green factory in the PC industry is actively promoted, which stipulates
the grading of raw material and energy input as well as pollutant
emissions for PC production. If the production level of PC manufacturers
is upgraded to the leading level, then the particulates formation, fossil
depletion, global warming, and non-carcinogens categories from PC
production in China could be reduced by 9.0%, 8.1%, 10.1%, and 10.2%
in 2020, respectively. Meanwhile, accelerating the construction of green
mines and continuing to promote APCDs installation and CCUS appli­
cation are conducive to the optimization of coal mining and utilization.
Furthermore, compared to virgin PC production from petroleum de­
rivatives, recycled PC from waste plastics can achieve environmental
benefits of 82.3%–99.6% in the major impact categories. The decoupling
of bio-based PC from fossil raw materials is also an important aspect of
PC green production optimization.
This study filled the LCI gap of PC production in China and demon­
strated the environmental impacts of PC production and key contribu­
tors from a life cycle perspective, providing references for the
sustainable development of the PC industry, indeed the plastics industry.
In future studies, with the aim of conducting a comprehensive envi­
ronmental impact analysis of the plastics industry, other plastics pro­
duction processes and plastics-related materials should also be
considered.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Xinying Zhou: Data curation, Formal analysis, Visualization,
Writing – original draft. Yijie Zhai: Conceptualization, Data curation,
Writing – review & editing. Ke Ren: Data curation, Conceptualization.
Ziyue Cheng: Data curation, Investigation. Xiaoxu Shen: Investigation.
Tianzuo Zhang: Writing – review & editing. Yueyang Bai: Investiga­
tion. Yuke Jia: Investigation. Jinglan Hong: Methodology, Resources,
Data curation, Supervision, Funding acquisition.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data Availability
Data will be made available on request.
9
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765
Acknowledgments
We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71974113).
Supplementary materials
Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106765.
References
Bishop, G., Styles, D., Lens, P., 2021. Environmental performance comparison of
bioplastics and petrochemical plastics: A review of life cycle assessment (LCA)
methodological decisions. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 168, 105451 https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105451.
Bulle, C., Margni, M., Patouillard, L., Boulay, A., Bourgault, G., De Bruille, V., Viet, C.,
Hauschild, M., Henderson, A., Humbert, S., Kashef-Haghighi, S., Kounina, A.,
Laurent, A., Levasseur, A., Liard, G., Rosenbaum, R.K., Roy, P., Shaked, S.,
Fantke, P., Jolliet, O., 2019. IMPACT World plus: a globally regionalized life cycle
impact assessment method. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 24, 1653–1674. https://doi.org/
10.1007/s11367-019-01583-0.
Contreras-Zarazua, G., Antonio Vazquez-Castillo, J., Ramirez-Marquez, C., Gabriel
Segovia-Hernandez, J., Rafael Alcantara-Avila, J., 2017. Multi-objective
optimization involving cost and control properties in reactive distillation processes
to produce diphenyl carbonate. Comput. Chem. Eng. 105, 185–196. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.compchemeng.2016.11.022.
Cormos, A., Dinca, C., Petrescu, L., Chisalita, D.A., Szima, S., Cormos, C., 2018. Carbon
capture and utilisation technologies applied to energy conversion systems and other
energy-intensive industrial applications. Fuel 211, 883–890. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.fuel.2017.09.104.
Crenna, E., Secchi, M., Benini, L., Sala, S., 2019. Global environmental impacts: data
sources and methodological choices for calculating normalization factors for LCA.
Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 24, 1851–1877. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-
01604-y.
Ding, N., Ruan, X., Yang, J., 2019. Proposed green development reporting framework for
enterprises from a life-cycle perspective and a case study in China. Sustainability 11,
6856. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11236856.
Ecoinventcentre, 2020. Swiss centre for life cycle inventories. https://www.ecoinvent.
org/database/(accessed 14 April 2022).
European Bioplastics, 2021. Bioplastics market data. https://www.european-bioplastics.
org/market/(accessed 14 April 2022).
Fukuoka, S., Fukawa, I., Adachi, T., Fujita, H., Sugiyama, N., Sawa, T., 2019.
Industrialization and expansion of green sustainable chemical process: A review of
non-phosgene polycarbonate from CO2. Org. Process Res. Dev. 23, 145–169. https://
doi.org/10.1021/acs.oprd.8b00391.
Goedkoop, M., Heijungs, R., Huijbregts, M., De Schryver, A., Struijs, J., van Zelm, R.,
2009. Life cycle impact assessment method which comprises harmonised category
indicators at the mid-point and the endpoint level. ReCiPe, first edition report I:
characterization. http://www.lciarecipe.net/(accessed 14 April 2022).
Guan, Y., Shan, Y., Huang, Q., Chen, H., Wang, D., Hubacek, K., 2021. Assessment to
China’s recent emission pattern shifts. Earth Future 9. https://doi.org/10.1029/
2021EF002241 e2021EF002241.
Hong, J., Yu, Z., Fu, X., Hong, J., 2019. Life cycle environmental and economic
assessment of coal seam gas-based electricity generation. Int. J. Life Cycle Assess. 24,
1828–1839. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-019-01599-6.
Hong, J., Zhang, F., Xu, C., Xu, X., Li, X., 2015. Evaluation of life cycle inventory at
macro level: a case study of mechanical coke production in China. Int. J. Life Cycle
Assess. 20, 751–764. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0876-9.
Hynes, N.R.J., Sankaranarayanan, R., Sujana, J.A.J., 2021. A decision tree approach for
energy efficient friction riveting of polymer/metal multi-material lightweight
structures. J. Clean. Prod. 292, 125317 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2020.125317.
ISO 14040, 2006. International standard. Environmental management-life cycle
assessment-principles and framework. http://www.iso.org/iso/home/store/catalog
ue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=37456/(accessed 14 April 2022).
Jiang, D., Chen, W., Zeng, X., Tang, L., 2018. Dynamic stocks and flows analysis of
bisphenol A (BPA) in China: 2000-2014. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52, 3706–3715.
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b05709.
Jiang, X., Wang, T., Jiang, M., Xu, M., Yu, Y., Guo, B., Chen, D., Hu, S., Jiang, J.,
Zhang, Y., Zhu, B., 2020. Assessment of plastic stocks and flows in China: 1978-2017.
Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 161, 104969 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
resconrec.2020.104969.
Khoo, H.H., 2019. LCA of plastic waste recovery into recycled materials, energy and fuels
in Singapore. Resour. Conserv. Recycl. 145, 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
resconrec.2019.02.010.
Kim, J.G., 2020. Chemical recycling of poly (bisphenol A carbonate). Polym. Chem. 11,
4830–4849. https://doi.org/10.1039/C9PY01927H.
Kua, H.W., Lu, Y., 2016. Environmental impacts of substituting tempered glass with
polycarbonate in construction - An attributional and consequential life cycle
perspective. J. Clean. Prod. 137, 910–921. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2016.07.171.
X. Zhou et al.
Lacerda, L.D.M., Nunes, A.O., Faulstich De Paiva, J.M., Da Silva Moris, V.A., 2019.
Evaluation of environmental impacts of an industrial process using virgin and
recycled polycarbonate raw material. Eng. Sanit. Ambient. 24, 1103–1113. https://
doi.org/10.1590/S1413-41522019177627.
Loubet, P., Couturier, J., Horta Arduin, R., Sonnemann, G., 2022. Life cycle inventory of
plastics losses from seafood supply chains: Methodology and application to French
fish products. Sci. Total Environ. 804, 150117 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
scitotenv.2021.150117.
MIIT, 2022. Requirements assessment for green factory in polycarbonate industry.
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China
(MIIT), Beijing, China.
NBS, 2020. China Statistical Yearbook on Environment. National Bureau of Statistics
(NBS), Beijing, China.
NDRC, 2021a. The 14th Five-Year Plan plastic pollution control action plan. National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/xxgk/zc
fb/tz/202109/t20210915_1296580.html?code=&state=123 (accessed 14 April
2022).
NDRC, 2021b. The 14th five-year plan for the development of circular economy.
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). https://www.ndrc.gov.cn
/xxgk/zcfb/ghwb/202107/P020210707324072693362.pdf (accessed 14 April
2022).
Pyshyev, S., Prysiazhnyi, Y., Shved, M., Namiesnik, J., Bratychak, M., 2017. State of the
art in the field of emission reduction of sulphur dioxide produced during coal
combustion. Crit. Rev. Environ. Sci. Technol. 47, 2387–2414. https://doi.org/
10.1080/10643389.2018.1426968.
Qi, R., Li, S., Qu, L., Sun, L., Gong, C., 2020. Critical factors to green mining construction
in China: A two-step fuzzy DEMATEL analysis of state-owned coal mining
enterprises. J. Clean. Prod. 273, 122852 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jclepro.2020.122852.
Rabnawaz, M., Wyman, I., Auras, R., Cheng, S., 2017. A roadmap towards green
packaging: the current status and future outlook for polyesters in the packaging
industry. Green Chem. 19, 4737–4753. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7GC02521A.
Sai, T., Ran, S., Huo, S., Guo, Z., Song, P., Fang, Z., 2022. Sulfonated block ionomers
enable transparent, fire-resistant, tough yet strong polycarbonate. Chem. Eng. J.
433, 133264 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2021.133264.
Saito, K., Jehanno, C., Meabe, L., Olmedo-Martinez, J.L., Mecerreyes, D., Fukushima, K.,
Sardon, H., 2020. From plastic waste to polymer electrolytes for batteries through
chemical upcycling of polycarbonate. J. Mater. Chem. A 8, 13921–13926. https://
doi.org/10.1039/D0TA03374J.
SCPRC, 2015. Made in China 2025. State Council of People Republic of China (SCPRC).
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2015-05/19/content_9784.htm (accessed 14
April 2022).
Sheldon, R.A., 2018. Metrics of green chemistry and sustainability: Past, present, and
future. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 6, 32–48. https://doi.org/10.1021/
acssuschemeng.7b03505.
Siracusa, V., Blanco, I., 2020. Bio-polyethylene (Bio-PE), bio-polypropylene (Bio-PP) and
bio-poly (ethylene terephthalate) (Bio-PET): Recent developments in bio-based
polymers analogous to petroleum-derived ones for packaging and engineering
applications. Polymers 12, 1641. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym12081641.
Smith, C., Nicholls, Z. R. J., Armour, K., Collins, W., Forster, P., Meinshausen, M.,
Palmer, M. D., Watanabe, M., 2021. The earth energy budget, climate feedbacks, and
climate sensitivity supplementary material. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical
Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. https://ipcc.ch/static/ar6/wg1
(accessed 14 April 2022).
10
Resources, Conservation & Recycling 189 (2023) 106765
Sovacool, B.K., Ali, S.H., Bazilian, M., Radley, B., Nemery, B., Okatz, J., Mulvaney, D.,
2020. Sustainable minerals and metals for a low-carbon future. Science 367, 30–33,
10.1126/science.aaz6003.
Spierling, S., Knuepffer, E., Behnsen, H., Mudersbach, M., Krieg, H., Springer, S.,
Albrecht, S., Herrmann, C., Endres, H., 2018. Bio-based plastics - A review of
environmental, social and economic impact assessments. J. Clean. Prod. 185,
476–491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.014.
Tong, D., Zhang, Q., Liu, F., Geng, G., Zheng, Y., Xue, T., Hong, C., Wu, R., Qin, Y.,
Zhao, H., Yang, L., He, K., 2018. Current emissions and future mitigation pathways
of coal-fired power plants in China from 2010 to 2030. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52,
12905–12914. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b02919.
Wang, G., Xu, Y., Ren, H., 2019. Intelligent and ecological coal mining as well as clean
utilization technology in China: Review and prospects. Int. J. Min. Sci. Technol. 29,
161–169. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2018.06.005.
Wnuczek, K., Puszka, A., Podkoscielna, B., 2021. Synthesis and spectroscopic analyses of
new polycarbonates based on bisphenol A-free components. Polymers 13 (24), 4437.
https://doi.org/10.3390/polym13244437.
Xing, D., Lu, L., Teh, K.S., Wan, Z., Xie, Y., Tang, Y., 2018. Highly flexible and ultra-thin
Ni-plated carbon-fabric/polycarbonate film for enhanced electromagnetic
interference shielding. Carbon 132, 32–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
carbon.2018.02.001.
Ye, L., Qi, C., Hong, J., Ma, X., 2017. Life cycle assessment of polyvinyl chloride
production and its recyclability in China. J. Clean. Prod. 142, 2965–2972. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.171.
Zhai, Y., Ma, X., Gao, F., Zhang, T., Hong, J., Zhang, X., Yuan, X., Li, X., 2020. Is energy
the key to pursuing clean air and water at the city level? A case study of Jinan City.
China. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 134, 110353 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
rser.2020.110353.
Zhang, R., Wang, G., Shen, X., Wang, J., Tan, X., Feng, S., Hong, J., 2020a. Is geothermal
heating environmentally superior than coal fired heating in China? Renew. Sustain.
Energy Rev. 131, 110014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110014.
Zhang, Z., Xu, F., Zhang, Y., Li, C., He, H., Yang, Z., Li, Z., 2020b. A non-phosgene
process for bioderived polycarbonate with high molecular weight and advanced
property profile synthesized using amino acid ionic liquids as catalysts. Green Chem.
22, 2534–2542. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0GC00265H.
Zhang, J.X., Zhang, Q., Spearing, A., Miao, X.A., Guo, S., Sun, Q., 2017. Green coal
mining technique integrating mining-dressing-gas draining-backfilling-mining. Int.
J. Min. Sci. Technol. 27, 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmst.2016.11.014.
Zhang, L., 2021. New trend of polycarbonate development in China. Chem. Ind. 39,
35–44 (In Chinese).
Zhang, Y., Sun, M., Hong, J., Han, X., He, J., Shi, W., Li, X., 2016. Environmental
footprint of aluminum production in China. J. Clean. Prod. 133, 1242–1251. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.04.137.
Zhao, Y., Shi, X.P., Song, F., 2020. Has Chinese outward foreign direct investment in
energy enhanced China’s energy security? Energy Policy 146, 111803. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111803.
Zheng, J., Suh, S., 2019. Strategies to reduce the global carbon footprint of plastics. Nat.
Clim. Chang. 9, 374–378. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0459-z.
Zhou, H.X., Bhattarai, R., Li, Y.K., Si, B.C., Dong, X.X., Wang, T.F., Yao, Z.T., 2022.
Towards sustainable coal industry: Turning coal bottom ash into wealth. Sci. Total
Environ. 804, 149985 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149985.
Zhu, W., Pyo, S., Wang, P., You, S., Yu, C., Alido, J., Liu, J., Leong, Y., Chen, S., 2018.
Three-dimensional printing of bisphenol A-free polycarbonates. ACS Appl. Mater.
Interfaces 10, 5331–5339. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b18312.
Zimmerman, J.B., Anastas, P.T., Erythropel, H.C., Leitner, W., 2020. Designing for a
green chemistry future. Science 367, 397–400. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.
aay3060.