Eco-profiles and Environmental Product Declarations of the European Plastics Manufacturers Toluene Diisocyanate (TDI) & Methylenediphenyl Diisocyanate (MDI) ISOPA 1 Table of content Table of content ...................................................................................................................................2 Environmental Product Declaration........................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. ......................3 Meta Data ......................................................................................................................................................3 Description of the Product and the Production Process ..................................................................................3 Environmental Performance ...........................................................................................................................4 Additional Environmental and Health Information .......................................................................................... 5 Information....................................................................................................................................................6 Goal & Scope ....................................................................................................................................... 7 Intended Use and Target Audience ................................................................................................................. 7 Product Category and Declared Unit ............................................................................................................... 7 Product and Producer Description ............................................................................................................. .....8 Life Cycle Inventory ............................................................................................................................ 10 System Boundaries ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Cut-off Rules ................................................................................................................................................ 12 Data Quality Requirements........................................................................................................................... 12 Calculation Rules ......................................................................................................................................... 14 Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) Results .................................................................................................................. 15 Life Cycle Impact Assessment ............................................................................................................. 24 Input ...........................................................................................................................................................24 Output ............................................................................................................................. ............................24 Review ..............................................................................................................................................28 Review Details ............................................................................................................................. ................28 Review Summary..........................................................................................................................................28 References......................................................................................................................................... 29 2 Environmental Product Declaration Introduction Description of the Product and the This Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is Production Process based upon life cycle inventory (LCI) data from This EPD is for Toluene diisocyanate (TDI) and Me- PlasticsEurope’s Eco-profile programme. It has thylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), diisocyanates been prepared according to PlasticsEurope’s Eco- used in the production of polyurethanes. The term profiles and Environmental Declarations – LCI isocyanate refers to the –N=C=O functional group Methodology and PCR for Uncompounded Polymer of one carbon, one nitrogen and one oxygen atom. Resins and Reactive Polymer Precursors (PCR ver- Diisocyanates are compounds containing two iso- sion 2.0, April 2011). EPDs provide environmental cyanate groups. performance data, but no information on the eco- When a diisocyanate compound is reacted with a nomic and social aspects which would be neces- compound containing two or more hydroxyl groups sary for a complete sustainability assessment. Fur- (a polyol), long polymer chains are formed, known ther, they do not imply a value judgement between as polyurethanes. environmental criteria. Toluene diisocyanate (TDI) is mainly used in the in- This EPD describes the production of the Toluene dustrial manufacture of flexible polyurethane foams diisocyanate (TDI) and Methylenediphenyl diisocy- while methylenediphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) is anate (MDI) isocyanates from cradle to gate (from used to produce rigid, flexible or elastomeric poly- crude oil extraction to granules or resin at plant). urethane foams. Please keep in mind that comparisons cannot be made on the level of the isocyanate alone: it is nec- A combination of the different building blocks can essary to consider the full life cycle of an applica- be used for a variety of other polyurethane applica- tion in order to compare the performance of differ- tions. (see Eco-profile Long and Short Chain Poly- ent materials and the effects of relevant life cycle ether Polyols Polyurethane Products) parameters. This EPD is intended to be used by The reference flows, to which all data given in this member companies, to support product-orientated EPD refer, is 1 kg of TDI and 1 kg of MDI. environmental management; by users of plastics, as a building block of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of individual products; and by other inter- Production Process ested parties, as a source of life cycle information. Toluene is the primary raw material for industrial TDI manufacture. To produce TDI, toluene is firstly Meta Data Data owner ISOPA nitrated with mixed acid to produce a mixture of LCA practitioner PE INTERNATIONAL AG 2,4- and 2,6-dinitrotoluene isomers. Catalytic re- Programme owner ISOPA duction of the dinitrotoluene mix produces a corre- Programme man- DEKRA Industrial GmbH ager, Reviewer, Da- sponding mix of diaminotoluenes (TDA), which are tabase manager subsequently treated with phosgene to produce Number of plants 4 (TDI production) included in data 6 (MDI production) TDI. collection Representativeness 90 % coverage in terms of production In the production of MDI, Methylenedianiline (MDA) volumes is formed firstly through the reaction of formalde- Reference year 2010 Year of data collec- 2011 hyde with aniline in the presence of a hydrochloric tion and calculation acid catalyst. Phosgene is reacted with the sepa- Expected temporal 2022 validity rated MDA to produce crude MDI, which is then pu- Cut-offs No significant cut-offs rified. Data quality Very good Allocation method Mass allocation 3 Data Sources and Allocation ket value alone, and therefore the physical The main data source was a data collection from procedure (mass allocation) would most reflect European producers of TDI and MDI. Primary data the reality. on gate-to-gate TDI and MDI production is derived The final allocation option, the stoichiometric allo- from site-specific information for processes under cation, would not make sense, as it clearly does not operational control supplied by the participating reflect the industrial reality and plant purpose, companies of this study. since four moles of HCl are generated per mole MDI Four different TDI producers with plants in three dif- or TDI. ferent European countries participated in the pri- In case of minor intermediates to be further used, mary data collection. sold or fuel gas to be applied in combustion proc- In the case of MDI five different MDI producers with esses in specific production processes, allocation six plants in five European countries participated in was done according to mass, current market prices the primary data collection. or energy. A quantified sensitivity analysis was per- formed whenever different allocation possibilities In both cases about 90% of the European TDI and were applicable. MDI production (EU-27) in 2010 are covered, re- spectively. Use Phase and End-of-Life Management The data for the upstream supply chain until the Flexible polyurethane foams produced from TDI or precursors are taken from the database of the soft- MDI and polyether polyols are typically used in up- ware system GaBi 5 [GaBi 5 2011]. All relevant back- holstery, mattresses and automotive seats. ground data such as energy and auxiliary material Rigid polyurethane foams produced from MDI and are also taken from the GaBi 5 database. Most of polyether polyols have good thermal insulation the background data used is publicly available and properties and are used in the manufacture of freez- public documentation exists [GaBi 5 2011]. ers and refrigerators,