1) A Brazilian chemical company conducted a life cycle assessment of its sodium lauryl ether sulfate (SLES) production process to identify opportunities to improve environmental performance and reduce costs. 2) The study analyzed the current production process and a prospective scenario involving sourcing palm kernel oil (PKO) from local Brazilian suppliers rather than imported from Malaysia. 3) The results showed the prospective Brazilian PKO scenario improved impacts in six of seven categories due to differences in cultivation practices and reduced transport compared to importing from Asia. Further economic analysis is needed to evaluate feasibility.

1. Maria da Graça C. B. Popi1,2; Luiz A. Kulay2
1 Oxiteno Indústria e Comércio S.A., São Paulo, Brazil
2 Group of Pollution Prevention (GP2), Chemical Engineering Department, Polytechnic School – University of São Paulo, Brazil
INTRODUCTION
REFERENCES
The intensification of government sanctions and market pressures, along
with an increase of sense of responsibility, have led Chemical Industry to
introduce more environmentally sustainable practices in their
management. The bases of this transition are often the proper use of
resources and the loss prevention along the supply-chain.
Aware of the benefits that this approach can bring to the business,
especially with regard to exports, a Brazilian Chemical Industry has
decided to review the technologies used for obtaining assets that are
market leaders, in order to identify improvement focus. The expectations
of the company were reduce production costs and convey to customers a
proactive image.
In order to carry out the initiative it was created a management program
based on LCM principles, which was structured in four phases:
The replacement of PKO imported by the same input produced in Brazil,
had showed improvement in six of the seven analyzed impact categories
(CC, TET, WET, ALO, WD and SD); EUT being the only category in
which their performance was worse than the Current Scenario. The
analysis makes it clear that differences in cultural practices and soil
changes for palm cultivation in Brazil and transport within Brazil
compared to transoceanic transport in Asia were decisive in the improved
environmental performance. The next step will be the economic analysis
in order to verify the feasibility of the alternative.
INITIAL DIAGNOSIS
The main contributions to environmental performance of SLES can be
grouped as follows:
1. ABNT NBR ISO 14040:2009: Gestão ambiental - Avaliação do ciclo de vida -
Princípios e estrutura: ABNT - Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas: 21 p.
2009a.
2. ABNT NBR ISO 14044:2009: Gestão ambiental - Avaliação do ciclo de vida -
Requisitos e orientações: ABNT - Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas: 46 p.
2009b.
3. Goedkoop, M. et al. ReCiPe 2008: A life cycle impact assessment method which
comprises harmonised category indicators at the midpoint and the endpoint level -
Report I: Characterisation. PRé Consultants, CML - University of Leiden, RUN
(Radboud University Nijmegen), RIVM. Netherlands, p.133. 2013
4. Jungbluth, N. et al. Life Cycle Inventories of Bioenergy - Ecoinvent Report Nº 17 -
Data V2.0. Ecoinvent Centre - Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories. Uster, 755
p. 2007
5. Queiroz, A. G. Avaliação do ciclo de vida de biodiesel de dendê produzido na
Amazônia. 2011. 317 (Doutorado). Engenharia de Recursos Naturais da Amazônia
(PRODERNA/ITEC), Universidade Federal do Pará. 2011.
6. PORAM. Annual Report 2011 (for the year ending). Malásia: Palm Oil Refiners
Association of Malaysia. 2011.
Incorporation of Life Cycle Management in producing chemical assets: a
Brazilian experience with Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES)
The first asset to be analyzed was Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES),
a surfactant widely used in formulation of household detergents – for
dishwashing and laundry – and personal care products – shampoos,
toothpastes and soaps.
Other important contributors to the environmental performance are: road
transport occurring throughout the chain and the electricity used in
industrial processes in various stages. Both have considerable effects
when analyzing the contributions in general.
Figure 3. Environmental impact profile for SLES – Prospective
Scenario – PKO BR
Figure 2. Environmental impact profile for SLES – Current
Scenario
Phase 1
• Environmental diagnosis of the chemical asset's
processing
Phase 2
• Identification and ranking of opportunities for
potential improvement
Phase 3
• Conception and dimensioning of solutions
Phase 4
• Environmental and economic analysis of the
selected solution
Figure 1. Product System and Boundaries
CONCEPTION OF SOLUTIONS
For Group I - Lauryl alcohol – a prospective scenario was outlined to
replace palm kernel oil (PKO) imported from Malaysia by the same
feedstock locally produced, including palm cultivation and palm oil
production in northern Brazil, state of Pará.
This alternative seeks to verify the influence of geographic changes and
their impacts in terms of soil transformation and palm cultivation in
Brazil; as well as transport within Brazil compared to transoceanic
transport.
• Approach: cradle-to-gate, attributional
• Reference flow: 1t SLES
• LCIA Method: ReCiPe Midpoint (H) v1.11 – Categories:
Climate change, Freshwater eutrophication, Terrestrial ecotoxicity, Freshwater
ecotoxicity, Agricultural land occupation, Water depletion, Fossil depletion
OBJECTIVES
The main goal of this work was to analyze the environmental
performance for the production of Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate (SLES)
applying LCA technique in order to support a Brazilian Chemical
Company to implement a management program based on LCM
principles.
GP2
Grupo de Prevenção
da Poluição - EPUSP
Ethylene Oxide
Production
Malaysia
Palm
cultivation
T1
PKO
extraction and
refining
EE
Electricity
Generation and
transport
T2 T3
Malaysia
Port
Detergents
Formulation
Consumer
Goods Industry
Aratu Port
Brazil
T4
Lauryl Acid
Production
Lauryl Alcohol
Ethoxylation
SLES
production
T 7
Brazil
Lauryl Alcohol
Production
Steam
production
Use
Disposal
System boundaries
Tn Transportation steps, n
Consumer
Market
Fossil fuels
burning
Brazil
Brazil
Malaysia
Brazil
Malaysia
Brazil
Naphta
Production
Oil extraction
and refinning
T 6
T 5
Brazil
Brazil
I. Lauryl alcohol derived from
renewable palm kernel oil
with the respective contributions from the
soil transformation for palm cultivation in
Malaysia; and transoceanic shipping of PKO
to Brazil
II. Thermal energy
with their contributions from burning
fossil fuels for steam generation.
III. Ethylene Oxide
with the respective contributions of their
input obtained from fossil ethylene.
No emissions from deforestation and wood burning from primary
forests in Brazil for palm cultivation
Absence of transoceanic shipping for PKO BR
Phosphorus losses to water during the palm cultivation in
Brazil are higher than in Malaysia
Pesticide cypermethrin is not used for palm cultivation in
Brazil, that uses the herbicide glyphosate, which has
lower characterization factor to these categories
Differentiated agricultural productivity for the cultivation
of Brazilian palm, 23.500 kg/ha.year5 against 19.700
kg/ha.year6 for Malaysian palm
Absence of mechanized irrigation , which also affects the
WD category
Absence of transoceanic long-distance transport have provided lower
consumption of fossil fuels and therefore a better performance in this
category to PKO BR
CC
EUT
TET
WET
ALO
WD
FD
METHOD
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION