LCA of PHA Production – Identifying the Ecological Potential of Bio-plastic

The issue of environmental performance of bio-plastics has attracted a large number of researchers over the last two decades. This is a natural result of the fact that bio-plastics have an intrinsic economic disadvantage compared to fossil-based polymers due to higher raw material costs, production processes still in relatively early stages of technical development, and smaller production units, giving fossil competitors the advantage of the economy of scale. Market introduction of bio-polymers therefore requires advantages in other fields to compensate for this, and as long as fossil resources are still available at reasonable prices, ecological performance is a logical argument for bio-polymers in general. A thorough review of the numerous publications that evaluate the ecological performance of bio-polymers from the PHA family, often in comparison to fossil competitors, is out of the scope of this paper. Already, there is a number of meta-studies about LCA publications on PHA production, which will form the backbone of arguments in this paper regarding the discourse about ecological performance of PHA. More than just giving an overview on all these publications, the intent of this contribution is to provide the reader with background information on how to find a pathway through the controversial results of such studies. In addition, the paper will analyse the most important aspects of the PHA life cycle.