Life cycle assessment perspective on waste resource utilization and sustainable development: A case of glyphosate production

• Published in: Journal of environmental management 2024-01, Vol.350, p.119584-119584, Article 119584
• Main Authors: Yang, Kexuan, Jing, Deji, Wang, Xiaoxiang, Zhou, Shuguang, Zhang, Baiqing, Qin, Long, Wang, Qiaoli, Jing, Guohua, Li, Wei, Li, Sujing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Coal; Environmental optimization; Glyphosate production; Life cycle assessment (LCA); Life Cycle Stages; Organophosphorus Compounds; Pesticides; Toxicity; Wastewater targeted conversion
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119584

The growing demand for pesticide manufacturing and increasing public awareness of sustainable development, have let to urgent requirements for a refined environmental management framework. It is imperative to conduct process-based life cycle assessments (LCAs) to promote clean and environment-friendly technologies. Herein, the cradle-to-gate LCA of glyphosate production was executed as an example to investigate crucial production factors (materials or energy) and multiple environmental impacts during the production processes. Results showed that methanol caused the highest environmental damage in terms of toxicity, with a normalized value of 85.7 × 10−8, followed by coal-fired electricity in 6.00 × 10−8. Furthermore, optimized schemes were proposed, including energy improvement (electricity generated by switching from coal-fired power to solar power) and wastewater targeted conversion. Regarding the normalization results before and after optimization, the latter showed more significant results with the normalized value decreasing by 21.10 × 10−8, while that of the former only decreased by 6.50 × 10−8. This study provides an integrated LCA framework for organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) from upstream control and offers an important supplement to managing the key pollution factors and control links of the OP industry. Moreover, it reveals the positive influence of optimized schemes in facilitating cleaner production technologies, thus ultimately promoting new methodologies for resource recycling. [Display omitted] •The cradle-to-gate LCA was performed for source control of pesticide production.•Methanol showed the highest environmental contribution of 61.00%.•Energy improvement and wastewater targeted conversion were proposed as optimizations.•Waste resource utilization resulted in a 20.23% reduction of damages.•Low CVs indicated the high reliability of glyphosate-LCA results.