Specialty chemicals company LANXESS is one of the world’s first plastics manufacturers to offer its customers – processors of its Durethan polyamides and Pocan polyesters (PBT) – certified values for the carbon footprint of the base resins. Certification was done by an accredited verification body and includes not only the polyamide 6 precursor caprolactam but also the glass fibers manufactured by LANXESS in Antwerp. Glass fibers are used for reinforcing plastics if necessary.

“These certified values enable our customers to more accurately estimate the climate-friendliness of their products and identify ways of further reducing their CO2 emissions,” says Guenter Margraf, Head of Sustainability and Product Management in the High Performance Materials business unit. “The values are also an important part of life cycle analyses, which are increasingly being used in the automotive and electrical and electronics industry to systematically analyze how products impact the environment from manufacturing through to disposal.”

The values were calculated according to the standard ISO 14067:2018 for the carbon footprint of products. The analysis factored in all the major emissions that occur up to the point at which the product leaves the LANXESS factory gate (cradle-to-gate). These include not only direct emissions (scope 1) but also indirect emissions from the purchase of energy (scope 2) as well as the emissions that occur in the upstream supply chain, for example those associated with the raw materials used and transportation processes (scope 3).

“We were especially pleased to learn that, with 3.66 metric tons of CO2 equivalents emitted per metric ton of polyamide 6 produced, the carbon footprint of our polyamide 6 base resin is much smaller than the current published European industry average,” says Margraf.

One reason for this is that LANXESS synthesizes the plastic in a highly integrated plant network at its Antwerp site. From 2024 onward, the carbon footprint of polyamide 6 production is set to improve significantly yet again when, in 2023, if all goes to schedule, LANXESS will be opening a second nitrous oxide reduction facility in Antwerp.

“Reducing nitrous oxide cuts the direct emissions associated with polyamide 6 production by almost 90%,” says Margraf. LANXESS is also looking to use sustainable raw material sources for Caprolactam with a view to reducing the carbon footprint of its polyamide 6 to less than three metric tons of CO2 equivalents. The certification also revealed that the carbon footprint of the PBT base resin from LANXESS was less than that of many other manufacturers.