Life cycle assessment and economic analysis of HFC-134a production from natural gas compared with oil-based and coal-based production

Abstract

China is the largest producer and consumer of HFC-134a (1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane) in the world. Coal-based route is mainly adopted to produce HFC-134a, which suffers from large waste and CO₂ emissions. Natural gas is a low-carbon and clean energy resource, and no research has been found on the environment and economy of producing HFC-134a from natural gas. In this study, CML 2001 method was used to carry out the life cycle assessment of natural gas (partial oxidation)-based and natural gas (plasma cracking)-based routes (abbreviated as gas(O)-based and gas(P)-based routes, respectively), and their environmental performances were compared with coal-based and oil-based routes. Meanwhile, considering that China is vigorously promoting the transformation of energy structure, and the application of electric heating equipment to replace fossil-based heating equipment in industrial field, which has a great impact on the environmental performance of the production processes, the authors conducted a scenario analysis. The results showed that the gas(O)-based route had the most favourable environmental benefits. However, the gas(P)-based route had the highest potential for reducing environmental burdens, and its environmental benefit was the most favourable in scenario 2050. Additionally, the economic performance of the gas(P)-based route was significantly better than that of gas(O)-based and coal-based routes.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

life cycle assessment / economic performance / HFC-134a / natural gas / oil / coal

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 22078266 and 22008198), the Youth Innovation Team construction scientific research Project of Education Ministry of Shaanxi province, China (Grant No. 22JP090) and the Youth Talent Promotion Program of Shaanxi Association for Science and Technology (Grant No. 20220602), and Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Grant No. 2021JQ-555).

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