LCA of Egg Phospholipids
Abstract: Egg phospholipids are a group of fats or lipids in the egg yolk, commonly used as emulsifiers in the chemical industry to facilitate the dissolving of substances. The pharmaceutical company Fresenius-Kabi manufactures this product and seeks a better understanding of the product’s major environmental impacts in order to comply with the ISO 14001 requirements, communicate its environmental performance and choose raw materials that result in lower environmental impacts. The aim of this study is to quantify and identify environmental impacts that occur in the life cycle of Fresenius-Kabi’s egg phospholipids product, and to suggest improvements on how the impacts could be reduced. The aim has been reached by following the life cycle assessment methodology. The life cycle consists of egg, egg yolk powder and egg phospholipids production. The major inputs to the life cycle include fertilizers, pesticides, hen feed, fuel oil and solvents. The major outputs are hen manure, egg residues, air and water emissions. The results show that the greatest impacts are generated in the production of hen feed, solvent feedstocks, the hen manure handing and the final egg phospholipids production. The most severe environmental impacts are found in the human toxicity and eutrophication impact categories. Pesticide and fertilizers usage in the cultivation of hen feed and solvent feedstocks generate phosphorus, manganese and arsenic emissions, which are emission substance sources in the human toxicity impact category. In addition, nitrate and phosphate emissions from fertilizer and hen manure affect the eutrophication. The emissions of NMVOC and carbon dioxide to air, as well as phosphorus to waste water, are the major environmental concerns in the final egg phospholipids manufacturing. Other impact categories such as climate change, photochemical oxidant formation, terrestrial acidification and fossil depletion have lower global impact. Five scenarios have been conducted in order to validate the results, and to provide Fresenius-Kabi with improvements. Lowering the production and intake of hen feed per kilogram eggs with six percent decrease the environmental impacts by 2 to 6 percent. Changing the ethanol feedstock to cellulose-based feedstocks clearly diminishes the toxicity related emissions due to lower fertilizer and pesticide usage. To replace other fat and protein sources with the egg residue byproduct that is yielded within the life cycle is the best treatment method of the egg’s non-phospholipids content. No specific improvements to the treatment method of the hen manure have been found. The fifth scenario includes a sensitivity analysis on the egg yolk powder allocation factor. To increase it from 11 to 25 percent does not give any significant effect on the final results, since this life cycle phase already has very low environmental impact. Actions that will have a significant effect on the egg phospholipids’ total environmental impact are optimize fertilizer and pesticide usage at hen feed and ethanol feedstock cultivations, lower ammonia and phosphate emissions from the hen manure management, and finally, reduced solvent, carbon dioxide, phosphorus and phosphate emissions from the final egg phospholipids manufacturing. Fresenius-Kabi is recommended to further look into these emission sources in order to decrease the egg phospholipids’ environmental impact.
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