Resource control by introducing an environmental currency: Comparison of feedstock sources for polyethylene production

Abstract

The uncontrolled resource consumption of our time causes serious ecological and economic problems. The continuation of high consumption of fossil fuels triggers climate change, while important metal ore deposits may be depleted within the near future. This situation requires a new kind of solution. For this purpose, the Ecopoint concept is proposed for the limitation of the consumption of fossil fuels and abiotic other non-renewable resources, as well as the land used to produce renewable ones. In this concept, the world’s population is provided with resource shares (Ecopoints) that are used for purchasing products containing virgin resources. Using the polym-erization of high density polyethylene as an example, it is shown that the Ecopoints concept favours options like sugar-based biomass (sweet sorghum, sugarcane, sugar beet) as a feedstock for bioethanol derived ethylene and waste materials (waste plastic, municipal solid waste) as a feedstocks for ethylene derived from cracking or gasification/Fischer-Tropsch synthesis over the conventional use of fossil fuel derived ethylene.