LIFE CYCLE INVENTORY: BITUMEN

In 2009 Eurobitume decided to update and enhance the bitumen life cycle inventory (LCI) originally published in 1999. The bitumen LCI is a cradle to gate study. It covers: • extraction of crude oil; • transport to Europe including pipeline and ship transport; • manufacturing of bitumen in a complex refinery; and • hot storage of the product. • It also takes into account the construction of production facilities (infrastructure). The study covers paving grade bitumens from the product standard EN 12591 table 1, which includes penetration grades 20 to 220 1/10 mm. The main bitumen production route is straight-run distillation (atmospheric distillation + vacuum distillation). Other manufacturing processes, such as semi-blowing, propane deasphalting and visbreaking were evaluated. In addition to bitumen, LCIs for polymer modified bitumen (PMB) with 3,5% polymer and bitumen emulsion with 65% bitumen were calculated. The report is based upon the most recent information available from the crude oil production and refining industry, European collated submissions and data collected by industry: • Oil and Gas Producers data reported in 2009. • Bitumen refining data from the Eurobitume survey in 2010. • Bitumen crude supplies collated by Eurobitume. • New SO2 limits applying to the transport section. Where primary data were not available data from the Ecoinvent database were used. The allocation between bitumen and other co-products made from crude oil is based on mass balances at the crude oil extraction and the transport stages. At the refining level, the allocation is based on relative economic values. The LCI is shown as a list of emissions and resource uses in this report and is also available as an electronic annex. The environmental impacts resulting from such emissions have not been assessed. The life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) based on these data would be the next step in a full life cycle assessment. The report gives recommendations how these data can be used. The LCI has been conducted according to ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. As part of these standards, the report has been peer reviewed by an independent LCI expert.