Closing the Carbon Gap: The Quantifiable Emissions Advantage of Biomass PE Over Petroleum

Polyethylene is widely used across a broad range of applications due to its excellent water resistance, oil resistance, and low-temperature performance.
Thanks to its outstanding processability, polyethylene molded products are extensively used in safety-critical fields such as food and medical applications, as well as in durability-focused industries including automotive and construction materials.

In recent years, however, growing environmental awareness has increased the demand not only for product performance but also for reducing CO₂ emissions throughout the entire product lifecycle. One effective approach to reducing CO₂ emissions is to replace petroleum-based raw materials with biomass-based alternatives.

As a measure to reduce CO₂ emissions, Resonac proposes the use of biomass-based polyethylene sheets. Figure 1 shows an estimated comparison of total CO₂ emissions from manufacturing to incineration disposal between our biomass-derived product and conventional petroleum-based polyethylene.Biomass-based polyethylene absorbs CO₂ during the plant growth stage through photosynthesis.

As a result, when offsetting this absorbed CO₂ against emissions generated during manufacturing and incineration, the total lifecycle CO₂ emissions are significantly lower than those of petroleum-based products.

In addition, because the physical properties and processability are equivalent to petroleum-based products, existing materials can be replaced with minimal impact on current designs and manufacturing processes.