IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v342y2026ics0360544225052028.html

Life cycle carbon footprint and water footprint analysis of solar energy to ethylene glycol

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Xin
  • Huang, Weiqing
  • Yang, Sheng
  • Qian, Yu

Abstract

Ethylene glycol (EG), the simplest diol with broad applications in the chemical industry, demonstrates promising prospects. This study systematically evaluates the water footprint (WF) and carbon footprint (CF) of a novel solar high-temperature pyrolysis process for EG production (StEG) within a life cycle framework for the first time, comparing with coal-to-EG process (CtEG). The StEG process comprises three routes: solar-driven high-temperature pyrolysis of CO2 (SCtEG), H2O (SHtEG) and CO2-H2O mixtures (SC-HtEG). Results show that under baseline conditions, the WF for SCtEG, SHtEG, SC-HtEG and CtEG are 2684.27 L H2O/t-EG, 4225.65 L H2O/t-EG, 2587.46 L H2O/t-EG and 4191.11 L H2O/t-EG, with corresponding CF of −188.23 kg-CO2/t-EG, −114.95 kg-CO2/t-EG, −222.7 kg-CO2/t-EG and 1161.32 kg-CO2/t-EG. The EG synthesis stage emerges as the dominant contributor to direct WF (DWF) and direct CF (DCF), while electricity consumption constitutes the primary component of indirect WF (IWF) and indirect CF (ICF). Sensitivity analysis of 20 scenarios showed that an increase or decrease of ±10 % in EG production efficiency had the greatest impact on WF and CF. The impact of WF and CF of 31 provinces in China under different energy mixes was also explored. The ICF of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Qinghai were far lower than the baseline scenario, while the IWF was the opposite. These findings provide critical insights for advancing energy conservation, emission reduction, and cleaner production in future EG production.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Xin & Huang, Weiqing & Yang, Sheng & Qian, Yu, 2026. "Life cycle carbon footprint and water footprint analysis of solar energy to ethylene glycol," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:342:y:2026:i:c:s0360544225052028
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.139560
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544225052028
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2025.139560?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Onyebuchi, V.E. & Kolios, A. & Hanak, D.P. & Biliyok, C. & Manovic, V., 2018. "A systematic review of key challenges of CO2 transport via pipelines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2563-2583.
    2. Yang, Sheng & Zhang, Lu & Song, Dongran, 2022. "Conceptual design, optimization and thermodynamic analysis of a CO2 capture process based on Rectisol," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    3. Liu, Shuoshi & Zhou, Jiefeng & Yang, Siyu, 2024. "Advanced Rectisol wash equipment incorporating syngas liquefaction and methane recovery for enhanced energy management," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    4. Li, Junjie & Yan, Yulong & Peng, Lin & Zhou, Dongpeng & Wang, Yirong & Zhang, Jie & Cao, Ying & Liu, Lin & Lin, Kun & Li, Menggang & Xie, Kechang, 2024. "Footprint family of China's coal-based synthetic natural gas industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 312(C).
    5. Yao, Dong & Xu, Zaifeng & Qi, Huaqing & Zhu, Zhaoyou & Gao, Jun & Wang, Yinglong & Cui, Peizhe, 2022. "Carbon footprint and water footprint analysis of generating synthetic natural gas from biomass," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 780-789.
    6. Yang, Qingchun & Zhang, Dawei & Zhou, Huairong & Zhang, Chenwei, 2018. "Process simulation, analysis and optimization of a coal to ethylene glycol process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 521-534.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Song, Xintong & Li, Junjie & Wang, Yirong & Zhang, Jie & Chen, Yujia & Cao, Ying & Yan, Yulong & Zhang, Sheng & Li, Zhen & Li, Menggang & Xie, Kechang & Peng, Lin, 2025. "Technological advancements in coal-to-liquid systems for enhanced environmental and economic benefits," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    2. Chu, Genyun & Fan, Yingjie & Zhang, Dawei & Gao, Minglin & Yu, Jianhua & Xie, Jianhui & Yang, Qingchun, 2022. "A highly efficient and environmentally friendly approach for in-situ utilization of CO2 from coal to ethylene glycol plant," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    3. Zhao, Jingyu & Deng, Jun & Wang, Tao & Song, Jiajia & Zhang, Yanni & Shu, Chi-Min & Zeng, Qiang, 2019. "Assessing the effectiveness of a high-temperature-programmed experimental system for simulating the spontaneous combustion properties of bituminous coal through thermokinetic analysis of four oxidation stages," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 587-596.
    4. Liu, Chenglin & Zhao, Lei & Zhu, Shun & Shen, Yuefeng & Yu, Jianhua & Yang, Qingchun, 2023. "Advanced exergy analysis and optimization of a coal to ethylene glycol (CtEG) process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    5. McLaughlin, Hope & Littlefield, Anna A. & Menefee, Maia & Kinzer, Austin & Hull, Tobias & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Bazilian, Morgan D. & Kim, Jinsoo & Griffiths, Steven, 2023. "Carbon capture utilization and storage in review: Sociotechnical implications for a carbon reliant world," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    6. Rahmad Syah & Afshin Davarpanah & Marischa Elveny & Amir Ghasemi & Dadan Ramdan, 2021. "The Economic Evaluation of Methanol and Propylene Production from Natural Gas at Petrochemical Industries in Iran," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-23, September.
    7. Chang, Yuan & Gao, Siqi & Ma, Qian & Wei, Ying & Li, Guoping, 2024. "Techno-economic analysis of carbon capture and utilization technologies and implications for China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    8. Wang, Yangyang & Liu, Yangyang & Xu, Zaifeng & Yin, Kexin & Zhou, Yaru & Zhang, Jifu & Cui, Peizhe & Ma, Shinan & Wang, Yinglong & Zhu, Zhaoyou, 2024. "A review on renewable energy-based chemical engineering design and optimization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 189(PB).
    9. Jiang, Kai & Ashworth, Peta & Zhang, Shiyi & Hu, Guoping, 2022. "Print media representations of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technology in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    10. Marcelo Azevedo Benetti & Florin Iov, 2023. "A Novel Scheme to Allocate the Green Energy Transportation Costs—Application to Carbon Captured and Hydrogen," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-20, March.
    11. Cui, Peizhe & Xu, Zaifeng & Yao, Dong & Qi, Huaqing & Zhu, Zhaoyou & Wang, Yinglong & Li, Xin & Liu, Zhiqiang & Yang, Sheng, 2022. "Life cycle water footprint and carbon footprint analysis of municipal sludge plasma gasification process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    12. Cui, Xuepeng & Ye, Haotian & Dong, Hongguang, 2025. "A novel Rectisol process for H2S enrichment and CO2 capture: Process optimization and thermodynamic analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    13. Xin, Yu & Xing, Xueli & Li, Xiang & Hong, Hui, 2024. "A biomass–solar hybrid gasification system by solar pyrolysis and PV– Solid oxide electrolysis cell for sustainable fuel production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 356(C).
    14. Zhu, Jianlu & Xie, Naiya & Miao, Qing & Li, Zihe & Hu, Qihui & Yan, Feng & Li, Yuxing, 2024. "Simulation of boost path and phase control method in supercritical CO2 pipeline commissioning process," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    15. Kontou, V. & Grimekis, D. & Braimakis, K. & Karellas, S., 2022. "Techno-economic assessment of dimethyl carbonate production based on carbon capture and utilization and power-to-fuel technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    16. Rafew, S. M. & Kabir, Golam, 2026. "Application of interactive threat matrix induced system dynamics model to determine risk probability and resilient policy measures for CO2 pipelines," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).
    17. Cui, Zhe & Sun, Yang & Tian, Wende & Liu, Bin & Guo, Qingjie, 2023. "Dynamic optimal control of coal chemical looping gasification based on process modeling and complex risk computation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    18. Fu, Chao & Zhang, Wei & Li, Anxiang & Shen, Qingfei & Zhao, Ning & Cui, Zhiheng & Wang, Jiangjiang, 2024. "Exergy-water-carbon-cost nexus of a biomass-syngas-fueled fuel cell system integrated with organic Rankine cycle," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    19. Simonsen, Kenneth René & Hansen, Dennis Severin & Pedersen, Simon, 2024. "Challenges in CO2 transportation: Trends and perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    20. De Guido, Giorgia & Schiattarella, Valentina & Moliner, Cristina & Moioli, Stefania, 2026. "Novel bio-based solvents for CO2 removal through physical absorption," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 226(PC).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:342:y:2026:i:c:s0360544225052028. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.