Dataset of the article “Sustainability footprints of a renewable carbon transition for the petrochemical sector within planetary boundaries”. LCI and cost-related data used for the calculations are included in Input-dataset.zip Selected results of the analysis are included in Resulting-dataset.zip Summary: The petrochemical industry will play a crucial role in developing low-carbon transition technologies to curb greenhouse gas emissions in the industrial sector. Momentum is building to help reduce the carbon footprint of this hard-to-abate sector, particularly through replacing fossil carbon feedstocks with carbon from biomass, captured CO2, and other recycled resources, but the broader implications of these so-called ‘solutions’ remain unclear. Here, we assess the overall sustainability of such ‘renewable carbon pathways’ by quantifying their life-cycle environmental footprints with respect to the previously defined nine planetary boundaries. We show that although a shift toward renewable carbon pathways could indeed reduce CO2 emissions by 25% to over 100%, the scenario with the lowest carbon footprint could exceed the biodiversity planetary boundary by at least 30%. Our work highlights the potential pitfalls of overlooking global environmental guardrails beyond greenhouse gas emissions reduction and identifies new avenues for quantifying the environmental footprint of decarbonization solutions for hard-to-abate sectors.

This dataset was created as part of NCCR Catalysis, a National Centre of Competence in Research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.