Life Cycle Assessment of Ethylene Glycol and Propylene Glycol Antifreeze

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed on ethylene glycol based antifreeze solution and propylene glycol based antifreeze solution shows that the energy required by the ethylene glycol based solution is less than the energy used by the propylene glycol based solution. The propylene glycol based solution generates greater total solid waste than the ethylene glycol based solution.

The propylene glycol based antifreeze solution has a higher potential impact in more of the impact categories than the ethylene glycol based solution based on mass loading techniques for characterization. However, conclusions beyond using mass loading on a category-by-category basis cannot be determined.