Energy-water usage and greenhouse gas emissions nexus of the natural rubber industry in Vietnam

Abstract

The natural rubber industry is one of the leading forces in the agro-industry in Vietnam and is expected to expand in response to growing material demands. However, as the industry pursues profit targets, there is also a pressing need to consider its sustainability. One challenge is the lack of detailed information on the life cycle of natural rubber products, particularly regarding energy consumption, which could hinder sustainable practices. Based on an on-site survey of six natural rubber processing companies in the Southeast and Central Highlands of Vietnam, this field research aims to evaluate the sustainability of the natural rubber industry by examining greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy and water consumption throughout the life cycle of all products. Over two years, biogas, wastewater, and sludge samples were collected multiple times from each factory involved in the research and facilitated with both testing the characteristics and components of these samples, as well as calculating their carbon footprint by the 2006 Guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). GHG emissions from the two most dominant Vietnamese natural rubber products were 589 and 133 kg CO₂eq., respectively, generated from each ton of Standard Vietnamese Rubber (SVR) and Centrifuged Latex (CL) products produced. Our study identified three main sources of GHG emissions in the Vietnamese natural rubber industry: high electricity use during the SVR production process, vast ammonia requirements for the CL production process, and direct CH₄ and CO₂ emissions from the regulation tanks of the wastewater processes. Most surveyed factories have taken significant steps in adopting sustainable practices to reduce their GHG emissions. By combining conventional efforts of factories with GHG emission calculations during this field trip, our research proposes significant energy-saving executions to promote sustainable development in the regional natural rubber industry.