Life cycle assessment of spider silk nonwoven meshes in an air filtration device

Spider silk is a highly interesting protein fiber with outstanding properties. Since natural spider silk is not available for technical applications due to spiders’ cannibalism, the production of recombinant spider silk proteins has been established. The goal of this study was to examine the ecological impact of spider silk nonwoven layers in an air filtration device using comparative life cycle assessment. The investigation focused on the environmental benefits of using recombinantly produced spider silk proteins processed into nonwoven meshes in comparison to melt-blown synthetic polymer filter layers in dust bags. The considered functional unit was one dust bag containing spider silk in comparison to one commercially available dust bag. In case of spider silk dust bags, 9 kg of CO₂-equivalents could be saved per domestic home and year in the category of global warming potential in comparison to commercially available ones. Assuming that all used dust bags would be furnished with spider silk nonwoven meshes, the overall benefit for exemplary Germany would be 241 million kg CO₂-equivalents. This article contains supporting information that will be made available online once the issue is published.