Basis for conducting Life Cycle Assessment of Brazilian silk yarn manufacturing

Abstract

There has been a growing concern around environmental impacts worldwide, and the implications of the production of silk yarn should not be disregarded. On that note, this study presents the basis for conducting a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the silk yarn production system in Brazil. The result is a qualitative inventory for the silk yarn production process, with an overview of the most relevant input and output. The product system of this work can be considered gate-to-gate and comprised from the receipt of the fresh silk cocoons to the sale of the silk yarn in skeins, which is one phase of the silk yarn production system. Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers of silk, but in the yarn manufacturing phase, there is only one spinning company. To the best of our knowledge, there are no studies on silk yarn manufacturing phase under Brazilian conditions in the existing literature until the time this research is being written.

Systematic Insights into a Textile Industry: Reviewing Life Cycle Assessment and Eco-Design

“…Silk production involves harvesting mulberry trees, the food source for silk worms, that, after entering the cocoon phase, are dried and then boiled to extract the fiber [45]. Although untreated silk is a biodegradable animal fiber, the raw material extraction phase is a highly intensive process that includes the production of Kraft paper used for covering silkworms and high amounts of electricity [47,61]. Astudillo et al [45] identified causes for the high values of global warming potential, associating them with fertilizer use and farmyard manure practices, which may also explain the values that silk fabric production presented (80.9 kg CO 2 eq).…”