Life Cycle Assessment of Plywood Manufacturing Process in China

Abstract

Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been an important issue in the development of a circular economy. LCA is used to identify environmental impacts and hotspots associated with plywood manufacturing. Based on our results and a literature review of LCA studies involving plywood, a sustainable and environmentally friendly scenario was proposed for the plywood processing industry to improve environmental performance and sustainability. This study covers the life cycle of plywood production from a cradle-to-gate perspective, including raw material preparation and plywood manufacturing and processing to analysis of environment impacts and hotspots. Analysis of abiotic depletion (ADP), acidification effect (AP), primary energy depletion (PED), freshwater eutrophication (EP), global warming potential (GWP), and particulate matter (RI) were selected as major impact categories in this study. All data were obtained from on-site measurements (plywood production) and investigations of the Eco-invent database and CLCD database (upstream data of materials and energy). These data can be ignored when environmental contributions comprise less than 0.001% of environmental impact and auxiliary material quality is less than 0.01% of total raw material consumption. An eco-design strategy with eco-alternatives was proposed: pyrolysis bio-oil can be used to produce green resin to replace traditional phenolic formaldehyde (PF) resin to decrease the impacts of GWP, PED, AP, PM, and especially ADP and EP. A new technology of gluing green wood was used to replace conventional plywood production technology; wood waste could undergo a gasification process to produce resultant gas rather than combusting. Plywood was also compared with other wood-based panels in China to identify additional scenarios to improve environmental sustainability.

Environmental impact comparison of wheat straw fast pyrolysis systems with different hydrogen production processes based on life cycle assessment

“…ADP is the weighted sum of the input of metal elements, such as iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), cadmium (Cd), platinum (Pt) and ruthenium (Ru) brought by fossil energy, electricity and raw materials in the whole process, and the weight factors of different metals are different (Han et al, 2019; Jia et al, 2019). In case 1, the total ADP of 1 MJ biofuel produced is 0.0345 g antimony eq.…”

“…Detailed analysis of the RI considers emissions of PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides, which involve toxic chemicals on the humans (Jia et al, 2019). It can be clearly seen from Figure 2 that bio-oil production sub-process is the most contribution to the total RI of case 1, accounting for 31.15%.…”

Interfacial catalysis and lignin nanoparticles for strong fire- and water-resistant composite adhesives

“…The veneer manufacturing, including debarking, compositing (including the production of the resin), and drying, is responsible for the majority of energy depletion. 69 However, compositing releases approximately 40 % of the overall pollutants, mainly formaldehyde when using phenol-formaldehyde resins. 68,69 LCAs of plywood and hardwood production list phenol and formaldehyde as the major cause of human toxicity potential, freshwater ecotoxicity potential, terrestrial ecotoxicity potential, photochemical oxidants potential, and significant causes of marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential and abiotic depletion potential.…”

“…69 However, compositing releases approximately 40 % of the overall pollutants, mainly formaldehyde when using phenol-formaldehyde resins. 68,69 LCAs of plywood and hardwood production list phenol and formaldehyde as the major cause of human toxicity potential, freshwater ecotoxicity potential, terrestrial ecotoxicity potential, photochemical oxidants potential, and significant causes of marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential and abiotic depletion potential. 69,70 Epichlorohydrin is nevertheless also a hazardous chemical with toxic and mutagenic health effects.…”

Environmental Impacts of Building Construction Using Cross-laminated Timber Panel Construction Method: A Case of the Research Building in Kyushu, Japan

“…Hence, these materials can meet more generic needs when designing and constructing new buildings. However, there are concerns about the environmental impacts of the engineered wood production compared to lumber because of the complexity of the production processes, and the use of adhesives [3][4][5][6][7].…”