Environmental performance assessment of hardboard manufacture |
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Authors: | Sara González-García Gumersindo Feijoo Petri Widsten Andreas Kandelbauer Edith Zikulnig-Rusch Ma Teresa Moreira |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain;(2) Kompetenzzentrum Holz, WOOD Carinthian Competence Centre, 9300 St. Veit an der Glan, Austria |
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Abstract: | Background, aim and scope The forest-based and related industries comprise one of the most important industry sectors in the European Union, representing
some 10% of the EU's manufacturing industries. Their activities are based on renewable raw material resources and efficient
recycling. The forest-based industries can be broken down into the following sectors: forestry, woodworking, pulp and paper
manufacturing, paper and board converting and printing and furniture. The woodworking sector includes many sub-sectors; one
of the most important is that of wood panels accounting for 9% of total industry production. Wood panels are used as intermediate
products in a wide variety of applications in the furniture and building industries. There are different kinds of panels:
particleboard, fibreboard, veneer, plywood and blockboard. The main goal of this study was to assess the environmental impacts
during the life cycle of wet-process fibreboard (hardboard) manufacturing to identify the processes with the largest environmental
impacts.
Methods The study covers the life cycle of hardboard production from a cradle-to-gate perspective. A hardboard plant was analysed
in detail, dividing the process chain into three subsystems: wood preparation, board forming and board finishing. Ancillary
activities such as chemicals, wood chips, thermal energy and electricity production and transport were included within the
system boundaries. Inventory data came from interviews and surveys (on-site measurements). When necessary, the data were complemented
with bibliographic resources. The life cycle assessment procedure followed the ISO14040 series. The life cycle inventory (LCI)
and impact assessment database for this study were constructed using SimaPro Version 7.0 software.
Results Abiotic depletion (AD), global warming (GW), ozone layer depletion (OLD), human toxicity (HT), ecotoxicity, photochemical
oxidant formation (PO), acidification (AC) and eutrophication (EP) were the impact categories analysed in this study. The
wood preparation subsystem contributed more than 50% to all impact categories, followed by board forming and board finishing,
which is mainly due to chemicals consumption in the wood preparation subsystem. In addition, thermal energy requirements (for
all subsystems) were fulfilled by on-site wood waste burning and, accordingly, biomass energy converters were considered.
Several processes were identified as hot spots in this study: phenol-formaldehyde resin production (with large contribution
to HT, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity and PO), electricity production (main contributor to marine aquatic ecotoxicity), wood
chips production (AD and OLD) and finally, biomass burning for heat production (identified as the largest contributor to AC
and EP due to NO
X
emissions). In addition, uncontrolled formaldehyde emissions from manufacturing processes at the plant such as fibre drying
should be controlled due to relevant contributions to terrestrial ecotoxicity and PO. A sensitivity analysis of electricity
profile generation (strong geographic dependence) was carried out and several European profiles were analysed.
Discussion Novel binding agents for the wood panel industry as a substitute for the currently used formaldehyde-based binders have been
extensively investigated. Reductions of toxic emissions during drying, mat forming and binder production are desirable. The
improved method would considerably reduce the contributions to all impact categories.
Conclusions The results obtained in this work allow forecasting the importance of the wood preparation subsystem for the environmental
burdens associated with hardboard manufacture. Special attention was paid to the inventory analysis stage for each subsystem.
It is possible to improve the environmental performance of the hardboard manufacturing process if some alternatives are implemented
regarding the use of chemicals, electricity profile and emission sources in the production processes located inside the plant.
Recommendations and perspectives This study provides useful information for forest-based industries related to panel manufacture with the aim of increasing
their sustainability. Our research continues to assess the use phase and final disposal of panels to complete the life cycle
assessment. Future work will focus on analysing the environmental aspects associated with plywood, another type of commonly
used wood panel. |
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Keywords: | Fibreboard Hardboard Life cycle assessment (LCA) Life cycle inventory (LCI) Wet-process fibreboard Wood boards Wood panels |
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