No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
A comparison of the GHG emissions caused by manufacturing tissue paper from virgin pulp or recycled waste paper
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this work is to compare greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from producing tissue paper from virgin pulp (VP) or recycled waste paper (RWP). In doing so, the study aims to inform decision makers at both company and national levels which are the main causes of emissions and to suggest the actions required to reduce pollution.
Methods
An attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) was performed in order to estimate and compare the GHG emissions of the two processes. LCA allows us to assess how the choice of raw material for VP and RWP processes influences total GHG emissions of tissue paper production, what are the main drivers behind these emissions and how do the direct materials; energy requirements and transportation contribute to the generation of emissions. The cradle-to-gate approach is carried out.
Results and discussion
The results show that demands for both thermal energy and electricity are higher for the RWP than for the VP if only the manufacturing stages are considered. However, a different picture emerges when the analysis looks at the entire life cycle of the production. GHG from the VP are about 30 % higher than the RWP, over the life cycle emitting 568 kg CO2 eq more per kilogram of tissue paper. GHG emissions from the wood pulping alone were 559 g CO2 eq per kilogram of tissue paper, three times higher than waste paper collection and transportation.
Conclusions
In terms of GHG emissions from cradle to gate, the recycled process less intensive than the virgin one for two reasons. First, as shown in the results the total GHG emissions from RWP are lower than those from VP due to relatively lower energy and material requirements. Second is the non-recyclability nature of tissue paper. Because the tissue paper is the last use of fibre, using RWP as an input would be preferable over using VP. The environmental profile of the tissue products both from RWP and VP can be improved if the following conditions are considered by the company. First, the company should consider implementing a cogeneration unit to simultaneously generate both useful heat and electricity. Second, it may consider changing the VP mix, in order to avoid the emissions associated with long distance transpiration effort. Third, there is the option of using sludge as fuel, which would reduce the total fossil fuel requirement.
... The framework was applied to a case study of using PAA in bleaching wood pulp. The pulp and paper production was selected because it is one of the largest industrial water consumers and generates a significant amount of waste and emissions such as Greenhouse Gas (GHG) (Gemechu et al., 2013;Tomberlin et al., 2020;Wang et al., 2011;Yu et al., 2016). Freshwater consumption in pulp and paper mills ranges from 9 to 90 m 3 /ton of pulp (average~30 m 3 /ton) and 1.5e65 m 3 /ton of paper (average~10 m 3 /ton) (Blanco et al., 2016). ...
... The process of defibration can be performed mechanically, chemically, or by a combination of both (Sixta, 2006a). The kraft pulping process modeled in this study is the dominant process in the industry that accounts for 89% of the global chemical pulps and over 62% of all virgin fiber material (Gemechu et al., 2013;Sixta, 2006a). The main chemicals used in the pulping process are caustic NaOH and sodium sulfide (NaS), well known as white liquor (Christopher J. Biermann, 1996b;Ragnar et al., 2014;Sixta, 2006b). ...
... PAA-based TCF also provides a significant reduction of water consumption (~14%) and effluents discharges (~16%) by enhancing the water reuse efficiency of the pulp production. This benefit is significant, given that the pulp and paper industry is one of the largest industrial water consumers and generates a significant amount of effluents (Gemechu et al., 2013;Wang et al., 2011;Yu et al., 2016). The results of this study can be used to support future research that quantifies the industry-wide water-saving potentials of TCF using PAA or other bleaching agents. ...
Bleaching is an important industrial operation that has significant environmental impacts. Many new bleaching technologies have been developed; nonetheless, it is challenging to quantify their potential environmental impacts due to the lack of quantitative information and robust analysis methods across different bleaching agents. This study addresses this gap by developing a general Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework that integrates LCA with manufacturing process simulations and lab-scale bleaching experiments. The framework was applied to a case study of Peracetic Acid (PAA), a promising bleaching agent, used in the Total Chlorine-Free (TCF) technology for wood pulp production, compared with the traditional Elemental Chlorine-Free (ECF) using chlorine dioxide. Different PAA synthetic pathways (i.e., using acetic acid or triacetin) and bleaching charges were explored using scenario analysis. Results showed that PAA-based TCF achieves a brightness similar to the conventional ECF technology with lower life-cycle impacts in categories such as global warming and eutrophication. From a process perspective, PAA-based TCF reduces the consumption of energy, water, pulping chemicals, completely avoids the use of chlorinated compounds, and provides enhanced process safety. The source of PAA significantly affects the life-cycle environmental impacts of pulp bleaching. Using PAA synthesized from triacetin rather than acetic acid leads to higher environmental impacts; however, such impacts can be mitigated by reducing excessive use of triacetin (direction for future optimization) or using bio-based glycerin in the production of the triacetin feedstock for PAA production. Although this case study focuses on PAA bleaching for wood pulp, the framework has the potential to be used for other/same bleaching agents in different industrial sectors.
... The biggest burdens come from the paper production process (crushing, machining, pressing, etc.), accounted for 75.65% to 86.31% of total emissions. This distribution is similar to other countries in the world [23,29]. ...
... Figures located in the bottom left corners of Figure 4 to unveil the percentage of GHG emissions contributed from different inputs in the life cycle of Vietnamese paper products. As seen, the emission from electricity use accounted for 23.12% to 32.97% of total GHG emissions, which is similar to the other countries [16,29]. The emission from coal use accounted for 45.02% to 52.47% of total GHG emissions, higher than the other countries normally accounted for 20% to 25% of total GHG emissions [30]. ...
... Indeed, the numbers of studies have shown similar results [16]. As the case with Spain's tissue production, LCA GHG emission of recycled paper-based products was about 30% lower than that of virgin pulp-based products [29]. ...
The paper industry is an essential but energy-intensive economic sector. This study aims to propose an appropriate inventory method to first determine the GHG emission factor in the life cycle of paper products of Vietnam. The approach overcomes the limitations of the ISO 14067 method by including the environmental burdens from the paper mill’s processes. In 2018, the amount of GHG emitted from cradle to gate when producing a ton of carton box, writing paper, and tissue products ( EF CO 2eq ) was 1,366 kg CO2eq, 1,224 kg CO2eq, and 751 kg CO2eq, respectively. High energy intensity is identified as the main reason that causes high life cycle analysis (LCA) GHG emission factors and virgin paper-based products often emit higher LCA GHG amounts than recycled paper-based products. To reduce the emission, the Vietnamese paper mills should increase the use of recycled paper and replace fossil fuels with environmentally friendly energy resources.
... Additionally, the amount of CO 2 emissions due to fuel combustion was accounted for according to Zhang et al. [9], and Peng et al. [27]. [22,28,29], the core aspects of raw material input, production, and product output in the transportation phase of paper products are included in the accounting boundary. Among them, raw material input transportation includes pulp raw materials from domestic origin or foreign imports transported to the pulp and paper enterprises and after the use of waste paper recycling transported to the pulp and paper enterprises recycling; product output transportation includes finished paper and paperboard from the production enterprises transported to the paper products suppliers, distributors, individual consumers or export transported to other countries. ...
... Paper straw availability coefficient (t/t) 0.4500 Coal CO 2 emission factors (tCO 2 /t) 1.9003 Straw collectability coefficient (t/t) 0.8300 Coke CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 2.8604 Grain/straw ratio (t/t) 1.0400 Crude oil CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 3.0202 Agricultural film CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 22.7200 Gasoline CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 2.9251 Rice seed CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 1.8400 Kerosene CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 3.0179 Nitrogen fertilizer CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 1.5300 Diesel CO 2 emission factors (tCO 2 /t) 3.0959 Phosphate fertilizer CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 1.6300 Fuel oil CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 3.1705 Potash CO 2 emission factors (tCO 2 /t) 0.6500 Natural gas CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /m 3 ) 0.0022 Compost CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 1.7700 Electricity CO 2 Emission Factor (tCO 2 /kW-h) 0.0010 Herbicide CO 2 emission factor (tCO 2 /t) 10.1500 Rail transport CO 2 emission factors (t/t.km) ...
China has been the world’s largest producer and consumer of paper products. In the context of the “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals”, China’s papermaking industry which is traditionally a high energy-consuming and high-emissions industry, desperately needs a nationally appropriate low-carbon development path. From the consumption-side perspective, this paper calculates the CO2 emissions of China’s papermaking industry from 2000 to 2019 by using carbon emission nuclear algorithm, grain-straw ratio, first-order attenuation method, and STIRFDT decomposition model, etc., to further explore the core stages and basic patterns affecting the industry’s carbon peaking. The results show that the total CO2 emissions of China’s papermaking industry showed an upward trend from 2000–2013, stable from 2013–2017, and a steady but slight decline from 2017–2019. Meanwhile, the total CO2 emissions of the full life cycle of paper products in China have decreased to a certain extent in the raw material acquisition, pulp, and paper making and shipping stages, with only the waste paper disposal stage showing a particular upward trend. We find that from 2000 to 2019, China’s CO2 emissions in the pulping and papermaking stage of paper products accounted for 68% of the total emissions in the whole life cycle, of which 59% was caused by coal consumption. Moreover, the scenario prediction shows that improving the energy structure and increasing the waste paper recovery rate can reduce the CO2 emissions of the industry, and it is more significant when both work. Based on this and the four core stages of CO2 emissions of the papermaking industry we proposed ways to promote CO2 emissions peaking of China’s paper products.
... Increase the efficiency of carbon-based power plants in the fossil fuel sector (e.g., by using gas instead of coal) (Laing et al., 2019;Weinhofer and Hoffmann, 2010;Xu et al., 2015) Co-burning of coal and/or biomass to reduce emissions Cadez and Czerny (2016) Integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) using biogas (material for biogas: local agriculture, wood chip, seaweeds and poplars, landfill) (Broberg Viklund and Lindkvist, 2015;Cadez and Guilding, 2017;Hoang Duc and Do Ba, 2017;Metta et al., 2020;Penz and Polsa, 2018) Use of energy-efficient equipment and machinery (e.g., by energy-efficient air conditioning, motion detectors, efficient light adjustments/LEDs/motion sensor, smart metering) (Aroonsrimorakot, 2018;Biro and Csete, 2021;Britton and Petrovskis, 2021;Chatziaras et al., 2016;Chu and Schroeder, 2010;Coles et al., 2014;Ferreira et al., 2019;Giama and Papadopoulos, 2018;Hoang Duc and Do Ba, 2017;Huisingh et al., 2015;Javadi et al., 2021;Jungbluth et al., 2016;Metta et al., 2020;Navarro et al., 2017;Penz and Polsa, 2018;Perdue and Stoker, 2013;Steenhof et al., 2012;Tantisattayakul et al., 2016;Tunji-Olayeni et al., 2021;Yusuf et al., 2013) Energy awareness:Inform employees of energy-saving methods Create energy awareness, knowledge, and commitment among the employees (e.g., energy-saving tip sheets, lights off, perform regular maintenance on units) (Aroonsrimorakot, 2018;Biro and Csete, 2021;Chu and Schroeder, 2010;Fernando and Hor, 2017;Giama and Papadopoulos, 2018;Hoang Duc and Do Ba, 2017) Energy recovery:Use heat pumps, waste heat recovery, or IGCC Implementation of energy recovery processes (e.g., waste heat recovery from landfill, recycling of blast furnace gas, IGCC (Integrated gasification combined cycle)) (Ferreira et al., 2019;Gemechu et al., 2013;Huisingh et al., 2015;Lee et al., 2018;Ma et al., 2012;Metta et al., 2020;Penz and Polsa, 2018;Tantisattayakul et al., 2016;Xu et al., 2015) recycling) as part of its resources (Hasanbeigi et al., 2012;Orsini and Marrone, 2019). ...
... The management category comprises seven measures and includes Redesign products or modify them to reduce their carbon footprint (e.g., by increasing the product longevity, or use of lighter weight material) (Cheah et al., 2013;Damert et al., 2017;Hoang Duc and Do Ba, 2017;Navarro et al., 2017;Noya et al., 2016;Orsini and Marrone, 2019;Zhang et al., 2021) Use recycled and/or renewable materials for products (biodegradable materials, e.g., mushrooms instead of leather) (Cadez and Czerny, 2016;Cheah et al., 2013;Damert et al., 2017;Griessacher and Antrekowitsch, 2012;Hasanbeigi et al., 2012;Huisingh et al., 2015;Noya et al., 2016;Orsini and Marrone, 2019;Shin and Searcy, 2018;Zhang et al., 2021) Redesign the process to achieve better efficiency (reduction of process time e.g., by implementing automation or IoT devices) (Amjad et al., 2021;Arocena et al., 2021;Britton and Petrovskis, 2021;Huisingh et al., 2015;Penz and Polsa, 2018;Zhang et al., 2021) Regularly update the machinery (e.g., replacing lignite-fired boiler with natural-gas-fired boilers) (Britton and Petrovskis, 2021;Cadez and Czerny, 2016;Cadez and Guilding, 2017;Coles et al., 2014;Javadi et al., 2021;Ma et al., 2012;Tantisattayakul et al., 2016) Use, sell, or reduce the footprint of byproducts (e.g., selling of liquid carbon dioxide and calcium bicarbonate, or having oxygen as an output) (Axelson et al., 2021;Blanco et al., 2017;Huisingh et al., 2015;Nuβholz et al., 2019;Shin and Searcy, 2018;Zhang et al., 2021) Clean fuel:Use or development of cleaner fuels Improve the efficiency of fuel and fuel consumption (e.g., cars with less consumption) or use low carbon fuels (like fuel-cell, biomass/biofuels, (sewage) sludge as fuel, paint waste, industrial plastic, rubber residues, landfill gas, waste oil) (Agyemang et al., 2016;Böttcher and Müller, 2016;Broberg Viklund and Lindkvist, 2015;Cadez and Czerny, 2016;Centobelli et al., 2020;Chatziaras et al., 2016;Fernandez et al., 2017;Ferreira et al., 2019;Gemechu et al., 2013;Kilkis and Kilkis, 2016;Kouloukoui et al., 2019;Lee, 2013;Metta et al., 2020;Navarro et al., 2017;Penz and Polsa, 2018;Xu et al., 2015) (Chaiyapa et al., 2016;Eranki et al., 2019;Gan et al., 2011;Metta et al., 2020) reduction actions that are initialized on a strategic level ( Table 7). The first measure involves internal incentives for employees to encourage low carbon behaviors. ...
Companies contribute to a large extent to greenhouse gas emission. To mitigate this, measures for reducing these emissions can be applied. There is, however, neither a systematized general overview of existing measures nor an estimation of their application and their effectiveness to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This study strives to close this gap by reviewing research on the reduction of corporate greenhouse gas emissions and synthesizing emission reduction measures in a taxonomy. Furthermore, the application of these measures and their perceived effectiveness is empirically assessed using a survey among companies that are involved in emission reduction activities. On this basis, a cluster analysis is conducted to identify measure types and to unveil application patterns. 27 different measures and 65 respective implementation examples are identified and structured within nine categories: energy, product, process, technology, 6R and waste management, office and mobility, management, reporting and disclosure, and compensation measures. The empirical analysis shows that there exist measures with a high efficiency to reduce emission, which are rarely applied in companies. On the other side, a large share of applied measures is not perceived as highly effective. Companies can use these results to structure their emission reduction activities and identify best practices.
... The PPI is the fourth largest industrial energy user because chemical pulping, black liquor evaporation, and drying require enormous amounts of energy [22]. In addition, this industry has traditionally been under scrutiny due to its heavy dependence on water, air and water pollution, intensive use of natural resources, forest degradation and deforestation and waste generation; such issues have been extensively studied in the literature [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] and are discussed in this review. The environmental impacts of the PPI become more apparent considering that this industry generates 1.3% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (nearly 2% of industrial across its lifecycle [36]. ...
... The energy required for transportation is also a vital element that contributes to the emissions of this industry. Large amounts of fossil fuels are needed to collect and transport wood from forests to pulp mills and later to the manufacturing site [29]. Others note that paper mills are often located far from agricultural lands, which leads to high costs and GHG emissions resulting from transport [177]. ...
Paper has shaped society for centuries and is considered one of humanity's most important inventions. However, pulp and paper products can be damaging to social and natural systems along their lifecycle of material extraction, processing, transportation, and waste handling. The pulp and paper industry is among the top five most energy-intensive industries globally and is the fourth largest industrial energy user. This industry accounts for approximately 6% of global industrial energy use and 2% of direct industrial CO 2 emissions. The pulp and paper industry is also the largest user of original or virgin wood, with deleterious impacts on both human health and local flora and fauna, including aquatic ecosystems. This critical and systematic review seeks to identify alternatives for mitigating the climate impacts of pulp and paper processes and products, thus making the pulp and paper industry more environmentally sustainable. This study reviews 466 studies to answer the following questions: what are the main determinants of energy and carbon emissions emerging from the pulp and paper industry? What are the benefits of this industry adopting low-carbon manufacturing processes, and what barriers will need to be tackled to enable such adoption? Using a sociotechnical lens, we answer these questions, identify barriers for the pulp and paper industry's decarbonization, and present promising avenues for future research.
... The wood fibers have to be separated to remove impurities. They are cut, washed, whitened with chemical substances, macerated, pressed, and dried, processes that require a great deployment of machinery and energy consumption [44,45]. ...
... The wood fibers have to be separated to remove impurities. They are cut, washed, whitened with chemical substances, macerated, pressed, and dried, processes that require a great deployment of machinery and energy consumption [44,45]. In a similar way, the breakdown of the GWP attributable to each resource can be observed in Figure 8. Once again, electricity production was clearly the main contributor (76.7%). ...
Recent studies have identified that buildings all over the world are great contributors to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The relationship between the building industry and environmental pollution is continuously discussed. The building industry includes many phases: extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, construction, use, and demolition. Each phase consumes a large amount of energy, and subsequent emissions are released. The life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) is a simplified version of the life cycle assessment (LCA) that focuses only on the evaluation of energy inputs for different phases of the life cycle. Operational energy is the energy required for day-to-day operation processes of buildings, such as heating, cooling and ventilation systems, lighting, as well as appliances. This use phase accounts for the largest portion of energy consumption of the life cycle of conventional buildings. In addition, energy performance certification of buildings is an obligation under current European legislation, which promotes efficient energy use, so it is necessary to ensure that the energy performance of the building is upgraded to meet minimum requirements. For this purpose, this work proposes the consideration of the energy impacts and material resources used in the operation phase of a building to calculate the contribution of these energy impacts as new variables for the energy performance certification. The application of this new approach to the evaluation of university buildings has been selected as a case study. From a methodological point of view, the approach relied on the energy consumption records obtained from energy and materials audit exercises with the aid of LCA databases. Taking into practice the proposed methodology, the primary energy impact and the related emissions were assessed to simplify the decision-making process for the energy certification of buildings. From the results obtained, it was concluded that the consumption of water and other consumable items (paper) are important from energy and environmental perspectives.
... Dias et al. (2007) and Manda et al. (2012) studied the impact of printing and writing paper production. Gemechu et al. (2013) investigated the impact of tissue paper production from virgin pulp or recycled waste paper. Gonz alez-García et al. (2009) studied the impact of pulpwood production. ...
... As can be seen, the factors are considerably lower than those identified for other paper types within the European fibre mass flow model. In the study by Gemechu et al. (2013), the recycled waste fibres were allocated 30% of the burdens of producing virgin pulp, i.e. Ai ¼ 0.3. ...
Allocating environmental impacts within life cycle assessment (LCA) is a recognised methodological problem. Different allocation methods have been developed to fulfil the various goals of LCA studies. At present, there is neither a consensus regarding the method to be used nor a one-fits-all method for dealing with recycling in LCA. The paper discusses some of the main allocation procedures practised in the pulp and paper industry, namely those covered by ISO/TS 14067:2018, GHG Protocol/PAS 2050, and the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). All in all, the allocation method described in the ISO/TS 14067:2018 standard was considered the most appropriate to account for open-loop recycling of paper products. However, the method neither considers the number of subsequent uses of recycled fibres, nor the recycled fibre age. Yet, both of them are considered especially important in the open-loop recycling of paper products. In order to account for these aspects, the present study proposes an advanced, step-wise approach to handle allocation in LCAs accounting for the open-loop recycling of paper products. The advanced approach is based on the fibre mass flow model used to calculate the mean fibre age and the mean number of uses of paper products within the European context. The approach was validated with the data from the pulp and paper industry, particularly examining the newsprint paper grade with different contents of recycled fibre and fibre age. The paper, however, introduces all the parameters required to perform allocation based on the proposed method for other paper grades. The categpory of global warming potential was considered in the study as an illustrative example. yet the method could be applied to other impact assessment categories. The results calculated using the proposed allocation approach were compared to those obtained with the allocation methods described in the GHG Protocol/PAS 2050 and the PEF. The proposed allocation method can be used to guide further development of available standards and the product category rules, which will contribute to increased harmonisation and consistency of LCA studies in the pulp and paper sector, as well as to the enhanced practical implementation of LCA in industry.
... It concludes that inherent activities related to BHKP such as cooking, bleaching and wastewater treatment are not always the main contributors to the environmental impact of the process. Upstream chemical and fuel productions, besides on-site energy production systems, seem to be important contributors to different impact categories (Lopes et al., 2003;Das and Houtman, 2004;Gemechu et al., 2013). ...
Cellulose micro- and nanofibers (CNFs) are commonly regarded as "greener" than petro-based materials. The high energy input that their production still demands, along with the use of chemicals or heat in some pretreatments, asks for a critical view. This paper attempts a life cycle assessment of CNFs produced from bleached hardwood kraft pulp via three different pre-treatments before mechanical homogenization. First, a fully mechanical route, based on a Valley beating pre-treatment. Second, an enzymatic route, based on endoglucanases and requiring certain temperature (~50 °C). Third, a TEMPO-mediated oxidation route, considering not only the impact of the chemical treatment itself but also the production of TEMPO from ammonia and acetone. The main output of the study is that both, mechanical and TEMPO-mediated oxidation routes, present lower impacts than the enzymatic pre-treatment. Although the mechanical route presents slightly milder contributions to climate change, acidification, eutrophication, and other indicators, saying that TEMPO-mediated oxidation is environmentally unfeasible should be put under question. After all, and despite being disregarded in most assessment publications up to date, it is the only well-known way to selectively oxidize primary hydroxyl groups and thus producing kinds of CNFs that are unthinkable by other ways.
... The authors pointed out that impacts associated with electricity consumption from a specific grid could vary significantly in the short and in the long term due to supply mix variation. In general, since electricity and thermal energy demand dominate the Resource use, fossil (or fossil depletion) impact category in wastepaper recycling, their supply mixes have great influence on the results, as stated by many authors (see, e.g., Gemechu et al., 2013;Masternak-Janus and Rybaczewska-Błazejowska, 2015). These findings are reflected in this study in the sensitivity analysis (see • Figure 38), especially in the scenario with lower recycling rate (70%) compared to the Baseline scenario (around 84%). ...
Ramboll has been appointed by the European Federation of corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO or the Client) as technical consultant for conducting a peer reviewed comparative Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study for B2B transport packaging solutions for the food segment—a recyclable corrugated solution and a reusable plastic crate—in accordance with ISO standards 14040 and 14044. This is conducted as a basis for discussion with authority representatives on the current legal developments within the European Union regarding circular economy and waste prevention.
... Both values are significantly larger than those reported in other studies on tissue paper production. For example, Gemechu et al. [69] report that the GWP of tissue paper production in Spain is 1.31 and 1.88 kg CO 2 -eq per kg of recycled and virgin paper, respectively. Ta Thi and Thi Anh [70] estimated that the GWP of recycled and virgin tissue paper in Vietnam is 0.75 and 1.06 kg CO 2 -eq per kg of tissue paper [70]. ...
A waste reform was recently introduced in Russia to divert waste from landfills. To help advance the reform, this paper presents a life cycle assessment of the municipal solid waste management system in Russia’s second largest city—Saint Petersburg—and its neighboring Leningrad region. Five scenarios were evaluated: the current state of the system (S0), its expected post-reform state in 2024 (S1), and its state improved by increased landfill gas collection (S2), by increased waste incineration (S3), and by separate collection of waste (S4). The environmental impact was assessed in terms of climate change, acidification, eutrophication, and abiotic resource depletion (fossil fuels). The results showed an overall reduction in the environmental impact of the waste management system across all impact categories and all scenarios studied. The largest reduction in all impact categories (except abiotic resource depletion) was achieved through source separation of municipal solid waste. Particularly, global warming potential was reduced from 0.328 kg CO2-eq./kg waste generated in S0 to 0.010 kg CO2-eq./kg waste in S4. Regarding abiotic resource depletion potential (fossil fuels), the incineration scenario is the most beneficial, since it reduces the impact by 573%.
... In one case about 2300 kg CO 2 e per ton was used to produce coated white board by utilization of woodchips and wastepaper [9]. Wood Kraft pulp used to produce tissue paper in Spain was found to consume 1875 kg CO 2 e where pulp was imported from other European countries and South America [10]. Kraft liner paper in Brazil was found to use only 461 kg CO 2 e after modernization of boiler from 936 kg CO 2 e before modernization [11]. ...
Study of carbon footprint is an emerging field which provides statistical analysis about the contribution of an activity on global climate change. Every human activity in daily life is achieved at the expense of those substances which directly or indirectly contribute to global warming. In this era of global communication, humans are habitual to know about the ongoing changes in the world. Newspapers are one of the reliable sources for getting updated about the global information. Paper-based newspapers come at the cost of greenhouse gas emissions. So, this article based upon an analysis of carbon footprint of Nepal’s national daily newspaper provides evaluation of each of the following: carbon emission during the manufacturing of raw materials, carbon emission from fuel consumption during transportation of raw materials, carbon emissions during the printing of newspaper and carbon emission from the fuel consumption during the transportation of printed newspaper. During the study period of 2019 A.D., the result shows that the total carbon emission of Gorkhapatra newspaper was found to be 2308.5 kg CO2e per ton. The upshot of this study provides not only thorough information about carbon emissions but also builds a foundation for calculation of carbon emissions from paper used in various sectors.
... 1, 3 With the growing population, the consumption of natural resources is increasing rapidly along with the associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. 4 Climate change is responsible for adverse weather conditions, natural disasters and sea level rises, as well as an increase in cardiovascular diseases, malaria and other diseases; all of which harm the population. 1 Many other factors beyond GHG emissions harm the environment, including resource depletion and ocean acidification. 5 Internationally, there are a number of agreements to reduce environmental harm, including the United Nations Paris Agreement 6 and the Sustainable Development Goals. 5 The European Union and its member states aim to reduce GHG emissions by at least 40% by 2030 and by 80%-85% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. ...
Objectives
Global sustainability is considered the number one health concern facing our planet. Dental care is currently not provided in a sustainable way. This study aims to quantify the potential environmental burden of an examination in a hypothetical dental practice and identify major contributors to environmental harm.
Materials and Methods
A life cycle analysis was performed for the life cycle of an examination of one patient in a hypothetical dental practice. The equipment and products analysed were those available at the Faculty of Dentistry, Malmö University. The Ecoinvent version 3.5 database and the life cycle assessment software tool OpenLCA version 1.10 were chosen for this study.
Results
Normalized results indicate that the impact categories to which the modelled examination most significantly contributes are water scarcity, freshwater eutrophication and human toxicity (cancer effects). The major contributors or hotspots relating to the environmental harm of an examination procedure are soaps and detergents, disposable bibs, surface disinfection, stainless‐steel instruments, clothing, water use and wastewater.
Conclusion
Normalized results indicate that the potential environmental impact of an examination compared to one individual's impact per year is minimal. Considering the potential number of dental examinations and other dental procedures performed every year puts the findings in another perspective. This paper touches on some of the ways that the environmental burden of an examination could be reduced. Small changes to everyday practice, such as always making sure the dishwasher and washing machines are full when turned on, using less environmentally damaging soaps, more sustainable clothing alternatives and using necessary instruments could significantly reduce dentistry's environmental impact. Changes in materials and practice may result in potential trade‐offs. Research would need to be carried out comparing the environmental burden of any alternatives. We hope in the near future that there will be more evidence relating to products used within dental care settings, potential trade‐offs and dentistry's environmental burden.
... Due to the above nonlinear relationship, existing studies arrived at different conclusions on the effect of waste paper recycling on carbon emissions from the paper industry. When the waste paper recovery rate was at relatively low level, an increase in waste paper recovery rate will reduce the carbon emissions from the paper industry (Pickin et al. 2002;Gemechu et al. 2013;Wang et al. 2016), but when the recovery rate exceeds the optimal level, an increase in waste paper recovery rate will lead to an increase in the carbon emissions from the paper industry (Schenk et al. 2004;Virtanen and Nilsson 2013). Therefore, the analysis of the dynamic relationship between waste paper recovery rate and carbon emissions from the paper industry is of significant value to the formulation of related environmental and recycling policies. ...
As China’s demand for paper products increases, China’s paper industry faces enormous pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By using material flow analysis in combination with input–output analysis, this study measured the waste paper recovery rate in a more accurate method and analyzed the impact of waste paper recycling on the carbon emissions from China’s paper industry. China’s waste paper recovery rate estimated in this study was close to 70% in 2017, much higher than that of 48% obtained with the traditional method. The regression results displayed a negative relationship between waste paper recovery rate and CO2 emissions per unit of paper consumption during 2000–2017 in China. The rolling regression results further indicated that the impact of waste paper recycling was becoming stronger on reducing CO2 emissions per unit of paper consumption in China. Since an inverted “U” shape relationship exists between waste paper recovery rate and its reduction effect on carbon emissions from the paper industry, the regression results suggested that China’s waste paper recovery rate has not reached the optimal level with regard to carbon emissions from China’s paper industry. Thus, although China’s waste paper recovery rate has reached a relatively high level, currently waste paper recycling is still an effective method to reduce carbon emissions from China’s paper industry.
... The paper used at the faculty comes from virgin pulp. This has a higher potential impact compared to sanitary paper from a recycled product [41]. Switching to sanitary paper which is sourced from recycled product would significantly reduce the carbon footprint of an endodontic procedure. ...
Background
To analyse via life cycle analysis (LCA) the global resource use and environmental output of the endodontic procedure.
Methodology
An LCA was conducted to measure the life cycle of a standard/routine two-visit RCT. The LCA was conducted according to the International Organization of Standardization guidelines; ISO 14040:2006. All clinical elements of an endodontic treatment (RCT) were input into OpenLCA software using process and flows from the ecoinvent database. Travel to and from the dental clinic was not included. Environmental outputs included abiotic depletion, acidification, freshwater ecotoxicity/eutrophication, human toxicity, cancer/non cancer effects, ionizing radiation, global warming, marine eutrophication, ozone depletion, photochemical ozone formation and terrestrial eutrophication.
Results
An RCT procedure contributes 4.9 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2 eq) emissions. This is the equivalent of a 30 km drive in a small car. The main 5 contributors were dental clothing followed by surface disinfection (isopropanol), disposable bib (paper and plastic), single-use stainless steel instruments and electricity use. Although this LCA has illustrated the effect endodontic treatment has on the environment, there are a number of limitations that may influence the validity of the results.
Conclusions
The endodontic team need to consider how they can reduce the environmental burden of endodontic care. One immediate area of focus might be to consider alternatives to isopropyl alcohol, and look at paper, single use instrument and electricity use. Longer term, research into environmentally-friendly medicaments should continue to investigate the replacement of current cytotoxic gold standards with possible natural alternatives. Minimally invasive regenerative endodontics techniques designed to stimulate repair or regeneration of damaged pulp tissue may also be one way of improving the environmental impact of an RCT.
... We include the 16 main types of clothing and 4 types of footwear [26,[35][36][37][38][39]. Following the same method, we listed 13 products in the 'hygiene and cleaning' section [40][41][42][43][44][45]. ...
This paper presents a carbon footprint (CF) observatory recently developed within our research group. It aims to introduce a new concept of CF accountability, which focused not just on measuring CF, but also on making users reflect about and eventually change their lifestyles to reduce their personal emissions. With this conception, the CO2web observatory includes not only a CF calculator, but also the CF of different alternative consumption scenarios. Therefore, the user may be more aware of the impact of different personal decisions, such as emissions linked to different food, cars, home appliances or pets. In addition, the CF calculator provides quantitative comparisons of the emissions linked to current habits of users with those of similar cohorts, along with specific advices for those consumption sectors where emissions are significantly higher than their cohort’s average.
... Among all the listed environmental impacts, Tellnes et al. (2012) suggested that global warming potentials seem to have the highest profile because of the release of CO2 in large quantities. This observation is supported by other researchers who have carried out studies in different fields (Röös et al. 2010;Wu et al. 2012;Muñoz et al. 2013;Gemechu et al. 2013). Boguski (2010) described the carbon footprint as the calculation and conversion of the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) caused by a particular activity into carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq). ...
... These aLCA studies evaluate the environment performance of the existing virgin and recycled products. For paper products, which are investigated in this manuscript, several studies (Boguski, 2010;Brogaard et al., 2014;Gemechu et al., 2013;Hong and Li, 2012) found that a product made of recycled fiber generally has a lower carbon footprint. While aLCA studies provide a comprehensive view of physical flows and environmental impact associated throughout a life-cycle of a product, it may not quantify the impact of a demand shift from virgin products to recycled products. ...
Recycling is generally recognized as a key component of strategies to achieve improved resource efficiency and reduce the environmental burden associated with resource use. However, to maximize the net benefits offered by recycling, one must understand the system-wide effects of substituting primary materials with recycled materials and how those effects vary under alternative strategies. Consequential life cycle assessment (cLCA) approaches to evaluate the impact of increasing use of recycled materials require identification of grades and sources of scrap materials used at the margin. Various grades of recycled materials differ in their substitution possibilities and supply limits. However, most studies of cLCA for material recycling overlook these aspects and typically assume a fixed set of marginal activities. This study develops a model to describe the resource consumption behaviors of material producers and the resulting cascade of material flows for the case of the United States (US) pulp and paper industry. We observe that grades and sources of scrap materials used at the margin dynamically change so as the resulting environmental impact when demand for recycled containerboard products increases. The results show that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings effect of using recycled materials can be considerably larger when marginal recovered fiber comes from additional recovery from landfill rather than being diverted from the export market. Also, the results show that the behavior of international trade partners for recovered paper may offset GHG emission savings from the domestic replacement of virgin pulpwood with recovered paper. Most importantly, such behaviors are dependent on grades used at the margin. The developed model and results can help inform the US pulp and paper industry, policymakers, and other stakeholders about the system-wide effects of increasing use of recovered paper.
... Among all the listed environmental impacts, Tellnes et al. (2012) suggested that global warming potentials seem to have the highest profile because of the release of CO2 in large quantities. This observation is supported by other researchers who have carried out studies in different fields (Röös et al. 2010;Wu et al. 2012;Muñoz et al. 2013;Gemechu et al. 2013). Boguski (2010) described the carbon footprint as the calculation and conversion of the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) caused by a particular activity into carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq). ...
The demand for sawn timber throughout the world is steady, as wood is one of the most important raw materials available to mankind. Yet, the production of sawn timber through sawmilling activities causes environmental issues and is perceived to have a potential effect on global warming. Studies on this aspect is very limited, especially for tropical hardwoods. The intention for this study was to evaluate the carbon footprint of manufacturing sawn timber from round wood using a gate-to-gate life cycle approach. The functional unit used was 1 m 3 of rough green sawn timber. Primary data on yield and energy consumption during the sawmilling process were collected on a monthly basis throughout 2013. Greenhouse gas emissions, which include CO2, CH4, and N2O, were determined using emission factors. The carbon footprint was then calculated on the basis of the equivalency factor, described as CO2-eq. The carbon footprint assessment shows a result of 499 kg CO2-eq/m 3 and 696 kg CO2-eq/m 3 for Light Red Meranti and Dark Red Meranti sawn timber, respectively. The results showed that there were no significant differences in the carbon footprint of Light Red Meranti and Dark Red Meranti sawn timber production.
... GHG emissions can be reduced by changing the product materials. Gemechu et al. (2013) took a comparison of the GHG emissions caused by manufacturing tissue paper from virgin pulp or recycled waste paper and found that the recycled process less intensive than the virgin one in terms of GHG emissions from cradle to gate. Leon et al. (2014) applied Life Cycle Assessment methodology to two different magazine paper products: supercalendered paper and light-weight coated paper which assessed the environmental benefits gained through the implementation of new manufacturing strategies in both products. ...
... The results of the study can be used for the cradle-to-grave LCA of paper recycling including the environmental impact associated with deinking sludge utilization. Thus, the study allows to extend the system boundaries of the LCA studies aimed at the comparison of paper production from virgin and recycled fibre, such as Gemechu et al. (2013), to provide more holistic and comprehensive data. ...
The aim of this research was to quantify and compare the environmental impact of a number of different deinking sludge utilization approaches. A comparative life cycle assessment of deinking sludge material and energy recovery was performed for the baseline scenario—landfill disposal, and four alternative scenarios: two cement plants, a lightweight aggregate plant, and a stone wool plant. Sludge pretreatment and transportation processes were included in the scenario analyses. The results of the life cycle assessment showed that the use of dry deinking sludge in a cement plant in Finland, 45 km from the point of supply of the deinking sludge, to substitute 46% of the petcoke and 2.7% of the limestone showed the best performance. Therein, a global warming potential reduction of 13% and an eutrophication potential reduction of 12% – the highest reduction out of all impact categories studied – were achieved. A similar reduction in global warming potential of 12% was achieved when deinking sludge was incinerated and the ash utilized in cement production in a Russian plant located 350 km from the paper mill. However, abiotic depletion potential and acidification potential slightly increased by 2.6 and 1.5%, respectively. A maximum reduction of 2.1% out of al impact categories was achieved when dry sludge was used in a lightweight aggregate plant. That is considerably less compared to the reduction achieved at the cement plants. The use of deinking sludge ash in a stone wool plant to substitute 25% of cement resulted in a maximum reduction of 25% in the ozone layer depletion potential. Thus, the utilization of deinking sludge in construction materials production while preventing its landfilling has beneficial effects on the environment, in particular decreased greenhouse gas emissions.
... Regarding the tissue paper manufactured from the recycled waste paper, the complete life cycle covers the following processes: the collection and pre-treatment of waste paper, the tissue paper production and the treatment of waste from the production processes, the use of tissue paper and, finally, its disposal. Due to the fact that a numerous of former studies proved that all the above enumerated unit processes, despite the production phase, have minor environmental impacts on the life cycle of tissue paper, they were excluded from the analysis [10,15,16]. Figure 3 presents the process flows of tissue paper production from recycled waste paper and the system boundaries that cover the tissue paper production. The main stages of the recycled waste paper preparation cover: waste paper storage, repulping of the dry recovered waste paper, mechanical removal of impurities (screening, cleaning) and bleaching. ...
The aim of this work is to compare the environmental impacts of two production processes of tissue paper using virgin pulp (virgin fiber) or waste paper pulp (recycled fiber). This comparison is based on the materials and energy used as well as emissions and waste resulting from the production of tissue paper. Life cycle assessment (LCA), ReCiPe method, was chosen as the analysis tool. The results of the research proved that electricity has the most considerable participation in the overall environmental impacts in both production processes, followed by either virgin pulp or heat. Consequently, these two production processes are the greatest contributors to the following midpoint environmental impact categories: human toxicity, climate change, human health and ecosystems, and fossil depletion. The analysis based on endpoint impact categories proved that the production process based on waste paper is more environmentally friendly than the one based on virgin pulp in all impact categories: human health, ecosystems, resources. This is largely because of its lower material and energy requirements in the entire life cycle. Due to the fact that the tissue paper is the final use of fiber, using recycled waste paper is strongly recommended. The obtained research results are a valuable source of management information for the decision makers at both company and national levels required to improve the environmental performance of tissue paper production.
... Among all the listed environmental impacts, Tellnes et al. (2012) suggested that global warming potentials seem to have the highest profile because of the release of CO2 in large quantities. This observation is supported by other researchers who have carried out studies in different fields (Röös et al. 2010; Wu et al. 2012; Muñoz et al. 2013; Gemechu et al. 2013). Boguski (2010) described the carbon footprint as the calculation and conversion of the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) caused by a particular activity into carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2-eq). ...
The demand for sawn timber throughout the world is steady, as wood is one of the most important raw materials available to mankind. Yet, the production of sawn timber through sawmilling activities causes environmental issues and is perceived to have a potential effect on global warming. Studies on this aspect is very limited, especially for tropical hardwoods. The intention for this study was to evaluate the carbon footprint of manufacturing sawn timber from round wood using a gate-to-gate life cycle approach. The functional unit used was 1 m 3 of rough green sawn timber. Primary data on yield and energy consumption during the sawmilling process were collected on a monthly basis throughout 2013. Greenhouse gas emissions, which include CO2, CH4, and N2O, were determined using emission factors. The carbon footprint was then calculated on the basis of the equivalency factor, described as CO2-eq. The carbon footprint assessment shows a result of 499 kg CO2-eq/m 3 and 696 kg CO2-eq/m 3 for Light Red Meranti and Dark Red Meranti sawn timber, respectively. The results showed that there were no significant differences in the carbon footprint of Light Red Meranti and Dark Red Meranti sawn timber production.
... Life cycle inventory (LCI) has been compiled through combined use of primary data from cruise manager and secondary data from Ecoinvent database version 2.2, with exception of datasets for tissue paper, adapted from Gemechu et al. (2013) and for incineration, adapted from I-LCA database (Baldo and Pretato 2001). For life cycle impact assessment procedures (LCIA), the specific software SimaPro 7.3 has been used and the environmental loads associated to the various scenarios have been reported into the following categories: global warming potential (GWP fossil and GWP biogenic), ozone depletion potential (ODP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), global use of energy resources (non-renewable and renewable) and global use of material resources. ...
Purpose The aim of this paper is to analyse the potential green practices that can be adopted onboard a cruise ship in order to enhance the environmental performance of the cruise with particular attention to paper input and output flows in a waste minimization perspective. Methods A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of management scenarios of paper streams onboard a cruise ship is performed. The potential environmental impacts due to three strategic choices about paper and paper waste management onboard a case-study ship have been investigated through a so-called difference analysis, i.e. the digitalization of the daily information journal Today, the reduction of toilet paper and paper towels through the installation of auto-cut single extraction dispensers and the reduction of printing paper through dissemination of specific guidelines. In order to compare each scenario with the reference case in absence of the practice implementation, the functional unit in this study has been defined as 1 day of cruise. Results and discussion The implementation of the analysed green practices show comparable environmental benefits onboard a pilot ship, on the basis the set of assumptions and hypothesis identified in this simulation. In particular, when comparing the potential GHG emission reductions, it results that the two most realistically feasible scenarios in the communication area, i.e. digitalization of 25 and 50 % shares of Today journal, show environmental savings comparable to measures related to reduction of consumables and guidelines for personnel. Nevertheless, the addition of a reasonable number of touch-screen devices for this purpose would not significantly influence the environmental impacts. Conclusions A set of reduction measures of paper items onboard a cruise ship is able to both avoid the impacts related to production and incineration stages. In the form of forecast scenarios, the results of such modelization may represent a set of indicators to be considered in a feasibility analysis prior to selection of the green practices to be introduced, as a support to decisions for cruise managers.
... More recently, there were a number of LCA based studies on comparison of environmental impacts for generating paper products. These studies were either based on (a) a single index related to environmental emissions, such as greenhouse gases (Gemechu et al., 2013; Manda et al., 2012 ), and (b) environmental impact assessment under multiple scenarios of different manufacturing techniques (Gaudreault et al., 2012). Meanwhile, a variety of expansions of the existing LCA methodologies have been proposed through the combination of many approaches such as mathematical programming and statistic analysis (Myllyviita et al., 2012). ...
As a traditional energy and carbon intensive sector, it becomes imperative for the global paper industry to realize green development. This paper aims to provide guidance for the green transformation of global paper industry by evaluating the global paper industry green development level in a systematic and dynamic way. This paper employs text-mining method to develop paper industry green development evaluation indicator system and adopts market-extended LCA model and entropy-TOPSIS method to calculate the paper industry green development level of 48 countries/regions. The results show that during 2000–2030 the paper industry green development level of developing countries improves faster than developed countries, where those of developing and developed countries increase from 0.3369 to 0.3938 and from 0.5120 to 0.5517 respectively and the gap between them narrows from 0.1751 to 0.1579. The comparative analysis reveals that the paper industries of developed and developing countries are in different green development stages. Developing countries, represented by China, improve greatly in economic and social dimensions, but decline seriously in ecological dimension due to enlarging resource consumption and environmental damages. On the contrary, developed countries tend to saturate in economic and social dimensions and have been improving fast in ecological dimension, gradually realizing the decoupling of industrial economic development and environmental damages. To further promote the global paper industry green development, developing countries should focus on promoting the coordinated development between economic growth and environment protection and developed countries should play a leading role in the global green transformation by promoting optimal allocation of resources and cross-regional communications of green technologies.
Numerical simulations based on Computational Fluid Dynamic techniques are performed to analyze the possibility of feeding a biomass-derived syngas into the combustion chamber upstream of the hoods for tissue-paper drying, to replace fossil fuels and thus decarbonize the plant. It was observed that, in the context of Favre-Averaged Navier–Stokes equations simulation, syngas requires detailed kinetics and finite-rate approaches, as the fast-chemistry ones, largely employed in the industrial practice for conventional fuels, lead to unreliable results. The actual chamber, originally designed to be fed with liquid petroleum gas, does not operate properly when fuelled with syngas, with incomplete oxidation of carbon monoxide. Numerical simulations have proven how very few modifications of the chamber can be devised to permit feeding efficiently the syngas, obtaining low pollutant emissions and meeting the desired requirements in terms of flow and thermal uniformity for the drying process. The solution proposed in the present study, with the effective use of a biomass-derived syngas to feed the drying section of a tissue paper plant, will allow saving approximately 8500 ton/y of CO2 emissions in comparison with today’s fossil fuel carbon footprint.
College students in China are among the main consumers of online shopping and the corrugated cartons used to ship items are piling up on campus. However, the generation characteristics of waste corrugated cartons (WCCs) in universities and the environmental consequences along their recycling pathway remain to be addressed. Taking Nanjing University (NJU) as an example, this study conducted a questionnaire survey on campus to analyze the generation characteristics of WCCs and evaluated the life cycle environmental impacts of their recycling process using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. The results showed that WCC generation on campus varied by educational level, sex, grade and major, with doctoral students and female students being more active in online shopping and thus generating more WCCs. It was further estimated that a total of 0.27 Mt of WCCs were generated by college students in China in 2020, of which recycling would result in 0.31 Mt of CO2 eq of GHG emissions. Pulping and papermaking processes are the main contributors to the life cycle environmental impacts of WCC recycling, together accounting for at least 77% of the total. This study suggests the need for joint efforts from universities, students, and recycling enterprises to reduce WCC generation in Chinese universities and to make its recycling chain more environmentally sustainable.
Due to the rapid growth in global plastic production, in short-term applications, and negative impacts on natural ecosystems, plastics have received much attention. Additionally, the entire plastic value chain generates a significant amount of GHGs, and plastic use reductions should be considered as interventions addressing the climate crisis. This work investigates the life cycle of plastics in non-durable goods holistically. It identifies interventions to improve the sustainability and circularity of the system of production and analyzes the potential benefit of these interventions as climate change solutions. A baseline global market for plastics is defined and forecast to 2050, to which four interventions are applied: (1) plastic reduction through elimination and reuse; (2) replacement with paper; (3) replacement with recycled feedstock, (4) replacement with bioplastics. The highest potential in GHG emissions reduction lies in plastic reduction, followed by replacement with recycled plastics, paper, and, finally, bioplastics. Together the integrated system can reduce between 9.5 and 14.9 Gt CO2-eq from 2020 to 2050. The environmental and social impact of applying all these interventions in parallel is significant, as plastics are at the intersection of many challenges, including waste production, energy use, ocean pollution, and land disruption from fossil extraction.
Wastes from recycled paper industry (WRP) was hydrothermally carbonized to remove impurities to produce alternative biofuel. The chlorine behaviors during hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) and the fuel properties of the generated hydrochar were evaluated. The degradation of lignocellulosic components improved free -OH bond and small free cellulosic fragments facilitating dechlorination. Meanwhile, dechlorination process stimulated degradation of biomass. The carbon content and density of WRP were improved by HTC resulting in high heating value increasing from 5 044.40 MJ/m³ to 17 004.88 MJ/m³. Pollutants emission from hydrochar combustion would be effectively controlled because of the removal of sulfur and chlorine. Hydrochar enjoyed higher ignition temperature and average combustion rate while lower burnout temperature, indicating that the combustion range has been narrowed, thus improving the combustion efficiency. The increase of HTC temperature facilitated hydrochars combustion and reduce energy consumption during hydrochar combustion. Mild HTC operating conditions (220 ℃ for 90 min and 240 ℃ for 60 min) were supposed to effectively improve the combustion intensity with stability meanwhile reached the highest dechlorination efficiency. These results evidence the feasibility of converting WRP to clean biofuel via HTC.
Recycling of wastepaper is an effective way to achieve the sustainable paper manufacturing regarding sustainable development goals. Focusing on the mixed wastepaper sorting, recovery of suitable papers for deinking purpose and minimizing the impurities were developed in this study. In a wastepaper sorting process, each equipment has its own role in increasing recycling performance. In this study, disc screen was applied and evaluated for sorting of the mixed wastepaper considering independent variables such as inclination, velocity and moisture content. Response surface method was applied for design of the experiments. Sorting efficiency of 100% was achieved in two conditions: 1–20% inclination, 20 Hz velocity and 5% moisture content; 2–10% inclination, 20 Hz velocity and 0% moisture content. It can be concluded that the adverse effect of wastepaper’s moisture can be compensated via adjusting the disc screen’s inclination and rotation velocity. Indeed, disc screen is a feasible approach for efficient sorting of wet and dry mixed wastepaper increasing the recovery rate and enhancing the performance of the subsequent sorting units. This process can provide a better feed with higher quality for the subsequent steps, e.g. paper spike as well as sensor and manual sorting by decreasing the sorting load and impurities.
The tourism industry contributes eight percent to global carbon emissions, directly and indirectly. Indirect carbon emissions are often neglected because they are difficult to calculate. The traditional approach to calculating indirect emissions – Life Cycle Assessment – is expensive and requires an expert data analyst. We introduce an alternative approach, the Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis. We show how this approach – currently used at macro-level to estimate carbon emissions at national or regional level – can be applied to the business level using carbon emissions generated by one hotel room clean as an example. Our comparative analysis shows that Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis leads to similar results as Life Cycle Assessment, while being substantially cheaper and more user-friendly. Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis, we conclude, enables tourism businesses to estimate the indirect carbon emissions of their operations, which is the key to identifying target areas for improvement.
Pulp and paper industry is one of the eight critical industries for controlling carbon emissions in China. As the paper productions increase, the pulp and paper industry may fail in achieving the emission reduction target due to the rapid growth of greenhouse gas emissions. The study uses life cycle assessment to evaluate the greenhouse gas emissions of China's papermaking industry chain in order to propose emission reduction targets and find ways to achieve the emission reduction targets for China's papermaking industry. Considering the net carbon absorption of plant raw materials and the extensive paper industrial chain, this study obtained that the greenhouse gas emission of major paper types under corresponding pathways ranges from 1.96 t CO2 eq/t paper to 6.55 t CO2 eq/t paper. Plant carbon sink can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 14.3%–42.9% under virgin fiber-based pathways. This study found that the greenhouse gas emissions caused by terminal products of 814 papermaking enterprises counted in China were 282.23 Mt CO2 eq in 2015, accounting for 10.23% of the total greenhouse gas emissions of manufacturing industries and construction. To achieve the emission reduction target by 2050, emissions of the pulp and paper industry in China have been investigated from the perspective of three ideal energy structures. The research findings show that the emission reduction target of Intended Nationally Determined Contribution will be achieved in 30 years if the energy structure of the pulp and paper industry is adjusted only based on the optimal 450 scenario. In terms of other energy structures, the pulp and paper industry should assume afforestation areas ranged from 5900 km² to 223,000 km² at least to make up for the greenhouse gas emissions beyond allowance, which accounts for 0.85%–32.16% of the existing areas of plantation forestry in China.
Papermaking is a capital-intensive industry that requires a high consumption of plant fibers, energy, and water. Previous sustainability assessments of papermaking industry primarily focused on separate evaluations for multiple criteria without the integration for criteria and could not compare the overall priority of the production alternatives. The life cycle sustainability for the most representative boxboard production is analyzed as a case study in this work. Life cycle water consumption, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and internal costs are selected as the assessment criteria. The two multi-criteria decision-making methods are applied to integrate the above criteria to obtain the sustainability sequence under different production pathways. When the papermaking enterprises are regarded as decision-makers, the alternative using waste paper as raw material to manufacture boxboard is the most sustainable, following by mixed fiber. The sustainability sequence of the alternatives using wood and straw as raw materials is controversial due to the different calculation models. Changing the proportion of raw materials and the criteria weights might adjust sustainability sequence of the alternatives.
RESUMO Reconhecendo que o papel e o papelão são os materiais mais identificados na gestão dos resíduos sólidos domiciliares (RSD), o objetivo deste artigo foi aplicar a metodologia da Avaliação de Ciclo de Vida (ACV) aos procedimentos de coleta seletiva desses materiais em um núcleo de João Pessoa (PB). A ACV quantifica as cargas ambientais ao longo do ciclo de vida de uma atividade e está normatizada pela International Organization for Standardization (ISO) e pela Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (ABNT). Essa avaliação considerou todas as fases do sistema de gestão dos RSD: coletas regular e seletiva, reciclagem, disposição final e transportes intermediários. Utilizou-se o software SimaPro, com a base de dados Ecoinvent, e o método de avaliação de impacto ambiental CML-IA baseline, versão 3.00/World 2000. Verificou-se que, em 2014, a coleta seletiva incluiu 11% dos RSD gerados nos distritos servidos pela unidade de triagem. O restante (89%) foi, em sua maioria, transportado e destinado ao Aterro Sanitário Metropolitano de João Pessoa. Interpretando os resultados da ACV para as diferentes categorias de impacto, verificou-se que a reciclagem traz grandes benefícios ambientais quando consideradas as emissões atmosféricas associadas à eutrofização, ao aquecimento global e à oxidação fotoquímica. Nesses casos, obteve-se um resultado geral negativo nas emissões, por causa da reciclagem, em comparação às outras etapas consideradas (coletas seletiva e regular, consumos de energia nos galpões, Central de Triagem - CT - , transportes e aterro sanitário). Para as emissões atmosféricas associadas à destruição da camada de ozônio e à acidificação, as emissões negativas relacionadas à reciclagem não foram suficientes para obter um balanço geral negativo.
This study provides a quantitative and qualitative review of life cycle analyses of alternative fibers for paper production. Alternative fibers include both virgin fibers from rapidly renewable sources (hemp, flax, arundo donax, bamboo, kenaf) and agricultural residues (wheat straw and bagasse). Comparison is made with conventional wood fibers, including northern and southern softwood and eucalyptus, and with recycled fiber. The evaluation characterizes the major environmental impacts of alternative fibers that have been identified in previous studies. The assessment of the literature indicates that a substantial portion of the environmental impacts of paper products is associated with the pulping and paper‐making processes, across all fiber types. Alternative fibers may have somewhat different pulping impacts, although the differences are generally not large in the overall lifecycle impacts. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Papermaking is a high energy-consuming industry. The growth of paper demand will further intensify the need of energy and the stress of GHG emissions. Papermaking involves complex processing routes, energy is required for collecting raw materials, producing chemicals, pulp and papermaking. Previous investigations of energy consumption in papermaking industry has focus primarily on the analysis of one single product or one single pathway, lacked in a comprehensive and systematic comparison about various products and pathways. Herein, the results of life cycle energy consumption of major paper products in China using an extensive system boundary are presented. When 1 ton of paper is produced in China in 2015, the maximum energy consumption is 38.17 GJ for tissue paper, with a minimum energy consumption of 15.90 GJ for corrugating medium. This study also predicts energy-related GHG emissions and mitigation target in papermaking industry in China by 2050. Although the energy consumption assumed to distribute to papermaking industry can meet its development requirement, the GHG emissions will exceed mitigation target by about 101 Mt CO2 eq in 2050 under current policy. The target can be achieved by changing energy structure and promoting low-carbon technology.
Agricultural straw-based pulp making plays a vital role in pulp and paper industry, especially in forest deficient countries such as China. However, the environmental performance of straw-based pulp has scarcely been studied. A life cycle assessment on wheat straw-based pulp making in China was conducted to fill of the gaps in comprehensive environmental assessments of agricultural straw-based pulp making. On average, the global warming potential (GWP), GWP excluding biogenic carbon, acidification potential and eutrophication potential of wheat straw based pulp making are 2299kg CO2-eq, 4550kg CO2-eq, 16.43kg SO2-eq and 2.56kg Phosphate-eq respectively. The dominant factors contributing to environmental impacts are coal consumption, electricity consumption, and chemical (NaOH, ClO2) input. Chemical input decrease and energy recovery increase reduce the total environmental impacts dramatically. Compared with wood-based and recycled pulp making, wheat straw-based pulp making has higher environmental impacts, which are mainly due to higher energy and chemical requirements. However, the environmental impacts of wheat straw-based pulp making are lower than hemp and flax based pulp making from previous studies. It is also noteworthy that biogenic carbon emission is significant in bio industries. If carbon sequestration is taken into account in pulp making industry, wheat straw-based pulp making is a net emitter rather than a net absorber of carbon dioxide. Since wheat straw-based pulp making provides an alternative for agricultural residue management, its evaluation framework should be expanded to further reveal its environmental benefits.
Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) is a raw material for pulp, paper, and wood composites manufacturing. SCB pulp has a greater flexibility in a wide range of paper grades, but the main constraints are as follows: slow drainage, low opacity, morphological heterogeneity, short fiber, high fines content and pith, poor wet strength, high ash content, and low runnability on the paper machine and washing system, and may require changes to the forming section of the paper machine and by use of drainage aids and kraft softwood pulp (up to 20-30%) as a major component of mixture for pulps for the best performance. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to evaluate the incorporation of recycled old corrugated container (OCC) pulps, since cooking process (conventional alkaline delignification) of SCB (sugarcane bagasse), as long fiber source to replace softwood chemical pulp for highquality paper SCB production. OCC was collected, pulped, and cleaned. Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry standard was used to study the SCB chemical pulping with OCC in 10, 20, and 30% and to evaluate physical properties. The pulps were bleached using an elemental chlorine-free sequence. SCB- OCC soda pulp was found to be very effective because they have higher tensile, tear, burst strength, and lower drainability and porosity resistance after refining.
Plant cellulose (PC) and used tire rubber powder (RP) were used as raw materials for preparing RP/PC composites, and the interface compatibility between PC and RP was studied. The compatibility was modified by adding r-aminopropyltrieth oxysilane (KH550) and bis-(γ-triethoxysilylpropyl)-tetrasulfide (Si69) coupling agent. The structure and morphology of RP/PC composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and their compatibility was preliminarily judged. The cross-linked structure and components of composite materials were studied by an infrared spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectrometer and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. The best coupling agent to improve the compatibility between RP and PC is Si69, and its best content is 2.5 phr. The composites treated with Si69 combine more closely and leave less space, and the interface compatibility between RP and PC is obviously improved.
Purpose
The aim of this work is to quantify the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings potential in magazine paper production through the application of the innovative manufacturing strategies using advanced sheet structure design and fibre modifications.
Methods
The study applies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to two different magazine paper products: supercalendered (SC) paper and light-weight coated (LWC) paper. A cradle-to-gate approach is used aiming to assess the environmental benefits gained through the implementation of new manufacturing strategies in both products. The functional unit of the system was defined as the production of one square meter of finished paper for printing magazines. Conventional and new production processes have been compared.
Results and discussion
The strategies applied to SC paper resulted in reduction of GHG emissions by 22.9%, with a total of 10.7 gCO2eq emissions saved per square meter of SC paper. In the case of LWC paper, GHG emissions are reduced by 20.3%, which are equal to a total of 19.7 gCO2eq saved per square meter of LWC paper. The influence of certain methodological approaches -functional unit, electricity mix and avoided impacts- in the final results is also discussed in the paper.
Conclusions
The manufacturing strategies implemented show a remarkable potential for reducing GHG emissions. Taking into account that the pulp and paper industry is a very energy-intensive sector and one of the main GHG emitters, the potential of the strategies for the improvement of the environmental performance of the papermaking processes is significant.
Investigating the environmental sustainability of any recycling process demands full understanding and objective quantification of all the associated environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment is an internationally standardized method that is able to account for upstream and downstream inputs and emissions over the complete supply chain providing a product or service. It is generally considered the best environmental management tool that can be used to move from a generic statement about the environmental benefit of a given recycling or disposal system to reach an objective quantification of its environmental sustainability. In this study, it is used to assess and compare the environmental performances of three alternative options (landfilling, recycling, and combustion with energy recovery) that could be used in Italy to manage paper and board packaging waste. The results confirm that material recycling may not be the best environmental option. In this specific case, they show that paper use should be viewed in the context of the international trade in biofuels.
Goal, Scope and BackgroundThe environmental sustainability is one of the current priorities of the Portuguese pulp and paper industry. Life Cycle Assessment
(LCA) was the methodology chosen to evaluate the sustainability of the printing and writing paper production activity. This
paper grade represents about 60% of the total production of paper in Portugal and its production is expected to increase in
the near future. The main goal of this study was to assess the potential environmental impacts associated with the entire
life cycle of the printing and writing paper produced in Portugal from Eucalyptus globulus pulp and consumed in Germany, in order to identify the processes with the largest environmental impacts. Another goal of
this study was to evaluate the effect on the potential environmental impacts of changing the market where the Portuguese printing
and writing paper is consumed: German market vs. Portuguese market.
MethodsThe main stages considered in this study were: forestry, pulp production, paper production, paper distribution, and paper
final disposal. Transports and production of chemicals, fuels and energy in the grid were also included in these stages. Whenever
possible and feasible, average or typical data from industry were collected. The remaining data were obtained from the literature
and specialised databases. A quantitative impact assessment was performed for five impact categories: global warming over
100 years, acidification, eutrophication, non-renewable resource depletion and photochemical oxidant formation.
ResultsIn the German market scenario, the paper production stage was a remarkable hot spot for air emissions (non-renewable CO2, NOx and SO2) and for non-renewable energy consumption, and, consequently, for the impact categories that consider these parameters: global
warming, acidification and non-renewable resource depletion. These important environmental impacts are due to the energy requirements
in the printing and writing paper production process, which are fulfilled by on-site fuel oil burning and consumption of electricity
from the national grid, which is mostly based on the use of fossil fuels. The pulp production stage was identified as the
largest contributor to water emissions (COD and AOX) and to eutrophication. Considering that energy consumed by the pulp production
processes comes from renewable fuels, this stage was also the most contributing to renewable energy consumption.
DiscussionThe paper distribution stage showed an important contribution to NOx emissions, which, however, did not result in a major contribution to acidification or eutrophication. The final disposal
stage was the main contributor to the photochemical oxidant formation potential due to CH4 emissions from wastepaper landfilling. On the other hand, paper consumption in Portugal was environmentally more favourable
than in Germany for the parameters/impact categories where the paper distribution stage has a significant contribution (non-renewable
CO2, NOx, non-renewable energy consumption, acidification, eutrophication and non-renewable resource depletion) due to shorter distances
needed to deliver paper to the consumers. For the remaining parameters/impact categories, the increase observed in the final
disposal stage in the Portuguese market was preponderant, and resulted from the existence of significant differences in the
final disposal alternatives in the analysed markets (recycling dominates in Germany, whereas landfilling dominates in Portugal).
ConclusionsThe pulp and paper production stages were found to be of significance for almost all of the inventory parameters as well as
for the impact assessment categories. The paper distribution and the final disposal stages were only of importance for some
of the inventory parameters and some of the impact categories. The forestry stage played a minor role in the environmental
impacts generated during the paper life cycle. The consumption of paper in Portugal led to a decrease in the environmental
burdens of the paper distribution stage, but to an increase in the environmental burdens of the final disposal stage, when
compared with the consumption of paper in Germany.
Recommendations and PerspectivesThis study provides useful information that can assist the pulp and paper industry in the planning of future investments leading
to an increase in its sustainability.
The results of inventory analysis and impact assessment show the processes that play an important role in each impact category,
which allow the industry to improve its environmental performance, making changes not only in the production process itself,
but also in the treatment of flue gases and liquid effluents. Besides that concern regarding pollution prevention, other issues
with relevance to the context of sustainability, such as the energy consumption, can also be dealt with.
The study reported here focuses on the environmental pressure exerted by large-scale eucalyptus-based kraft pulp industry in Thailand. The objective of this study was to identify the most important sources of greenhouse gases, acidifying and eutrophying compounds and tropospheric ozone precursors, human toxicity compounds and solid waste associated with the kraft pulp industry. To this end, we performed an environmental systems analysis of the kraft pulp industry system in which we distinguished between two subsystems: the eucalyptus forestry subsystem and the kraft pulp production subsystem. The results indicate that the environmental pressure is caused by the kraft pulp production subsystem rather than by the eucalyptus forestry one. The chemical recovery unit was found to be the most important source of carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) and responsible for more than one-half of the emissions of greenhouse gases and acidifying compounds from eucalyptus-based kraft pulp production in Thailand. Biomass combustion in the energy gene ration unit is an important source of nitrogen oxide (NO
x
) and carbon monoxide (CO) which in turn are responsible for over 50% of the emissions of tropospheric ozone precursors. About 73% of the eutrophication is caused by biological aerobic wastewater treatment emitting phosphorus (P). With respect to the eucalyptus forestry, only fertilizer use in eucalyptus plantations is a relevant source of pollution through the emission of nitrous oxide (N2O) and phosphate (PO
4
3−
).
A life cycle assessment was conducted using IMPACT2002+ to estimate the environmental impact of producing printing and writing paper, which is entirely made with wastepaper. To confirm and add credibility to the study, uncertainty analysis was conducted using Taylor series expansion. Printing and writing paper produced from wood pulp was assessed for comparison. Compared with the wood pulp contained scenario, printing and writing paper made from wastepaper represented environmental benefit on non-carcinogens, respiratory inorganics, global warming, and non-renewable energy categories. In both scenarios , the technologies significantly contribute to the potential impacts of non-carcinogens, respiratory inorganics, terrestrial ecotoxicity, global warming, and non-renewable energy. The influence of the technologies on the way other categories affect the environment was negligible. Improved efficiency in electricity consumption, decreased transport distance from raw material buyers to suppliers, and change in the end-life treatment of solid waste from landfill to incineration are the key factors in reducing the overall environmental impact.
This article introduces a bottom-up global model of the pulp and paper sector (PULPSIM) with a focus on energy consumption and carbon emissions. It is an annual recursive simulation behavioural model with a 2030 time horizon incorporating several technological details of the industry for 47 world regions. The long time horizon and the modular structure allow the model users to assess the effects of different environmental, energy and climate policies in a scenario comparison setup. In addition to the business as usual developments of the sector, a climate commitment scenario has been analysed, in which the impacts of changing forest management practices are also included. The climate scenario results reveal that there is a significant carbon reduction potential in the pulp and paper making, showing a number of specific features: the central role of the fibrous resource inputs and the potential impact of increased waste wood and black liquor based heat generation.
The significance of technical data, as well as the significance of system boundary choices, when modelling the environmental impact from recycling and incineration of waste paper has been studied by a life cycle assessment focusing on global warming potentials. The consequence of choosing a specific set of data for the reprocessing technology, the virgin paper manufacturing technology and the incineration technology, as well as the importance of the recycling rate was studied. Furthermore, the system was expanded to include forestry and to include fossil fuel energy substitution from saved biomass, in order to study the importance of the system boundary choices. For recycling, the choice of virgin paper manufacturing data is most important, but the results show that also the impacts from the reprocessing technologies fluctuate greatly. For the overall results the choice of the technology data is of importance when comparing recycling including virgin paper substitution with incineration including energy substitution. Combining an environmentally high or low performing recycling technology with an environmentally high or low performing incineration technology can give quite different results. The modelling showed that recycling of paper, from a life cycle point of view, is environmentally equal or better than incineration with energy recovery only when the recycling technology is at a high environmental performance level. However, the modelling also showed that expanding the system to include substitution of fossil fuel energy by production of energy from the saved biomass associated with recycling will give a completely different result. In this case recycling is always more beneficial than incineration, thus increased recycling is desirable. Expanding the system to include forestry was shown to have a minor effect on the results. As assessments are often performed with a set choice of data and a set recycling rate, it is questionable how useful the results from this kind of LCA are for a policy maker. The high significance of the system boundary choices stresses the importance of scientific discussion on how to best address system analysis of recycling, for paper and other recyclable materials.
Pulp and paper manufacturing constitutes one of the largest industry segments in the United States in term of water and energy usage and total discharges to the environment. More than many other industries, however, this industry plays an important role in sustainable development because its chief raw material—wood fiber—is renewable. This industry provides an example of how a resource can be managed to provide a sustained supply to meet society's current and future needs. The objective of this work is to present streamlined environmental life-cycle assessments (LCA) between chemical (kraft–sulfate), mechanical (or thermomechanical), and biopulping processes. This LCA would help us to evaluate the industry's current experience and practices in terms of environmental stewardship, regulatory and nonregulatory forces, life cycles of its processes and products, and future developments.
The pulping industry has been traditionally using mechanical or chemical pulping methods, or a combination of the two, to produce pulps of desired characteristics. Mechanical pulping accounts for about 25% of the wood pulp production in the world today. Mechanical pulping, with its high yield, is viewed as a way to extend the forest resources. However, mechanical pulping is electrical energy–intensive and yields paper with less strength compared to that produced by the chemical pulping process. These disadvantages limit the use of mechanical pulps in many grades of paper. Chemical pulping accounts for about 75% of the wood pulp production in the world. This process produces paper with very high strength. However, the process has the disadvantages of being capital- and energy-intensive, giving relatively low yields, producing troublesome waste products, and producing by-products that are of relatively low values. © 2004 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 2004
Preface. Foreword. Part 1: LCA in Perspective. 1. Why a new Guide to LCA? 2. Main characteristics of LCA. 3. International developments. 4. Guiding principles for the present Guide. 5. Reading guide. Part 2a: Guide. Reading guidance. 1. Management of LCA projects: procedures. 2. Goal and scope definition. 3. Inventory analysis. 4. Impact assessment. 5. Interpretation. Appendix A: Terms, definitions and abbreviations. Part 2b: Operational annex. List of tables. Reading guidance. 1. Management of LCA projects: procedures. 2. Goal and scope definition. 3. Inventory analysis. 4. Impact assessment. 5. Interpretation. 6. References. Part 3: Scientific background. Reading guidance. 1. General introduction. 2. Goal and scope definition. 3. Inventory analysis. 4. Impact assessment. 5. Interpretation. 6. References. Annex A: Contributors. Appendix B: Areas of application of LCA. Appendix C: Partitioning economic inputs and outputs to product systems.
Recycling of waste materials has been analysed from a life cycle perspective in a number of studies over the past 10–15 years. Publications comparing the global warming impact and total energy use of recycling versus incineration and landfilling were reviewed in order to find out to what extent they agree or contradict each other, and whether there are generally applicable conclusions to be drawn when certain key factors are considered. Four key factors with a significant influence on the ranking between recycling, incineration, and landfilling were identified. Producing materials from recycled resources is often, but not always, less energy intensive and causes less global warming impact than from virgin resources. For non-renewable materials the savings are of such a magnitude, that apparently the only really crucial factor is what material is replaced. For paper products, however, the savings of recycling are much smaller. The ranking between recycling and incineration of paper is sensitive to for instance paper quality, energy source avoided by incineration, and energy source at the mill.
Pulp industry plays an important role in the structure of European economy and society. Paper pulp manufacture, the industrial utilization of plant biomass, is increasing every year. In Spain, Eucalyptus is the dominant raw material and the Kraft cooking and total chlorine free (TCF) bleaching processes lead the procedures of Eucalyptus paper pulp production. This paper aims to identify and quantify the environmental impacts associated to Eucalyptus TCF pulp manufacture by using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) as an analytical tool. The system has been defined using a cradle-to-gate perspective, that is to say from forest activities to the exit gate of the pulp mill. The production of chemicals consumed in the cooking and bleaching stages as well as the on-site energy production system is the elements that contribute the most to all impact categories analyzed (more than 50% of total contributions), except for the eutrophication potential where forest activities and waste treatment play an important roles (about 52% of total). Specific actions associated to the recovery boiler, lime kiln and digestion stage could considerably reduce the environmental impact and improve the environmental performance of the Spanish paper pulp industry.
The overall goal of the present study is to evaluate different strategies for treatment of solid waste in Sweden based on a life cycle perspective. Important goals are to identify advantages and disadvantages of different methods for treatment of solid waste, and to identify critical factors in the systems, including the background systems, which may significantly influence the results. Included in the study are landfilling, incineration, recycling, digestion and composting. The waste fractions considered are the combustible and recyclable or compostable fractions of municipal solid waste. The methodology used is life cycle assessment (LCA). The results can be used for policy decisions as well as strategic decisions on waste management systems. A waste hierarchy suggesting the environmental preference of recycling over incineration over landfilling is often put forward and used in waste policy making. LCAs can be used to test the waste hierarchy and identify situations where the hierarchy is not valid. Our results indicate that the waste hierarchy is valid as a rule of thumb. The results also suggest that a policy promoting recycling of paper and plastic materials, preferably combined with policies promoting the use of plastics replacing plastics made from virgin materials, leads to decreased use of total energy and emissions of gases contributing to global warming. If the waste can replace oil or coal as energy sources, and neither biofuels nor natural gas are alternatives, a policy promoting incineration of paper materials may be successful in reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
An LCA was performed on organic and conventional milk production at the farm level in Sweden. In the study, special focus was aimed at substance flows in concentrate feed production and nutrient flows on the farms. The different feeding strategies in the two forms of production, influence several impact categories. The import of feed by conventional dairy farms often leads to a substantial input of phosphorus and nitrogen. Organic milk production is a way to reduce pesticide use and mineral surplus in agriculture but this production form also requires substantially more farmland than conventional production. For Swedish conditions, however, a large use of grassland for grazing ruminants is regarded positively since this type of arable land use promotes the domestic environmental goals of biodiversity and aesthetic values.
In this paper, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is applied to Portuguese printing and writing paper in order to compare the environmental impact of the use of two kinds of fuels (heavy fuel oil and natural gas) in the pulp and paper production processes. The results of inventory analysis and impact assessment show that the pulp and paper production processes play an important role in almost all of the analysed parameters, which do not always result in an important contribution to the corresponding impact categories. The substitution of heavy fuel oil by natural gas in the pulp and paper production processes seems to be environmentally positive.
Kraft pulp industry contributes to several environmental problems, including global warming, acidification, eutrophication, smog, toxicity and the production of solid waste. The objective of this study is to identify options to reduce the environmental pressure caused by Kraft pulp industry in Thailand, and to describe a model that quantifies the environmental impact. The model can be used to evaluate the effects of the options on the environmental impact, and the associated costs. The model includes 14 groups of options to reduce emissions and the production of waste.
Recently published life-cycle assessments (LCAs) on recycling and incineration with energy recovery of paper packaging materials are used as examples in order to discuss the usefulness of LCAs. The type of information that can typically be produced by an LCA is described. The reproducibility of LCAs is evaluated and reasons for possible discrepancies between LCAs are discussed. An attempt is also made to make conclusions on advantages to the environment of recycling versus incineration of paper packaging materials, and discuss lessons learned that can be applied to other materials. In all seven studies, including 12 cases and 27 scenarios, total energy use is consistently lower when paper packaging materials are recycled rather than incinerated. Other, differing results can be explained by the assumptions made concerning the energy source used instead of the energy from incineration when paper is recycled instead of incinerated (called ‘the alternative energy source’). If fossil fuels are the alternative energy source, incinerated paper replaces fossil fuels, and emissions of CO 2 can be decreased. If, on the other hand solid waste (which in other cases would have been landfilled), or biofuels are the alternative energy source, fossil fuels will not be replaced. In these cases, increased recycling will in general lead to decreased emissions of greenhouse gases. It is suggested that the alternative energy source for the near future is usually solid waste. In the longer term this depends on political decisions on waste management in
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been established for recycling of paper waste with focus on a material recovery facility (MRF). The MRF upgrades the paper and cardboard waste before it is delivered to other industries where new paper or board products are produced. The accounting showed that the GHG contributions from the upstream activities and operational activities, with global warming factors (GWFs) of respectively 1 to 29 and 3 to 9 kg CO(2)-eq. tonne(- 1) paper waste, were small in comparison wih the downstream activities. The GHG contributions from the downstream reprocessing of the paper waste ranged from approximately 490 to 1460 kg CO(2)-eq. tonne( -1) of paper waste. The system may be expanded to include crediting of avoided virgin paper production which would result in GHG contributions from -1270 to 390 kg CO(2)-eq. tonne(- 1) paper waste. It may also be assumed that the wood not used for virgin paper production instead is used for production of energy that in turn is assumed to substitute for fossil fuel energy. This would result in GHG contributions from -1850 to -4400 kg CO(2)-eq. tonne(- 1) of paper waste. These system expansions reveal very large GHG savings, suggesting that the indirect upstream and operational GHG contributions are negligible in comparison with the indirect downstream emissions. However, the data for reprocessing of paper waste and the data for virgin paper production are highly variable. These differences are mainly related to different energy sources for the mills, both in regards to energy form (heat or electricity) and fuel (biomass or fossil fuels).
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to develop strategic policies that can lead to a minimization of the environmental burden resulting from the provision of services or the manufacture, use, and disposal of products within the economy. We accomplish this aim by presenting a case study that evaluates the greenhouse gas contributions of each stage in the life cycle of containerboard packaging and the potential impact on emissions of various policy options available to decision-makers. Our analysis showed that, in general, the most useful strategy was to recycle the used packaging. However, our analysis also indicated that when measures are taken to eliminate sources of methane emissions, then recycling is no longer beneficial from a greenhouse perspective. This is because the process energy required in the form of gas and electricity is substantially greater for containerboard manufactured from recycled material than it is for virgin fiber.
Life cycle inventories of chemicals Swiss Centre for life cycle inventories
- Althaus Hj M Chudacoff
- R Hischier
- Osses N M Jungbluth
Althaus HJ, Chudacoff M, Hischier R, Jungbluth N, Osses M, Primas A (2007) Life cycle inventories of chemicals. ecoinvent report No. 8, v2.0. EMPA. Dübendorf, Swiss Centre for life cycle inventories; Dübendorf, Switzerland. http://ecoinvent.org/. Accessed 19 September 2011
Recycling of paper: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contribu-tions Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2008) Environmental Outlook to 2030
- H A Damgaard
- Christensen
H, Damgaard A, Christensen TH (2009) Recycling of paper: accounting of greenhouse gases and global warming contribu-tions. Waste Manage Res 27(8):746–753 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (2008) Environmental Outlook to 2030. OECD, Paris. http:// www.oecd.org. Accessed June 2011
Swiss Centre for life cycle inventories
- Empa Dübendorf
EMPA. Dübendorf, Swiss Centre for life cycle inventories; Dübendorf,
Switzerland. http://ecoinvent.org/. Accessed 19 September 2011
Life cycle inventories of chemicals
- Hj Althaus
- M Chudacoff
- R Hischier
- N Jungbluth
- M Osses
- A Primas
Althaus HJ, Chudacoff M, Hischier R, Jungbluth N, Osses M, Primas A
(2007) Life cycle inventories of chemicals. ecoinvent report No. 8, v2.0.
Greenhouse gas protocol (GHGP): product life cycle accounting and reporting standard
- National Laboratory
- Ca Berkeley
- Wbscd Wri
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
WRI and WBSCD (2011) Greenhouse gas protocol (GHGP): product
life cycle accounting and reporting standard. World Resources
Institute, Washington, DC and World Business Council for
Sustainable Development, Geneva
Life cycle inventories of packaging and graphical papers
- R Hischier
Hischier R (2007) Life cycle inventories of packaging and graphical
papers. ecoinvent-Report No. 11, Swiss Centre for Life Cycle
Inventories, Dübendorf, Switzerland
EEA) (2010a) The European Environment: State and outlook 2010 – consumption and the environment/data-and-maps/indicators/energy-efficiency-and-energy-consumption-3/assessment
- European Environment
Carbon footprint of toilet tissue paper: comparison of toilet tissue using 100% fresh fibre pulp and 100% recovered fibre pulp
- C Hohenthal
- K Behm
Hohenthal C, Behm K (2008) Carbon footprint of toilet tissue paper:
comparison of toilet tissue using 100% fresh fibre pulp and 100%
recovered fibre pulp. Oy Keskuslaboratorio-Centrallaboratorium
Ab, KCL Science and Consulting
EMPA. Dübendorf, Swiss Centre for life cycle inventories
- H J Althaus
- M Chudacoff
- R Hischier
- N Jungbluth
- M Osses
- A Primas
Althaus HJ, Chudacoff M, Hischier R, Jungbluth N, Osses M, Primas A
(2007) Life cycle inventories of chemicals. ecoinvent report No. 8, v2.0.
EMPA. Dübendorf, Swiss Centre for life cycle inventories; Dübendorf,
Switzerland. http://ecoinvent.org/. Accessed 19 September 2011
Life cycle inventories of energy systems: Results from current systems in Switzerland and other UCTE countries. ecoinvent report no. 5. Paul Scherrer Institut Villigen
- R Dones
- C Bauer
- R Bolliger
- B Burger
- Faist Emmenegger
- M Frischknecht
- R Hech
- T Jungbluth
- N Röder
- A Tuchschmid
Dones R, Bauer C, Bolliger R, Burger B, Faist Emmenegger M,
Frischknecht R, Hech T, Jungbluth N, Röder A, Tuchschmid M
(2007) Life cycle inventories of energy systems: Results from
current systems in Switzerland and other UCTE countries. ecoinvent
report no. 5. Paul Scherrer Institut Villigen, Swiss Centre for life
cycle inventories, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Environmental Paper Network (EPN) (2007) The state of the paper
industry: monitoring the indicators of environmental performance.
EPN. www.environmentalpaper.org. Accessed 20 December 2011
on waste and repealing certain Directives. Official Journal of the European Union Finnveden G, Ekvall T (1998) Life-cycle assessment as a decisionsupport tool: the case of recycling versus incineration of paper
European Union (EU) (2008) Directive 2008/98/EC of the European
parliament and of the council of 19 November 2008 on waste and
repealing certain Directives. Official Journal of the European
Union
Finnveden G, Ekvall T (1998) Life-cycle assessment as a decisionsupport tool: the case of recycling versus incineration of paper.
Resour Conserv Recycl 24:235-256
Environmental Outlook to 2030
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
(2008) Environmental Outlook to 2030. OECD, Paris. http://
www.oecd.org. Accessed June 2011
Division for Sustainable Development United Nations (UN) (2002) United Nations General Assembly, World Summit on Sustainable Development: Plan of Implementation. UN, Division for Sustainable Development
- E Worrell
- M Neelis
- L Price
- C Galitsky
- N Zhou
- Wbscd Wri
United Nations (UN) (1992) Earth Summit, Agenda 21, UN
Conference on Environmental Development, the United Nations
programme of action from Rio de Janeiro. UN, Division for
Sustainable Development
United Nations (UN) (2002) United Nations General Assembly, World
Summit on Sustainable Development: Plan of Implementation.
UN, Division for Sustainable Development, New York
Worrell E, Neelis M, Price L, Galitsky C, Zhou N (2008) World best
practice energy intensity values for selected industrial sectors.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA
WRI and WBSCD (2011) Greenhouse gas protocol (GHGP): product
life cycle accounting and reporting standard. World Resources
Institute, Washington, DC and World Business Council for
Sustainable Development, Geneva
A common vision for transforming the paper industry: striving for environmental and social sustainability. Drafted by the alliance for environmental innovation
- Environmental Paper
- Summit
Greenhouse gas protocol (GHGP): product life cycle accounting and reporting standard
- Wbscd Wri