Gate to gate life cycle assessment of flat pressed particleboard production in Islamic Republic of Iran

Published Date
20 January 2016, Vol.112:343–350, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.07.056

Author 

Hamed Kouchaki-Penchah ^a,,

Mohammad Sharifi ^a

Hossein Mousazadeh ^a

Hamid Zarea-Hosseinabadi ^b

Ashkan Nabavi-Pelesaraei ^a

aDepartment of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

bDepartment of Wood and Paper Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Natural Resources, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Received 31 March 2015. Revised 17 June 2015. Accepted 10 July 2015. Available online 17 July 2015.

Highlights

• A comprehensive LCI data provided for the manufacturing process of PB in Iran.
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  Environmental impacts and CExD indicator of the PB manufacturing process were identified.
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  In order to find the most effective sectors in emissions, hazardous pollutants of the production process were estimated.
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  Major hotspots in the manufacturing process were determined.
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  Use of alternative source of thermal energy such as wood residue is investigated.

Abstract

Particleboard is one of the non-structural wood-based composites developed in the late 1950s in Iran to utilize agricultural and industrial wood residues. Since there was no published document about its Life Cycle Inventory in Iran, the aim of this study was to document the life cycle inventory data from the particleboard manufacturing in the second hand lines in Iran. The study covers the energy consumption and environmental impacts of raw materials and processes during particleboard production. In order to identify the main hotspots and characterize the production process, impact categories were considered using CML methodology and cumulative exergy demand (CExD) indicator. The results revealed that the board shaping subsystem was the main contributor to the most of impact categories.

The main hotspot for resin production was known as Urea-formaldehyde (UF). Electricity was the main hotspot in acidification (AC) and ozone layer depletion (OLD) impact categories, while transportation and production process were the main hotspots in marine aquatic ecotoxicity (ME) and photochemical oxidation (PO) impact categories, respectively. Moreover, rotary dryer, hot press, flaker and hammer mill, vacuum pump and diesel fuel were the most effective sectors in the emissions of the production process. Results for substitution of natural gas showed that, except some impact categories, the use of alternative source of thermal energy such as wood residues could improve emissions from the manufacturing process.

Keywords

Particleboard

Life cycle inventory

Energy consumption

Production process emissions

Environmental hotspots

Cumulative exergy demand

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  Corresponding author. Tel.: +98 9101042031.
  
  

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