3rd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering CPIE-2013 Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Carpentry Training Processes

48

Vikrant Bhakar1, Roshni Shah1, Jakob Singer2, Patricia Edege2, Christoph Herrmann2, Kuldip Singh Sangwan1
2

Department of Mechanical Engineering, BITS Pilani, Rajasthan, India Institute for Machine Tools and Manufacturing Technology, Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany Corresponding Author: kss@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in

Abstract - The increasing environmental problems ranging from global warming to local landfill scarcity has made business and government to pay attention to the life cycle concept of the production processes. This has led to the concept of life cycle assessment (LCA) of processes. This paper attempt at assessing the life cycle environmental impact of a carpentry process generally used in training the undergraduate degree students in India, in term of climate change, human toxicity, acidification potential, etc. The life cycle assessment of the process includes extraction, service and disposal phases. Umberto 5.6 software and CML 2001with the eco-invent database library is used for the modeling and analysis of LCA. Keywords- Carpentry, Life cycle assessment, Environment,

Impact Assessment

I. INTRODUCTION The last few years have seen rising attention towards environmental threats like resource depletion, climate change, land, air and water pollution, waste disposal, etc. This has led to integration of environmental considerations and decision making at business, government as well as individual levels [1] Pressure for improvement in performance to save the environment is increasing. Various scrutinizing groups have created pressure on the industries to carry out processes in a manner that is environmentally acceptable [2] Environmental sustainability demands that society designs activities to meet human needs while indefinitely preserving the life support systems of the planet [5] Thus applying the concept of sustainability can help assess environmental impact. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is one approach to accurately assess the environmental burdens associated with the manufacturing of a product [11] from resource extraction to end-oflife. The development of the LCA methodology has helped to quantify and provide information about a product where environmental qualities were lacking [3] Consumers of present era are aware of how manufacturing of products impact the environment. Influence of this knowledge is

being seen in the product choice of the market [9][10]. Environmental regulations are also one of the drivers for industries taking up measures to reduce environmental impact. Thus, manufacturers are being driven towards environmentally sound production practices. Wood is a renewable resource and environment friendly compared with other materials. Deforestation surely is one of the most viewed and direct impact wooden products cause to the environment. However, a lot of processing is involved from the deforestation to the product use contributing greatly to the energy consumption and thus emissions. Hence, carpentry is an important manufacturing process to be considered for environmental impact assessment to mitigate the or reduce the negative effects on environment. This paper attempt at assessing the life cycle environmental impact of a carpentry process generally used in training the undergraduate degree students in India, in term of climate change, human toxicity, acidification potential, etc. The LCA includes all steps from the extraction phase of the raw materials used to the disposal of products and equipments. Umberto 5.6 software [4] and CML 2001with the ecoinvent database library is used for the modeling and analysis of LCA. Umberto is a powerful software tool to model, calculate and visualize material and energy flow systems. It is used to analyze production systems, either in a plant or a whole company or along a product life cycle. II. LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) With increasing public awareness and concern, the government as well as industry are taking measures to implement environmentally safe production (Sangwan 2006). Development of methods for identifying causes of environmental damage and application of measures to reduce these effects are being considered for each and

3rd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering CPIE-2013

every stage in the life-cycle of a product. LCA is a systematic processes to assess environmental impacts due to a product from its complete life cycle, involving, raw material extraction, material processing, manufacturing, distribution, use, repair, maintenance, disposal or recycling [7]. LCA can be used as a technical tool to evaluate these environmental consequences of a product, production process, packaging or any activity across its entire life cycle [8]. LCA is the perfect tool to assist the industries in generating information for decision-making regarding pollution prevention, product design choices, and product and process improvements [5]. International standards have been structured for LCA application. The recent ISO standards related to LCA are ISO 14040 to 14044. ISO 14040 covers four-phased life cycle assessment and life cycle inventory without describing its techniques or methodologies. ISO 14044 specifies requirements and provides guidelines for life cycle assessment [7]. Other terms very similar to LCA are life-cycle analysis, ecobalance and cradle-to-grave analysis.

49

III. DEVELOPMENT OF AN LCA MODEL OF CARPENTRY TRAINING PROCESS Goal and scope definition The goal of this study is: To find the environmental impact caused by the carpentry process during the training of the undergraduate engineering students in India in term of acidification potential, climate change, eutrophication potential, freshwater aquatic and sediment eco-toxicity, marine aquatic and sediment eco-toxicity, human toxicity, terrestrial eco-toxicity, ionizing radiation, land use, malodors air, photochemical Ox (smog), depletion of abiotic resources and stratospheric ozone depletion. The Scope of the study is limited to: Product System: carpentry processes planning and sawing. Functional Unit: Impact generated per student per year for carpentry training. System boundaries The system considered for the model includes, the extraction of raw material (tools and machinery used as well the raw material for the training), the manufacturing of each and every tools and equipment , the usage at the workshop by students, the disposal of the material (job pieces prepared during training and the equipments used at the end of life. However, the transportation and manufacturing of the machinery have not been included in the model as the machinery is very old and its effect over the life cycle will be negligible. Man power and energy used shall be considered as inputs while the emissions from the cycle shall be the required output as shown in figure 2. Processes considered for carpentry will include the sawing and planning done, since these are the only processes where energy is consumed. Other processes like cutting, fitting, finishing, chiseling, etc are done manually, therefore, only the tools used for these processes have been included in the model.

FIGURE 1 LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT (LCA) FRAMEWORK (SOURCE: ISO14040, [7])

The four phases in an LCA study as described in ISO 14040 are (figure 1): i. ii. iii. iv. the goal and scope definition phase the inventory analysis phase the impact assessment phase, and the interpretation phase.

3rd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering CPIE-2013

50

For the motors in the machines, only copper winding has been explicitly considered. The inventory thus prepared in given in table 1.
TABLE 1 INVENTORY WITH AMOUNT OF MATERIAL
Category Cast iron (kg) Components bench vice carpentry old machines grinder power hack-saw planer grinder power hack-saw planer power hack-saw grinder bench vice carpentry old machines tools grinder power hack-saw planer workpiece carpentry wooden furniture tools wooden furniture Amount 135 1000 80 1900 700 2 4 4 30 15 90 100 8 5 100 100 1.5164 2.31 0.01 3.846

FIGURE 2 LCA SYSTEM BOUNDARY

Copper (kg)

Inventory analysis Initial compilation of the inventory was done by observing closely the training process. Approximations of the amount of materials were done either by actual dimensional or weight measurement wherever possible; or by using machine brochures available or by using similar models available from the internet. Following is the list of basic inventory considered for the study: Carpentry bench vices Wooden worktables Old unused machinery (as raw material only) Power hacksaw Multifunctional electric Planer Carpentry hand tools Machines shall be considered to have a life of 50 years. Another challenge during the study is to match the actual material to the Umberto Ecoinvent database library. All the materials as observed on the shop floor were not found in the Eco-invent database so following assumptions have been taken during inventory analysis: Wooden furniture shall be assumed to be hardwood, the paint on the furniture is assumed as wood preservative, machines are made assumed to be made of steel and cast iron, carpentry tools are assumed to be made from either steel or hardwood.

Aluminum (kg) Silicon Carbide (kg) Steel (kg)

Softwood (m) Hardwood (m) Wood preservative (l)

Carpentry Process Model (using Umberto 5.6): The whole carpentry process used for the training is modeled using Umberto 5.6 software as shown in figure 3. The equipment used are brought under share of equipment per student from the transition for extraction and disposal of materials used to make these equipments. This, along with the required work piece material and the processes are considered in the service phase to compute share of training of one student. Indian electricity mix is modeled and used throughout the modeling. Transition for disposal of cast iron is not defined in the Umberto library, hence, disposal of cast iron is taken to be same as disposal of steel.

3rd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering CPIE-2013

51

FIGURE 3 MATERIAL FLOW MODEL IN UMBERTO TABLE 2 IMPACT CATERGORIES VALUES GENERATED BY CALCULATIONS
Impact Category Acidification Potential Climate Change Eutrophication Potential Freshwater Aquatic Eco-Toxicity Freshwater Sediment Eco-Toxicity Human Toxicity Marine Aquatic Eco-toxicity Marine Sediment Eco-toxicity Terrestrial Eco-toxicity Ionizing Radiation Land Use Malodours Air Photochemical Ox (Smog) Depletion Of Abiotic Resources Stratosph. O3 Depletion(40) Unit Kg-So2-Eq Kg Co2-Eq Kg Nox-Eq Kg 1,4-Dcb Kg 1,4-Dcb Kg 1,4-Dcb Kg 1,4-Dcb Kg 1,4-Dcb Kg 1,4-Dcb Daly's M2a M3 Air Kg Ethylen Kg Antimony Kg Cfc-11 Total 3.69E-03 7.55E-01 1.67E-03 2.54E+0 6.28E+0 3.51E-01 8.24E+0 1.09E+01 8.14E-04 2.54E-09 5.14E+0 8.56E+03 2.48E-04 5.96E-03 2.88E-08 Extraction 7.79E-04 1.67E-01 4.75E-04 1.77E-01 3.96E-01 2.42E-01 6.48E-01 7.10E-01 7.10E-04 6.95E-10 3.87E-01 5.71E+03 9.60E-05 1.49E-03 6.65E-09 Service 2.88E-03 5.87E-01 1.18E-03 1.78E-01 3.75E-01 1.00E-01 6.38E-01 6.56E-01 1.03E-04 1.84E-09 4.75E+0 2.79E+03 1.52E-04 4.46E-03 2.19E-08 Disposal 3.27E-05 1.96E-03 1.0E-05 2.19E+0 5.51E+0 9.59E-03 6.95E+0 9.52E+0 6.38E-07 5.17E-12 1.68E-04 6.42E+01 6.74E-07 1.64E-05 2.95E-10 % 0.01 2.21 0.00 7.42 18.35 1.03 24.08 31.85 0.00 0.00 15.02 ---0.00 0.02 0.00

3rd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering CPIE-2013

52

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION On the basis of the life cycle inventory data, the Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) is drawn up for all the environmental impact categories. LCIA results are generated with CML 2001 using Umberto5.6 to determine the environmental impacts related to the emissions and resources consumed in the system under study. The system carries out impact under 15 categories as shown in table 2. This table shows the effect of extraction, service (use) and disposal phases. Acidification potential, climate change effect and human toxicity effect of the carpentry process during the extraction, service and disposal phases are compared and discussed next. Acidification Potential: Acidification is the result of acidifying pollutants emissions, such as SO2 or NOx, to the air. These emissions have negative impacts on soil, groundwater, surface waters, biological organisms, ecosystems and materials (building). Acidification Potentials (AP) for emissions to air are calculated, describing the fate and deposition of acidifying substances. AP is expressed as kg SO2 equivalents. The time span is eternity and the geographical scale varies between local scale and continental scale.[16] Figure 4 shows that the service phase is the phase with maximum acidification potential followed by extraction phase and disposal of wood. This is expected as the wood disposal is not harmful. The service phase is further explored to know the causes for its AP and it is found that the electricity used during the service (training) is the major contributor of AP of the process as shown in figure 5. Wood sawing uses 0.35 kWh while wood planning uses 0.17 kWh. Thus, it is recommended to attempt to decrease the usage of these power machines and instead use simpler tools. Also, efficiency of the power tools should be taken care of by time-to-time maintenance schedules.

FIGURE 4 ACIDIFICATION POTENTIAL

FIGURE 5 ACIDIFICATION POTENTIAL FOR SERVICE PHASE

Climate change: Climate change can result in adverse affects upon ecosystem health, human health and material welfare. Climate change is related to emissions of greenhouse gases to air and is shown as the global warming potential in kg CO2 equivalents. Here also, the service phase is the major contributor as shown in figure 6.

FIGURE 6 CLIMATE CHANGE POTENTIAL

Human toxicity: This category concerns effects of toxic substances on the human environment. However, health risks of exposure in the working environment are not included here. The effect of extraction phase is more pronounced in

3rd International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering CPIE-2013

term of human toxicity as measured by Kg 1,4Dcb (dichlorobenzene) as shown in figure 7.

53

FIGURE 7 HUMAN TOXICITY POTENTIAL

Hence, firstly, decreasing the amounts of raw material used at every level, from machines to work pieces, should be considered. The copper used in the motors, the cast iron and steel used in machinery are the major contributor to human toxicity as shown in figure 8.

toxicity potential. Service/use/training phase causes maximum acidification, global warming (climate change) and eutrofication. This is primarily due the consumption of electricity in this phase. weight of the complete inventory. Decreasing this is not in our scope. However, care should be taken that at the time of disposal of these The use of efficient equipments or star rating equipments will minimize the negative effect of carpentry process in the use phase. Reduction in standby time is also a viable method to reduce electricity consumption. Disposal phase effects eco-toxicity of fresh water and marine water. This is mainly caused by the disposal of carpentry machinery. However, incineration, reuse, remanufacturing or recycling of the equipments will improve the performance of carpentry process in disposal phase.
References

1. 2.

Nilsson, M., Eckerberg, K. (Eds.). Environmental Policy Integration in Practice Shaping Institutions for Learning. Earthscan, 2007.

FIGURE 8 HUMAN TOXICITY IN EXTRACTION PHASE

However, the inventory data shows 10kg of copper has been used, which is only 0.23% by machines, copper can be effectively reused/recycled. V. CONCLUSIONS Relying on the inventory and impact assessment results, the hot spots through the whole life cycle assessment of carpentry process has been identified.The results clearly show that the extraction of copper, steel, cast iron and aluminium used in machinery causes human

Adisa Azapagic. Life cycle assessment and its application to process selection, design and optimization. Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 73, No. 1, pp.121, 1999. 3. Robert Goodland, The Concept of Environmental Sustainability , Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 26, No. 1, pp. 124, 1995. 4. IFU Hamburg website for material flow and software, http://www.umberto.de/en/ (Accessed: 18th November, 2012). 5. Battelle and Franklin associates, Life cycle assessment: Inventory guidelines and principles, EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, Feb, 1993. 6. Curran, M.A., and S. Young, Report from the EPA Conference on Streamlining LCA, International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 57-60, 1996. 7. International Standard Organization, http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=37456 and http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=38498 (Accessed: 22nd November, 2012). 8. Kuldip Singh Sangwan, Development of a multi criteria decision model for justification of green manufacturing systems, International Journal of Green Economics, vol 5, No. 3, pp 285-305, 2011. 9. Kuldip Singh Sangwan , Performance Value Analysis for Justification of Green Manufacturing Systems Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Systems, vol 5, no. 1, pp 59-73, 2006. 10. Vikrant Bhakar,Abhinav Mahajan, Dr. A.K. Digalwar, Dr. K.S. Sangwan, life cycle assessment of a recumbent bicycle, International Conference on Advancements and Futuristic Trends in Mechanical and Materials Engineering (October 5-7, 2012) Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar-Kapurthala Highway, Kapurthala, Punjab-144601 (INDIA), pp. 373-377, 2012.