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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This work analyzes the life cycle environmental impacts of producing a particleboard based on cardoon fibers and a starch/chitosan adhesive from a “cradle-to-gate” perspective, considering the following life cycle steps: raw material production, adhesive preparation (component mixing and heating), cardoon fiber preparation (crushing and sieving), adhesive and fiber mixing, hot-pressing and final processing. The functional unit is a particleboard with the dimensions of 220 × 220 × 16 mm3. For the life cycle inventory, experimental data obtained from the production of particleboard on a pilot scale were used. The Aspen Plus V9 software was used to simulate the heating process in the manufacture of the biological adhesive and obtain the data associated with this stage. Portuguese or European conditions were considered for the background processes, using data from the EcoInvent V3.5 LCI database. The environmental impacts were quantified using the RECIPE methodology. To complement the study, the VOCs present in the panel were analyzed using the “active headspace” technique. The results show that for most of the environmental impact categories, energy consumption is dominant, followed by starch and chitosan production. Using fully renewable electricity produced in photovoltaic panels, instead of the Portuguese electricity mix, significantly reduces the impacts in most of the environmental impact categories, for example, the carbon footprint is reduced by 34%. Future studies will analyze how the environmental impacts can be further reduced, and how process scale-up may influence them.
Description
This work was financially supported by the base funding of the following projects:
LA/P/0045/2020 (ALiCE), UIDB/00511/2020 (LEPABE), UIDB/50022/2020 (LAETA), funded by
national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) and Project ADAPTIVE—Projects in co-promotion ref.
POCI-01-0247-FEDER-050191 in the scope of Portugal 2020 co-funded by FEDER (Fundo Europeu de
Desenvolvimento Regional) under the framework of POCI (Programa Operacional Competitividade e
Internacionalização). António Martins gratefully acknowledge the Portuguese national funding agency for
science, research and technology (FCT), for funding through the program DL 57/2016—Norma transitória.
Teresa Mata gratefully acknowledges the funding of Project NORTE-06-3559-FSE-000107, cofinanced by
Programa Operacional Regional do Norte (NORTE2020), through Fundo Social Europeu (FSE).
Keywords
BIo-based materials Cardoon Circular economy Life cycle thinking particleboards
Citation
Mata, T.M.; Freitas, C.; Silva, G.V.; Monteiro, S.; Martins, J.M.; de Carvalho, L.H.; Silva, L.M.; Martins, A.A. Life Cycle Analysis of a Particleboard Based on Cardoon and Starch/Chitosan. Sustainability 2023, 15, 16179. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su152316179