IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i18p3402-d267031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Impacts of Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Toughened Wood Fiber/Polylactide Composites: A Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Tao Qiang

    (School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China)

  • Yaxuan Chou

    (School of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China)

  • Honghong Gao

    (School of Mechatronic Engineering, Xi’an Technological University, Xi’an 710021, China)

Abstract

In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to investigate the environmental benefits of using styrene-butadiene-styrene (SBS) to modify polylactide (PLA)-based wood plastic composites (WPCs), with a process-based and input–output hybrid model. The results showed that one metric ton of the SBS-modified WPCs required 1.93 × 10 8 kJ of energy (Sample 2) and 46 m 3 of water (Sample 4), and that it could produce 42.3 kg of solid waste (Sample 2) during its cradle-to-gate life cycle phases. The environmental impact load (EIL) and photochemistry oxidation potential (PCOP) accounted for the largest share, while the eutrophication potential (EP) took the smallest one. The total EIL index of Samples 1, 2, 3, and 4 added up to 1.942, 1.960, 1.899, and 1.838, respectively. The SBS-modified WPCs were found to be more environmentally friendly than their unmodified counterparts when they had the same or higher wood fiber (WF) content. SBS was viable to toughen the PLA-based WPCs from an environmental perspective. This cradle-to-gate LCA is likely to help optimize the manufacturing process and mitigate environmental impacts for the natural fiber-reinforced polymer biocomposites.

Suggested Citation

  • Tao Qiang & Yaxuan Chou & Honghong Gao, 2019. "Environmental Impacts of Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene Toughened Wood Fiber/Polylactide Composites: A Cradle-to-Gate Life Cycle Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-14, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:18:p:3402-:d:267031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/18/3402/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/18/3402/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:18:p:3402-:d:267031. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.