A study of environmental impacts of Double A Paper using the cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment method | |
| Author | Narath Bhusiri |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ISE-09-02 |
| Subject(s) | Life cycle costing Paper products industry |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, School of Engineering Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. ISE-09-02 |
| Abstract | The trend of printing paper consumption is increasing. The growth of pulp and paper industries that manufacture printing paper nowadays affects the environment. They are traditionally known to be the third largest industrial contributor to environment. In Thailand, the major pulp and paper manufacturer is Advance Agro Public Company Limited or Double A. The main products of Double A are Bleached Kraft Pulp which has production capacity as 580,000 ton pulp/year and printing and writing paper which has capacity as 600,000 ton paper/year. This study assessed the environmental impact potentials over the cradle-to-gate life cycle of Double A A4 80 gsm fine paper by using cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment concept. In this study, SimaPro software was adopted to analyze and assess the environmental impact potentials. The functional unit or object of the study was one unit of a finished goods product. It included 748.50 kg Double A 80 gsm paper (150,000 sheets), 52.4 kg of total packaging and 15 kg of a wood-pallet. First step was to set the goal and scope definition. The goal of this study was to assess the cradle-to-gate life cycle of a finished good product and indentify the most significant processes or activities with contribute to environment. The scope boundaries included all production processes inside Double A mill starting from farmed tree planting and wood supply, wood handling, pulp productions and production of chemicals involved, paper productions, packaging and also transportation and production of energy involved. The pulp drying process under pulp production stage was excluded from this study. All data and necessary information were collected afterwards. The sources of data collection were both interviewing and observation throughout Double A mill and deriving from literature and SimaPro database. After entering all data in SimaPro, the emissions were calculated. The calculation was performed into five environmental impact categories including global warming, acidification, eutrophication, energy resource and solid waste. The obtained results showed that the environmental impact potentials were 1138.59 kg CO2-equivalent, 5.62 kg SO2-equivalent, 0.12 kg PO4-equivalent, 20116.70 MJ and 185.48 kg solid waste (based on the functional unit). The highest contributor was production of 748.50 kg of Double A 80 gsm paper including all production processes inside Double A mill and their upstream productions and transportation involved. It contributed approximately 95% of total environmental impacts. The second and third contributors were total packaging and a wood-pallet respectively. |
| Year | 2009 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. ISE-09-02 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Industrial Systems Engineering (DISE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Bohez, Erik L.J. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Viljakainen, Esa;Kolmodin, Hakan |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | RTG Fellowship |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2009 |