Multidimensional life cycle assessment on various moulded pulp production systems

Moulded pulp has been used as an alternative to plastic in certain packaging applications, but some problems in the production system lead to higher costs including energy consumption. Industry tends to operate on the basis of experience rather than through scientific evaluation and systematic design methods. The research aims at detecting the problems in the production system by a multidimensional life cycle assessment (MLCA) with transparent analysis. The MLCA measures the performance of the moulded pulp production system with regard to technical, economic and environmental aspects and produces quantitative results (in monetary units), and finally indicates the overall efficiency of the production system using a sustainability index (SI). A life cycle impact assessment method based on endpoint modelling (LIME) is mainly adopted in the MLCA. Three existing moulded pulp production systems for industrial packaging in China were assessed in this study. The results show that the main environmental impacts of the three production systems are the atmospheric emissions and landfill waste; the drying stage in the production systems, which is dominated by consumption of resources and environmental impacts, is the key to controlling costs; steam should be the first preferred heat source in the drying process for achieving sustainability in the moulded pulp production system. The optimum for the three cases is identified by calculating the newly developed SI. The MLCA approach can be used to assist in identifying potential improvements and practical new packaging designs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.