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

Tao Qiang,Yaxuan Chou,Honghong Gao

doi:10.3390/ijerph16183402

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 × 108 kJ of energy (Sample 2) and 46 m3 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.

Highlights

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) made from petroleum-derived plastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, have been reported to have adverse impacts on the environment [1,2], since after their end of life they give rise to secondary pollutions [3]
This study considers six different environmental impact categories from the PLA-based wood plastic composites (WPCs), including global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), photochemistry oxidation potential (PCOP), smog potential (SP), and eco-toxicity potential (ETP) [28]
The were energy used toduring acquire the raw materials for stages

Summary

Introduction

Wood plastic composites (WPCs) made from petroleum-derived plastics, such as polyethylene and polypropylene, have been reported to have adverse impacts on the environment [1,2], since after their end of life they give rise to secondary pollutions [3]. PLA-based biocomposites have excellent degradability, good processability, and tensile properties [8,9,10], since pristine PLA has distinguished degradability, processability, and environmental friendliness [11]. Beyond that, such PLA-based composites are perceived as more environmentally friendly than their fossil-derived counterparts. As opposed to the bio-based and bio-synthesized PHAs, SBS is one of the petroleum-derived agents It maybe compromises the environmental friendliness of the resultant PLA-based WPCs when SBS is used as a toughening

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion