Life Cycle Assessment of Green Production of Glass Substrate

Abstract

In this study, the LCA assessment model of CML was employed to analyze the environmental burden caused by the production of glass substrates, and the evaluation of the environmental performance of five stages of preparation of ingredients, including glass melting, precision clarification, overflow molding and post process, was also conducted. The results show that the global warming potential is the dominant impact category in the comprehensive environmental burden with a normalized value of 4.64×10-14, followed by the acidification potential (2.57×10-14), photochemical oxidation potential (2.82×10-15). And the relative contribution of abiotic depletion potential and human toxicity to the comprehensive environmental burden is rather limited, with the normalized values of 8.31×10-17 and 1.21×10-16, respectively. The single score of environmental impact due to the whole production system is 2.37×10-13, wherein the environmental impact values of the processes of preparation of ingredients, glass melting, precision clarification, overflow molding, and post are 1.07×10-15, 9.10×10-14 (highest), 2.26×10-14, 7.36×10-14, and process 4.90×10-14, respectively. The preparation of the batch, the glass melting, the overflow molding and the post process mainly cause the environmental effects of global warming potential and acidification potential, the cumulative values of which are 1.13×10-13 and 9.01×10-14, respectively. The precision clarification stage mainly causes the environmental effect of acidification potential, the value of which is 2.02×10-14 and much higher than those of other environmental impact categories.