Life cycle assessment of medium-density fiberboard manufacturing process in Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

This study deals with the interface between energy consumption and its related emissions in the manufacturing of one cubic meter medium density fiberboard (MDF) in Iran and provides a comprehensive life cycle inventory (LCI) data for production process. The study was developed following the methodological guidelines of ISO 14040. Inventories data for a gate-to-gate assessment of MDF manufacturing were collected by on-site surveys. Ten impact categories including of: Abiotic depletion (AD), Acidification (AC), Eutrophication (EP), Global warming (GW), Ozone layer depletion (OLD), Fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity (FE), Marine aquatic ecotoxicity (ME), Human toxicity (HT), Terrestrial ecotoxicity (TE) and Photochemical oxidation (PO) in three subsystem of manufacturing process were assessed. The subsystem of fiber preparation was the major contributor to the environmental impacts. Urea-formaldehyde (UF) resin production was identified as the main hotspot, except in AD, AC, OLD and PO impacts that natural gas, electricity, transport and production process were the main hotspots, respectively. Moreover, Tube dryer, MDF saw and hogger were the most effective sectors in the emissions of production process. Results for substitution of natural gas showed that except in some impacts categories, use of alternative source of thermal energy such as wood residue could improve emissions from manufacturing.