Natural fibre reinforced composite materials: Environmentally better life cycle assessment – A case study

Abstract

Emergent worldwide awareness in the direction of sustainability has urged numerous inventiveness to examine and apply additional environment open solutions in daily actions. The natural fiber composite materials (NFCs) have emerged as a replacement to synthetic fibre reinforced composites and other old-style engineering materials. NFCs offer several benefits in terms of environmental impact such as recyclability, renewability and biodegradability, as well as lower raw material costs and light weight. The sustainability of natural fiber composites is examined on the basis of life cycle assessment (LCA) analysis, a methodology formulated to investigate the potential environmental impact of products all over of their life cycle stages. Furthermore, a case study on the application of LCA analysis to evaluate the potential environmental impact of products made from natural fiber composites. Eco-indicator methods is used as an impact assessment technique in the simplified LCA analysis, based on cradle-to-grave approach. The present paper also focuses on how the LCA methodology is able to assist the product designers in performing simplified LCA analysis to assess the product environmental impact holistically throughout their life cycle stages.