THE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND CARBON FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENT OF NON-GLAZED FLOOR TILES

Abstract

Carbon emission from the manufacturing sector is a critical issue which is concerned by theenvironmental authorities since the violation of the carbon emission cap might lead to the sanction by one ofThailand's largest trade partner, European Union (EU). As a result, it is important for the manufacturers to be ableto assess their own products' carbon footprint. In this study, the selected case study is a ceramic factory whichmanufactures non-glazed floor files. The scope of evaluation covers Business-to-Customer (B2C) transactionwhile the life cycle of a product includes four stages, i.e., resource extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use andwaste disposal. The study results indicate that the highest contribution to the carbon emission is from the extractionof ceramic clay while the manufacturing stage has the second highest effect on the emission. The distribution ofproducts, use and disposal are the life cycle stages which have small effects on the emission. Another objective ofthis research is to conduct an empirical study which leads to the capability to quantify the effect of different factorson the manufacturing of floor tiles. According to the experimental study, three factors, i.e., chalk clay, ball clayand feldspar, are considered as the process inputs while the response variables are percent absorption and hardness.Elaborately, 23 full factorial design was deployed to study the find the relationship between inputs and outputs.The results has two folds. The first fold is useful for the manufacturers who would like to understand how muchtheir product has emitted the greenhouse gas to the atmosphere and it might lead to the minimization of theiremission. Moreover, the relation between the tile characteristic and factors affecting the manufacturing is knownso the manufacturer is able to efficiently optimize the manufacturing process in order to achieve the highest qualityproducts.