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Do wood-based panels made with agro-industrial residues provide environmentally benign alternatives? An LCA case study of sugarcane bagasse addition to particle board manufacturing

  • WOOD AND OTHER RENEWABLE RESOURCES
  • Published:
The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Sugarcane bagasse is one of the main agro-industrial residues which can be used to produce wood-based panels. However, more investigations related to its environmental performance assessment are needed, focusing on questions such as: Does it provide environmental benefits? What are its main environmental impacts? Could it substitute wood as raw material? Accordingly, this paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) study of particle board manufactured with sugarcane bagasse residues.

Methods

The cradle-to-gate assessment of 1 m3 of particle board made with sugarcane bagasse (PSB) considered three main subsystems: bagasse generation, bagasse distribution, and PSB production. For the inventory of PSB, dataset from two previous LCA studies related to the conventional particle board production and the ethanol life cycle for the Brazilian context were used. The allocation criterion for the bagasse generation subsystem was 9.08 % (economic base). The potential environmental impact phase was assessed by applying the CML and USEtox methods. PSB was compared with the conventional particle board manufactured in Brazil by the categories of the CML and USETox, and including land use indicators. Finally, two scenarios were analyzed to evaluate the influence of the allocation criteria and the consumption of sugarcane bagasse.

Results and discussion

All hotspots identified by CML and USETox methods are mainly related to the PSB production subsystem (24–100 % of impacts) due to heavy fuel oil, electricity, and urea-formaldehyde resin supply chain. The bagasse generation subsystem was more relevant to the eutrophication category (75 % of impacts). The bagasse distribution subsystem was not relevant because the impacts on all categories were lower than 1 %. PSB can substitute the conventional particle board mainly because of its lower contribution to abiotic depletion and ecotoxicity. Regarding land use impacts, PSB showed lower values according to all indicators (38–40 % of all impacts), which is explained by the lower demand for land occupation in comparison to that of the traditional particle board.

Conclusions

PSB can replace the traditional particle board due to its better environmental performance. The analysis of the economic allocation criterion was relevant only for the EP category, being important to reduce diesel and N-based fertilizers use during sugarcane cultivation. Regarding the influence of the sugarcane bagasse consumption, it is suggested that the sugarcane bagasse be mixed up to 75 % during particle board manufacturing so that good quality properties and environmental performance of panels can be provided.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for the financial support provided by three Brazilian Governmental Funding Agencies: Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (“Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoas de Nível Superior”, CAPES–9331/13-1), The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (“Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico”, CNPq) and São Paulo Research Foundation (“Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo”, FAPESP-2011/03816-6 and 2013/06736-9).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Production Engineering, School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, 400 Trabalhador São-Carlense Avenue, São Carlos, 13566-590, Brazil

    Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva & Aldo Roberto Ometto

  2. Environmental Engineering Sciences, School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, 400 Trabalhador São-Carlense Avenue, São Carlos, 13566-590, Brazil

    Ana Laura Raymundo Pavan, Yovana M. B. Saavedra, Sabrina Rodrigues Sousa & Roberta Sanches

  3. Department of Structural Engineering, School of Engineering of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, 400 Trabalhador São-Carlense Avenue, São Carlos, 13566-590, Brazil

    Francisco Antonio Rocco Lahr

  4. Department of Management Engineering, Division of Quantitative Sustainability Assessment, Technical University of Denmark, 426 Produktionstorvet, Lyngby, 2800, Denmark

    Natalia Crespo Mendes

Authors
  1. Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva
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  2. Francisco Antonio Rocco Lahr
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  3. Ana Laura Raymundo Pavan
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  4. Yovana M. B. Saavedra
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  5. Natalia Crespo Mendes
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  6. Sabrina Rodrigues Sousa
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  7. Roberta Sanches
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Correspondence to Diogo Aparecido Lopes Silva.

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Responsible editor: Barbara Nebel

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Silva, D.A.L., Lahr, F.A.R., Pavan, A.L.R. et al. Do wood-based panels made with agro-industrial residues provide environmentally benign alternatives? An LCA case study of sugarcane bagasse addition to particle board manufacturing. Int J Life Cycle Assess 19, 1767–1778 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0776-4

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