Ahn JW

Vol. 24,  No. 4, pp. 269-274, Dec.  2018
10.7464/ksct.2018.24.4.269

Wet tissue Life cycle assessment (LCA) Environmental impact

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In this study, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of wet tissue manufacturing process was performed. The wet tissue manufacturing process consists of preparation of wetting agent (chemical liquid), impregnation of nonwoven fabric into wetting agent and primary and secondary packaging. Data and information were collected on the input and output of the actual process from a certain company and the database of the Korea Ministry of Environment and some foreign countries (when Korean unavailable) were employed to connect the upper and the lower process flow. Based on the above and the potential environmental impacts of the wet tissue manufacturing process were calculated. As a result of the characterization, Ozone Layer Depletion (OD) is 3.46.E-06 kg CFC11, Acidification (AD) is 5.11.E-01 kg SO2, Abiotic Resource Depletion (ARD) is 3.52.E+00 1 yr-1, Global Warming (GW) is 1.04.E+02 kg CO2, Eutrophication (EUT) is 2.31.E-02 kg PO4 3-, Photochemical Oxide Creation (POC) was 2.22.E-02 kg C2H4, Human Toxicity (HT) was 1.55.E+00 kg 1,4 DCB and Terrestrial Ecotoxicity (ET) was 5.82.E-04 kg 1,4 DCB. In order to reduce the environmental impact of the manufacturing process, it is necessary to improve the overall process as other general cases and change the raw materials including packaging materials with less environmental impact. Conclusively, the energy consumed in the manufacturing process has emerged as a major issue, and this needs to be reconsidered other options such as alternative energy. Therefore, it is recommended that a process system should be redesigned to improve energy efficiency and to change to an energy source with lower environmental impact. Due to the nature of LCA, the final results of this study can be varied to some extent depending on the type of LCI DB employed and may not represent of all wet tissue manufacturing processes in the current industry.