Research On Methodology Of Environmental Analyses In Eco-materials

Global depletion of natural resource and energy and degradation of the environment is the main obstacle to sustainable development. In this context, environmental consciousness has been adopted as a significant element and eco-material research has become a hot spot in material research. One of the most important issues in eco-material research is exploring methodology of environmental analyses to analyze the environmental impacts of materials and systematically and continuously improve their environmental performance.The two most important analytical methods are Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Material Flow Analysis (MFA). LCA has been widely adopted by international industry and academe and also standardized as ISO14040ff in the international standardization for environmental management (ISO14000 family).Based on the state of the art in eco-material research, the concept of eco-material is discussed and the concept of"eco-material research"is suggested. According to different nature of material R&D stage and industrial production stage, a comprehensive methodology of environmental analysis is proposed for data collection and analyses in both stages and applied to different case studies respectively.In material R&D stage, LCA and MFA provide an integrated basic framework to collect data and assess resource and environmental impacts of materials. The integrated analyses would investigate and avoid the potential environmental load. The case study of lead-free materials with Bi replacing Pb shows the Bi storage is too limited to support industrial scale replacement and it might cause more energy use and environmental emission, so that it is not a realistic choice. This case is also illustrated that a single environmental advantage, such as lead-free, can not ensure comprehensive environmental benefit and won't justify a material to be an eco-material without integrated analyses.In industrial production stage, LCA provide a mature data collection and environmental assessment method. It can assess the holistic environmental impacts of materials and be applied to cleaner production, downstream materials'R&D and regional planning. The LCA case study of production of titanium white shows that it is a high resource- and energy-consuming material with intensive emissions during its production, such as consuming fresh water 104 kg, energy 63.86 MJ, and emit CO2 7.87 kg, waste water 70 kg per 1 kg of titanium white, which imposes serious environmental limitation on its R&D and usage.Establishment of LCA database and development of LCA software is the important foundation in environmental assessment. The sector-level data collection method is discussed with the case study of hydro-power in China. And the research on nomenclatures used in LCA software is introduced. The Chinese nomenclatures of substance, unit, economic sectors, and countries are established.This research intends to explore a comprehensive methodology for environmental analyses in ecomaterial research, which would also helpful for LCA study in China.