Plywood

Article

Life Cycle Assessment of Plywood Manufacturing

Process in China

Liangliang Jia 1

, Jie Chu 1,*, Li Ma 1

, Xuemin Qi 1 and Anuj Kumar 2

1 College of Forestry, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shaanxi, China;

18710803691@163.com (L.J.); mali111@nwsuaf.edu.cn (L.M.); 18392422980@sina.cn (X.Q.)

2 Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Production Systems, Tietotie 2, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland;

anuj.kumar@luke.fi

* Correspondence: chujie392111@163.com

Received: 13 May 2019; Accepted: 5 June 2019; Published: 8 June 2019





Abstract: Life cycle assessment (LCA) has been an important issue in the development of a circular

economy. LCA is used to identify environmental impacts and hotspots associated with plywood

manufacturing. Based on our results and a literature review of LCA studies involving plywood,

a sustainable and environmentally friendly scenario was proposed for the plywood processing

industry to improve environmental performance and sustainability. This study covers the life cycle

of plywood production from a cradle-to-gate perspective, including raw material preparation and

plywood manufacturing and processing to analysis of environment impacts and hotspots. Analysis

of abiotic depletion (ADP), acidification effect (AP), primary energy depletion (PED), freshwater

eutrophication (EP), global warming potential (GWP), and particulate matter (RI) were selected as

major impact categories in this study. All data were obtained from on-site measurements (plywood

production) and investigations of the Eco-invent database and CLCD database (upstream data of

materials and energy). These data can be ignored when environmental contributions comprise

less than 0.001% of environmental impact and auxiliary material quality is less than 0.01% of total

raw material consumption. An eco-design strategy with eco-alternatives was proposed: pyrolysis

bio-oil can be used to produce green resin to replace traditional phenolic formaldehyde (PF) resin

to decrease the impacts of GWP, PED, AP, PM, and especially ADP and EP. A new technology of

gluing green wood was used to replace conventional plywood production technology; wood waste

could undergo a gasification process to produce resultant gas rather than combusting. Plywood was

also compared with other wood-based panels in China to identify additional scenarios to improve

environmental sustainability.

Keywords: circular economy; Life cycle assessment; environmental hotspots; impact categories;

sustainable strategy