Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the manufacturing of glazed ceramic tiles, from the extraction of raw materials to the packaged product including waste management with the aims of assessing the life cycle environmental impacts and identifying the hotspots. Real and detailed data from a main ceramic tile supplier in Turkey are used in the analysis of the environmental impacts of glazed ceramic tile. Two functional units are considered: 1 m² ceramic tile and total annual production of the facility. The environmental impacts have been estimated by conducting Life cycle assessment using GaBi v9.5 software and Ecoinvent database v3.5 with CML 2001 impact assessment method. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to test the robustness of the environmental impacts. The results show that among all environmental impact categories except abiotic depletion potential elements and terrestrial ecotoxicity potential, ceramic tiles production is generating the highest impact on the environment (45.9% for human toxicity potential—73.9% for global warming potential) mainly due to high energy consumption for firing, pressing and forming and drying steps. For abiotic depletion potential elements, raw material supply stage (82.5%) is the biggest contributor while for terrestrial ecotoxicity potential, most of the impact is from raw material transportation stage (31.4%). Annually, 106,195 tonnes or around 5.1 million m² of glazed ceramic tiles production from the selected facility emits 74 kt CO₂ eq. on a life cycle basis. As far as the authors are aware, this is the first attempt at such an academic study for the ceramic sector in Turkey. The results of this work demonstrate the importance of the life cycle assessment to improve the sustainability of the ceramic sector.

Graphic Abstract

中文翻译：

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瓷砖生产的环境影响评估：以土耳其为例

摘要

这项研究的目的是分析釉面瓷砖的制造，从原材料的提取到包装产品（包括废物管理），以评估生命周期对环境的影响并确定热点。来自土耳其主要瓷砖供应商的真实和详细数据用于分析釉面瓷砖对环境的影响。考虑两个功能单元：1 m ²瓷砖和设施的年总产量。通过使用GaBi v9.5软件和Ecoinvent数据库v3.5和CML 2001影响评估方法进行生命周期评估，可以估算环境影响。进行了敏感性分析以测试环境影响的稳健性。结果表明，除了非生物耗竭潜力元素和陆地生态毒性潜力以外，在所有环境影响类别中，瓷砖生产对环境的影响最大（人类毒性潜力为45.9％，全球变暖潜力为73.9％），其主要原因是高能量用于烧制，压制，成型和干燥步骤的消耗。对于非生物耗竭潜力元素，原料供应阶段（82.5％）是最大的贡献者，而对于陆地生态毒性潜力，影响最大的是原材料运输阶段（占31.4％）。每年106,195吨或510万平方米所选工厂生产的²个釉面瓷砖的排放量为74 kt CO ₂当量。以生命周期为基础。据作者所知，这是针对土耳其陶瓷行业进行此类学术研究的首次尝试。这项工作的结果证明了生命周期评估对提高陶瓷行业可持续性的重要性。

图形摘要