NDLI: Life cycle assessment of desktop PCs in Macau

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Song, Qingbin Wang, Zhishi Li, Jinhui Yuan, Wenyi
Copyright Year	2012
Abstract	With the tremendous growth in the worldwide electronic information and telecommunication industries, there continues to be an increasing awareness of the environmental impacts related to the accelerating mass production, electricity use, and waste management of electrical and electronic products (e-products). Although Macau is a small region with a total land area of about 29.5 km$^{2}$ and a population of 557,000 in 2011, there are two personal computers (PCs) for every household in Macau.This paper aims to describe the application of life cycle assessment (LCA) to investigate the environmental performance of PCs in Macau. An assessment of the PC (focusing on the desktop PC) was carried out using a detailed modular LCA based on the international standards of the ISO 14040 series. The LCA was constructed using SimaPro software version 7.2 and expressed with both the Eco-indicator'99 method and the Centrum voor Milieuwetenschappen method. Life cycle inventory information was compiled by Ecoinvent 2.2 databases, combined with literature and field investigations of the actual situations.The established LCA study showed that the manufacturing and the use of such devices are of the highest environmental importance. In the manufacturing stage, the desktop contributes the most to the total environmental impacts (44.89 Pt), followed by the LCD screens (about 27.53 Pt), while the CRT screen, keyboard, and mouse are of minor importance. During the use phase, the environmental impact is due entirely to the consumption of electricity generated by coal, oil, natural gas, and hydropower. The electricity generated by coal is by far the most important, accounting for about 66 % of the total environmental impact, followed by oil and gas. Within the EoL treatment phase, using incineration, there will be little environmental impact. When adopting recycling technology in the EoL phase, apparent environmental benefits will be generated due mainly to avoiding emissions to water (arsenic ions and cadmium ions) and to air (SO$_{2}$) in the primary production phase. For the competing technologies of CRT and LCD screens, the environmental impacts are different in different phases, but the total impacts over their entire life cycle are similar.Results from a life cycle assessment can be used to compare the relative environmental impacts of competing technologies; it can also help designers and managers to focus efforts toward making environmental improvements to a particular technology.
Starting Page	553
Ending Page	566
Page Count	14
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09483349
Journal	The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
Volume Number	18
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	16147502
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2012-10-13
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Desktop PC Electronics Environmental impacts Life cycle assessment Macau Environment Environmental Economics Environmental Engineering/Biotechnology Environmental Chemistry
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Environmental Science

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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