Abstract

FUQUENE-RETAMOSO, Carlos Eduardo; LARA-BORRERO, Jaime Andrés  and  MENDEZ-FAJARDO, Sandra. Environmental Impact Assessment of Brass-Threaded Unions through Product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Ing. Univ. [online]. 2010, vol.14, n.2, pp.261-274. ISSN 0123-2126.

This paper establishes an environmental impact assessment applied to brass threaded unions. Two different scenarios were analyzed based on the amount of material used in the process: i) 100% virgin raw material usage and ii) 92.3% of recycled material usage. For the analysis and environmental impact evaluation, this study made use of the life cycle assessment methodology (LCA). It also used Ecoindicator 99 for grading impact, as well as the computer tool Simapro^® for calculations. When a composition of 100% virgin raw material was used, significant impacts were identified on mineral extraction and air suspended inorganic material categories. For 92.3% of recycled material, major effects were related to air suspended organic material and impact category related to acidification/ eutrophication. The comparison of both scenarios made it possible to detect an impact attenuation in mineral extraction and air suspended inorganic material categories. As a consequence of using recycled material in the product, a significant global impact reduction of 231% in terms of Pt was noticed.

Keywords : Environmental impact assessment; LCA; brass; recycling.

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