Page 371 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

L1644_C08.fm Page 334 Tuesday, October 21, 2003 3:03 PM

TABLE 8.17
Materials’, Components’ and Processes’ Contributions (%) to Each Impact
Indicator
Materials, components
and processes RMD GW OD AT POC AA WT WE ED WD HWP
(c) Capacitor (ceramic) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(c) Capacitor (electrolytic) 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
(c) Diode (plastic body) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(c) Integrated circuit (Si) 7 89 84 87 63 87 59 26 88 91 93
(c) LED (display device) 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0
(c) Radio frequency transistor 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(c) Radio frequency transmitter 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0
(c) Resistances 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(m) Buttons (silicone rubber) 0 1 9 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0
(m) Laminate for PCB (FR4) 3 2 1 3 2 3 3 1 2 1 1
(m) Plastic box (ABS) 0 3 0 3 3 2 3 1 4 1 1
(m) Spirals (steel) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
(p) PCB etching 0 0 0 0 0 0 31 72 0 1 1
(p) PCB reflow 3 3 3 3 2 3 1 0 3 1 3
(p) PCB wave soldering 80 2 2 2 29 2 0 0 2 1 1

(c): component; (m): material; (p): process.

impacts of its components assembled in the manufacturing process. The components
with their own life cycles represent a huge amount of industrial processes that
probably occur in many places around the world.
This means that this example falls under the category of “full LCAs of complex
products with a huge number of industrial processes” (see Figure 6.1 and descriptive
text in Section 6.1 for further explanation). An integrated approach of life-cycle and
site-oriented risk assessment as promoted in this book seems to be highly difficult
for a universal remote, at least when taking into account the capacity of the impact
assessment models currently available.

8.4 EXAMPLE 3: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ANALYSIS
OF AN INDUSTRIAL SEPARATION PROCESS,
APPLYING LCA AND ERA
8.4.1 INTRODUCTION

An environmental impact analysis of the isopentane separation process from a
naphtha stream was developed. The system consists of a distillation column, which
requires electricity and steam. The evaluation covered the distillation process and
units of utility production. In this academic case study, the environmental assessment

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