Environmental impact assessment of bio-based binders: from production to industrial applications

A binder is used to hold together the fibers forming the mineral wool products (see figure 1). These fibers can be produced from sand and recycled glass for glass wool products (see figure 2) or from rock (volcanic rock, typically basalt or dolomite) for stone wool products. Traditionally, the binders used in mineral wool products are based on phenol-formaldehyde. Due to sanitary and environmental considerations and increased focus on indoor air quality, the producers developed new alternative binders. Especially, Knauf Insulation, a worldwide building insulation manufacturer, developed a binder based on plant starch and called ECOSE. In addition of not using added phenol-formaldehyde , this new binder is also supposed to reduce the environmental impacts of Knauf Insulation mineral wools. Moreover, due to its properties, others applications are now considered for ECOSE such as composite wood panels [1].
The aim of this study is to determine the environmental impact of ECOSE and to compare it with more traditional binders using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. LCA analyzes the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with all the stages of a product's life. In this type of environmental assessment the energy and material flows for the entire life-cycle are surveyed and analyzed with special attention to possible environmental hazards or human health problems. The ISO 14040 and 14044 norms [2, 3] provide the general guidance for performing an LCA.
The LCA methodology is first applied to ECOSE main component: glucose. The presentation will present results for glucose production from cereals starches After that, first ECOSE application, glass mineral wool products will be presented in details, including production process (see figure 3). The modelling of the glass mineral wool production process in LCA software GaBi 6 [4] is then described. One of the model specificity is that it allows to perform LCA of any glass wool products produced in Knauf Insulation plants in Europe. The adaptations to the model to allow studying former glass wool product when using phenol-formaldehyde binders will also be presented such as the advantages of this model. Moreover, preliminary results about ECOSE and phenol-formaldehyde glass wool products are explained.
Références
[1] Knauf Insulation. [cited 2014; Available from: http://www.knaufinsulation.ua/en.
[2] ISO 14044, Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Requirements and guidelines. 2006.
[3] ISO 14040, Environmental management - Life cycle assessment - Principles and framework. 2006.
[4] LBP, University of Stuttgart, and PE INTERNATIONAL AG, GaBI 6. 2012: Leinfelden-Echterdingen. p. GaBi 6: Software and database for life cycle engineering.