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Life Cycle Assessment of the Oriented Strand Board and Plywood Industries in the United States of America

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Life Cycle Assessment of the Oriented Strand Board and Plywood Industries in the United States of America University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 5-2015 Life Cycle Assessment of the Oriented Strand Board and Plywood Industries in the United States of America Dominik Kaestner University of Tennessee - Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Other Engineering Commons Recommended Citation Kaestner, Dominik, "Life Cycle Assessment of the Oriented Strand Board and Plywood Industries in the United States of America. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2015. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/3376 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Dominik Kaestner entitled "Life Cycle Assessment of the Oriented Strand Board and Plywood Industries in the United States of America." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Forestry. Adam M. Taylor, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Timothy M. Young, Alexander Petutschnigg, Maureen Puettmann Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Life Cycle Assessment of the Oriented Strand Board and Plywood Industries in the United States of America A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Dominik Kaestner May 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep gratitude to my master thesis advisor, Dr. Adam M. Taylor for his support in this thesis project and for providing the opportunity to study at the University of Tennessee. I further would like to thank my committee members Dr. Timothy M. Young, Dr. Alexander Petutschnigg and Dr. Maureen Puettmann for their excellent guidance and valuable suggestions during my study. This thesis project would not have been possible without these people and their expertise. Gratitude is also expressed towards Dr. Keith Belli, Professor and Head of the Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries and Dr. Timothy G. Rials, Professor and Director of the Center for Renewable Carbon. Great thanks go to Mr. Karl K. Grasser and Mr. Jackson P. Audley for being great and supportive peers. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ms. Ann Ryan and Dr. Omid Hosseinaei for the great friendship and support through my stay in Tennessee. My thanks go also to Mr. Chris Helton and Dr. Nicolas André for great conversations and their support. I would like to thank my girlfriend, Sabine for her constant support and my parents, my brother and my sister-in-law for all their encouragement in my pursuit of this degree. ii ABSTRACT Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodology to compare and evaluate products or systems in a holistic manner. The methodology of an LCA includes the life cycle inventory (LCI), which lists inputs and outputs for a product within designated system boundaries. LCIs are used to develop impact assessments that calculate the effect of the product or system on the environment in categories such as global warming potential. LCA has been applied for the comparison of wood products to non-wood alternatives. The results showed that wood processing is efficient and the environmental impacts are low compared to non-wood alternatives. These findings are beginning to be documented and promoted in standardized environmental product declarations (EPDs) that summarize the LCA and can be used for comparisons of different products. In order to produce up- to-date EPDs for the production of structural plywood and oriented strand board (OSB) in the U.S., updated LCI data are needed. This study presents the collection and preparation of the LCI data for structural plywood and OSB produced in the U.S. The collected data are representative of the production year 2012 and will contribute to the update of the environmental product declaration (EPD) for both products. In addition, the quality of the collected data sets will be assessed by descriptive statistical tools. The methods of the study should assist in standardizing and summarizing data sets, which are the basis for the calculation of industry-wide average values. A comparison with previous studies and the discussions with experts from the industries revealed trends over time in the context of environmental impacts. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 - Thesis Organization ......................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2 – Introduction of Life Cycle Assessment and Study Context ............................ 2 Abstract........................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 3 Life Cycle Assessment Concept ..................................................................................... 4 Environmental Product Declarations .............................................................................. 6 CORRIM......................................................................................................................... 7 Implementation of Life Cycle Assessment Results ........................................................ 8 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 3 - Life Cycle Inventory of Softwood Plywood Production in the United States10 Abstract......................................................................................................................... 11 Introduction................................................................................................................... 12 Manufacturing Process of Softwood Plywood ............................................................. 14 Materials Flow .............................................................................................................. 15 Transportation............................................................................................................... 16 Density Calculation....................................................................................................... 17 Assumptions.................................................................................................................. 19 Data Quality Assessment and Calculation of Inventory Data ...................................... 20 Life Cycle Inventory Results ........................................................................................ 22 Wood Mass Balance ..................................................................................................... 26 Product Yield ................................................................................................................ 27 Manufacturing Energy Summary.................................................................................. 28 Manufacturing Emission Summary .............................................................................. 32 Life Cycle Impact Assessment...................................................................................... 35 Carbon Balance............................................................................................................. 38 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 39 Chapter 4 - Life Cycle Inventory of Oriented Strand Board Production in the United States................................................................................................................................. 42 iv Abstract......................................................................................................................... 43 Introduction................................................................................................................... 44 Manufacturing Process of OSB .................................................................................... 45 Materials Flow .............................................................................................................. 47 Transportation............................................................................................................... 48 Density Calculation....................................................................................................... 48 Assumptions.................................................................................................................. 49 Data Quality Assessment and Calculation of Inventory Data ...................................... 51 Life Cycle Inventory Results ........................................................................................ 52 Wood Mass Balance ..................................................................................................... 54 Product Yield ...............................................................................................................
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