Life Cycle Analysis of Hand-dryers Xiana_David_LaToya_Fall 2006.pdf

8/11/2019 Life Cycle Analysis of Hand-dryers Xiana_David_LaToya_Fall 2006.pdf

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Life Cycle Analysis of Hand-dryers

for NDSU

La Toya Kissoon

David Mushet

Xiana Santos


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Introduction Obj: Replacement of 100 folded-paper

towel dispensers with either motion-

sensing paper towel dispensers or warm

air hand dryers

Purpose: to determine which hand drying

method used at (NDSU) bathroom

facilities produces least impacts on theenvironment.


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Life Cycle Inventory

Inputs (material and resource) andoutputs (emission and product) from unitprocesses in the life cycle of each handdryer type was identified and quantified.

Data was collected from both primary andsecondary sources.

Secondary data was collected fromexisting databases associated with GaBi

software.


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Life-cycle Stage Data type

Relative

Quality

Upstream (material extraction and

processing) Secondary Moderate

Dispenser manufacturing and shipping Secondary Moderate

Paper manufacturing and shipping Secondary Moderate

Use Primary Moderate

Final disposition of dispenser

Primary and

secondary Moderate

Final disposition of paper towels Primary Moderate

Data Type and Quality


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Calculating the Number of

Uses / Dispenser

We used information on towel dispenser use at

NDSUs Stevens Hall to estimate uses / dispenser.

We obtained an estimate of the number of boxesof towels used / year at Stevens Hall from Chad,

NDSU Maintenance Staff.

We observed use habits to estimate the numberof towels used during the hand drying process.

Finally, we tallied the total number of towel

dispensers in Stevens Hall.


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Calculating the Number of

Uses / Dispenser (cont.)

5,333 uses/dispenser/year

(40 boxes/yr) (4000 towels/box)

(3 towels/use) (10 dispensers)=

Thus, we estimated that the 100 dispensers at NDSU

would receive approximately 533,300 uses / year


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Calculating Paper Usage

Folded Paper Towel Dispensers

(533,300 uses/yr) (6.63 g/use) =

3536 kg/yr

Motion-Sensing Towel Dispensers

(533,300 uses/yr) (3.51 g/use) =

1872 kg/yr

Warm-air Hand Driers

(533,300 uses/yr) (0 g/use) =

0 kg/yr


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Calculating Power Usage


0 MJ/yr


(533,300 uses/yr) X (1 sec/use)

X (hr/3600 sec) X (1.2 kWh/hr) X

(3.6 MJ/kWh) = 640 MJ/yr


(533,300 uses/yr) X (55 sec/use)

X (hr/3600 sec) X (2.4 kWh/hr) X

(3.6 MJ/kWh) = 70,396 MJ/yr


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GaBi 4 Inputs


3536 kg/yr paper

0 MJ/yr power


1872 kg/yr paper

640 MJ/yr power


0 kg/yr paper

70,396 MJ/yr power


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FOLDED

TOWEL

MOTION

SENSING WARM-AIR

INPUTS

Production residues

in life cycle

Waste for recovery 576.37 305.14

Resources

Energy resources 4210.7 2302.3 8035.4

Material resources 149.69 79.245

Valuable substances

Energy carrier

Materials 1088.5 576.24

Total Input Flows 6025.2 3262.9 8035.4

Table 1 Material and resource inputs associated with folded-towel dispensers, motionsensing dispenser, and warm-air hand dryers. All values are in kilograms (kg).

GaBi 4 Inputs


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GaBi 4 Outputs

FOLDED

TOWEL

MOTION

SENSING WARM-AIR

Emissions to air

Heavy metals to air 0.0026253 0.0015942 0.022478

Inorganic emissions to air 1560.8 947.71 13356

Organic emissions to air 5.9352 3.16617 57.147

Particles to air 2.6308 1.407 1.5641

All values are in kilograms (kg).


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GaBi Outputs

FOLDED

TOWEL

MOTION

SENSING

WARM-

AIR

Emissions to water

Analytical measures to

water 45.712 24.205 0.46942

Heavy metals to water 0.48309 0.29205 3.9916

Inorganic emissions to

water 58.806 33.04 209.85

Organic emissions to water 0.35138 0.1929 0.7563

Particles to water 10.99 5.8505 3.576Solid wastes

Wastes to landfill 3536 1872 0

Total Output Flows 5221.7 2888.35 13634

All values are in kilograms (kg)


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Interpretation of results

Environmental Impacts:

motion sensing dispensers < Folded-papertowel dispensers < warm-air hand-dryers

Folded-paper towel dispensers - 6.63 g per usage (nocontrol over usage uneconomical dispensingmethod)

Motion-sensing dispensers - 3.51 g per usage/lit tleenergy usage (controls usage saves paper cuts

down on waste environmental advantage) Warm Air Dryers significant environmental damage

very high inorganic emissions to air & water


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Conclusions

Our LCA rated the motion-sensing toweldispensers as having the smallest environmentalimpact (Recommend its use due to smaller

environmental impact) Greater efficiency of dispensing method

accounted for less environmental impact

Impacts associated with production, shipment

and paper-waste disposal of the two paperdispensers could not compare with the energyexpenditure and emissions of the warm-airdryers


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References

American Dryer Corp. 2006. Protect the globalenvironment with American Hand Dryer. AmericanDryer, Inc., Livonia MI.http://www.americandryer.com/environment.html

IKP. 2006. GaBi 4 Software. University of Stuttgart,Institute for Polymer Testing and Polymer Science,Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany. www.gabi-software.de

Acknowledgements Chad from Stevens Hall

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Life Cycle Analysis of Hand-dryers Xiana_David_LaToya_Fall 2006.pdf

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