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NEW CHALLENGES IN THE LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF

CERAMIC TILES: DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMPACT

CATEGORIES LAND USE, ABIOTIC RESOURCE DEPLETION

AND TOXICITY

Daniel Garraín

Juan Gasch

Manuel Herrero

Vicente Franco

Carlos Muñoz

Rosario Vidal

Grupo de Ingeniería del Diseño, Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica y Construcción,

Universitat Jaume I de Castellón (Spain)

Abstract

The high competitiveness of the ceramic tile market in recent times has created the need to incorporate added value into products, not just in terms of quality, but also in the form of environmental friendliness and care for human health. This article highlights the need to perform a methodological determination of impact categories which are not usually considered when assessing the negative environmental effects of certain products or processes within the Life Cycle Assessment methodology. The application of the land use category to the manufacturing of ceramic tiles will allow us to account for the effects upon biodiversity or soil fertility caused by the mining of raw materials or the artificial regeneration of quarries. The degree of abundance or scarcity of ceramic raw materials can be determined by applying the abiotic resource depletion category, The effects of particulate matter upon human health can be used to obtain characterisation factors that make it possible to establish the real impact of these substances on the human toxicity category.

Keywords: Life Cycle Assessment, land use, abiotic resources depletion, human

toxicity, ceramic tiles

1. Introduction

Nowadays, any economic activity in the industrial world must also overcome the challenge of caring for the quality of the environment both in its production processes and in the components it uses in the products it manufactures. Supposing this assumption to be true for the ceramic sector, due to the high degree of competitiveness in the market in recent times, it becomes necessary to incorporate added values into products not only as far as quality is concerned but also as regards both human health and the environment.

In the ceramic industry, deterioration of the environment is mainly a result of concentration in the industry. This sector has gone to important lengths to improve the prevention and control of pollution by reconverting and modernising production plants.

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Emission of gaseous pollutants has been substantially reduced by implementing both the single-firing process and the use of natural gas instead of fuel-oil, the result being a notable decrease in the amount of sulphur compounds and particles released into the environment.

But all this is not enough. Despite being one of the leading sectors in terms of ecological modernisation processes, the truth is that improvements in environmental management are being introduced at a much slower rate than in other areas of the technical and knowledge systems of the sector. Although technological development and the introduction of new technologies have helped to reduce the environmental impacts of the ceramic sector, the environmental variable has still not been fully incorporated into the management process, technological development and business strategy (IMEDES, 2005).

Hence, the need to know the environmental impact of ceramic plants makes it necessary to carry out studies on the pollution generated in this industrial sector.

One of the tools that is most widely accepted by the scientific community for evaluating environmental impact is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is an analytical procedure that assesses the entire life cycle of a process or product. LCA addresses environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts (such as the use of resources and the environmental consequences of emissions) throughout the whole life cycle of a product: from the acquisition of the raw materials to its production, use, final treatment and recycling, and final disposal (that is to say, from the cradle to the grave) (UNE-EN ISO 14040:2006).

An LCA consists of four stages, which are summarised below and illustrated in Figure 1:

Definition of aims and scope: the global aims, purpose of the study, product to be studied, foreseeable final user and the scope of the study are defined.

Inventory analysis: this includes collecting data and the calculation procedures required to quantify the major inputs and outputs throughout the useful life of the product.

Assessment of the impact of the life cycle: this is used to evaluate the importance of the potential environmental impacts using the results previously obtained from the inventory analysis.

Interpretation of the life cycle: conclusions and recommendations are established to be used to help in decision-making.

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Figure 1. Stages of an LCA (adapted from UNE-EN ISO 14040:2006)

With this method it is possible to evaluate the composition and the amounts of both the pollutants that are generated and the resources that are consumed in terms of their impacts on the environment. This is done by grouping them in a small number of environmental categories. The impact categories that are most commonly considered in LCA of processes or products are the greenhouse effect, the depletion of the ozone layer and of fossil fuels, acidification, eutrophication, human and environmental ecotoxicity, tropospheric ozone precursors or emissions of heavy metals.

Unfortunately, to date no reliable methods have been developed to analyse some of the categories, such as the impact on land use, the impact of smells or that caused by noise. These impact categories are not always taken into account or simply do not lend themselves to environmental impact assessments particularly well. It is therefore very important to develop new methodologies that take into account less usual environmental impact categories when assessing the negative environmental effects of certain products or processes within the framework of the LCA.

Garraín et al. (2009a) contains the results of applying the LCA process of ceramic tile production, although in this case the impact categories that were considered were the most common ones. For a more accurate and thorough picture of the impact of the process in terms of its life cycle, however, it becomes necessary to develop new categories, such as that of land use by quarries, or to improve others, such as that of the scarcity of abiotic resources caused by mining or human toxicity brought about by the emission of clay particles.

2. Aim

The aim of this study is to highlight both the need for and the possibility of establishing a methodology for determining the impact categories that are not usually taken into account when it comes to assessing negative environmental effects on the process of manufacturing ceramic tiles, within the framework of the LCA. The categories to be considered are those of land use, abiotic resource depletion and human toxicity.

3. Methodology development

In this section we present a set of guidelines for the development of methods with which to consider the above-mentioned categories in studies on the environmental impact of the process of manufacturing ceramic materials, which may be extrapolated

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to other types of processes or products. In the case of land use, the method should take into account all the effects on the environment caused by mining raw materials or the artificial regeneration of such mines, that is to say, an artificial transformation of the land. In the case of abiotic resource depletion, the methodology can determine the degree of richness or scarcity of raw materials that are used to make ceramic materials by calculating the corresponding characterisation factors. Finally, in the case of human toxicity, the methodology will allow the effect of the particles on human health to be determined by means of the corresponding characterisation factors.

3.1 Land use

Land use is the major direct cause of many of the impacts caused by production systems. It is widely agreed that this is the main cause of degradation of biological diversity, and also its inappropriate management is one of the main factors leading to the reduction in the land‘s capacity for biological production (Milà i Canals, 2007a).

The mining activity that gives rise to the greatest impact on the environment is quarrying or open-cast mining. This group includes all kinds of quarries, open pits, open-cast and strip mines, and the removal of a mountaintop, which may cover an area of just a few hectares or several square kilometres. The impacts brought about by a mine are irreversible and are characterised by the destruction of land, of its productive potential, of the vegetation cover and of the animal populations located within the more or less immediate surroundings. These operations entail the total modification of the surface and produce huge open pits and quarries, as well as enormous heaps of overburden that have important physical, chemical and biological limitations that make it difficult to reintroduce the original vegetation. Thus, undertakings involving the extraction and processing of clayey minerals for manufacturing ceramic products comprise a series of actions which give rise to significant environmental impacts that linger far beyond the time needed to carry out the actual operations.

Several authors have reviewed the different indicators that can be used to calculate the impact of land use how it can be approached the LCA. Yet to date no agreement has been reached as regards the way the impacts caused by land use can be incorporated into the LCA. Some authors have carried out inventories of the methods for analysing and assessing this impact (Lindeijer, 2000; Cowell & Lindeijer, 2000; van der Voet, 2001; Milà i Canals, 2003; Guinée et al., 2006; Antón et al., 2007). The general rule that they have followed in order to differentiate the main impacts caused by land use has been to consider the biodiversity and fertility of the land as being the aspects that are hit the hardest.

However, the latest studies and deliberations by experts such as Milà i Canals et al. (2007b) recommend that the most important damage produced by land use that ought to be taken into account in any method of impact assessment is that produced on the natural environment and on the natural resources. More specifically, this refers to damage to biodiversity, to the potential for biotic production (including the fertility of the soil and the use value of biodiversity) and to the ecological quality of the land (including vital support functions of the soil other than its biotic or biomass production, which may be either as an element of the water, carbon and nutrient cycles – as a filter for chemical pollutants – or as a habitat for plant and animal wildlife). Moreover, they consider biogeographical differentiation to be very important when it comes to conducting an impact analysis, since the same type of intervention can have different

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consequences depending on the quality and inherent characteristics of the land that is affected.

Previous studies conducted by Garraín et al. (2008) describe several applications of the different methodologies. The main conclusion that can be drawn from them is the lack of agreement that exists, given the dissimilar and contradictory results obtained, and the obvious need for improvement in this sense. No global methodologies have been developed to date for analysing the impact category of land occupation and transformation, even though it is accepted that this is a crucial impact category owing to its long-term consequences on the quality of the land. This lack of affinity has come about mainly as a result of the non-existence of a clear agreement about which of the different methods and indicators is preferred.

In order to obtain a global or generic index of the impact caused by the transformation of a particular type of land, first it is necessary to establish the main impacts to be considered. The most important impacts caused by land use must be the ones defined earlier by Milà i Canals et al. (2007b), i.e. those affecting biodiversity and the fertility of the land. Generally speaking, the methodologies that have been applied to include the impact of land use on biodiversity measure the number of species of vascular plants, which are representative of the diversity of species in general. In the case of life-support functions, the net production of carbon is the value that is measured.

The number of vascular plants and the amount of carbon in the land provide generic information about the impact of land use. Because of this generality, it could be thought that they do not provide totally specific and complete information about the different characteristics of the situation of a particular area of land. Yet this information can be completed and categorised more accurately by taking into account the factor landscape quality in terms of a series of physical features, such as relief or altitude. The work by Cebrián-Tarrasón et al. (2009) explains the reason why these three impacts would be suitable for evaluating changes in land use from the environmental point of view.

Finally, in order to achieve a single impact value, the selected impacts must be put into perspective with respect to each other and weighted. The use of multi-criteria assessment methods, such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), can be very valid for this purpose. Garraín et al. (2009) considered this method for assessing the impacts on land use that would be caused by replanting fields with crops which can be used to manufacture biodegradable materials. In the case of the raw materials that are used in ceramics, this same method could be applied by previously characterising the land to be mined that is going to be considered in the study.

Figure 2. Aerial view of a red clay mine at the Sitjar reservoir (Onda, Castellón, Spain)

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3.2 Abiotic resource depletion

All material goods used by human beings come from natural resources, that is to say, from matter and what is provided by the environment in general. Population growth, increased individual consumption or mismanagement have brought us to the point where the depletion of natural resources is an unavoidable reality. There are several methods available for calculating the characterisation factors or potentials of abiotic resource depletion (ARD). The basic foundation underlying these methods is the choice of a substance that will be used as a reference and from which the others will be obtained. This choice will depend on several factors, such as the worldwide abundance of that substance, its availability in the place where the study is being carried out, the ease with which data can be found and whether the exploitation of a quarry is economically cost-effective or not.

The reference method for ARD is the one developed by Guinée et al. (2002), which highlights the importance of the fact that a decrease in resources is a serious problem and considers the protection of natural resources to be a fundamental issue. This method considers two problems that have to do with ARD: on the one hand, depletion of elements and, on the other, energy or fossil fuel depletion.

Depletion of elements is defined as the total depletion of the natural reserves of elements (in kg of element). It must be stressed that the types of functions the element may have (for example, in the construction of blocks which may contain clay, plaster, granite, sand or gravel) are not taken into consideration.

Energy depletion, in contrast, is defined at function level and is defined as the total depletion of all energy reserves (in MJ).

According to these definitions, the problem consists in categorising different natural resources within a set of possible functions. This set must consist of unique functions, which represent all the natural resources. Furthermore, several elements can perform the same function, which makes it very difficult to draw up a list of the different elements and the functions they can perform.

Guinée et al. (2002) calculate the indicator of this category as:

i

ii mADPARI

(1)

where ARI is the indicator of ARD, mi is the amount of resource used, in Kg, m3 or MJ, and ADP is the ARD potential, which is calculated as follows:

ref

ref

i

ii

DR

R

R

DRADP

2

2

)(

(2)

where Ri is the reserve of resource i (Kg), DRi is the decrease in Ri in Kg·a-1 and Rref (Kg) is the reserve of antimony as the reference resource, while DRref in Kg·a-1 is the decrease in Rref.

The substance that is usually employed as a reference when it comes to indicating the depletion of a resource is antimony, although some studies (Strauss et al., 2006) have used others, such as platinum.

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Obviously some characterisation factors are easier to calculate than others. In the case of certain compounds, such as bauxite, arsenic trioxide or boron oxide, they have been obtained from elements like aluminium, arsenic and boron, which are much easier to calculate.

Yet, the literature contains no data whatsoever for calculating the characterisation factors that refer to the depletion of the raw materials used in manufacturing ceramic products (clays, quartz, feldspar, dolomite, silicates, micas, carbonates, etc.). The main reason for this lack of data is the difficulty involved in obtaining the reference values.

To calculate these factors it is necessary to know the production of the resource and the value of its concentration in the Earth‘s crust, in the sea and in the air. The values for the most common elements can be found in Guinée (1995). No reference is made in the case of the raw materials used in the process of manufacturing ceramic products. Thus, as a preliminary approximation, since no previous study has been carried out, it could be supposed that clay only exists in the crust and not in the sea or in the air. With this value the following operation is performed:

sCrustEarthcrustseserveUltimate MCR 'Re

(3)

where Ccrust is the concentration in the Earth‘s crust, MEarth‘s crust is the mass of the Earth‘s crust and Rultimate reserve is the result of the value of the ultimate reserve. The value of MEarth‘s crust is obtained by multiplying the average depth of the Earth‘s crust (17 000 m), the mean density (2670 Kg/m3) and the surface area of the Earth (5.10E+14 m2), the result being a value of 2.31E+22, which is obtained using the following equation:

EarthmeanmeansCrustEarth SPM '

(4)

Obviously the value of the concentration of material in the crust must be calculated, since no such value has been calculated to date. This value would be obtained by extrapolating already-existing values, carrying out ratios or by searching in the existing literature. Once the value of Rultimate reserve has been obtained, the ADP referring to the ultimate reserve must be calculated as follows.

First of all, it is necessary to find the value of the quotient between production and the value of Rultimate reserve squared, which will be denoted by x.

2

Re )( serveUltimateR

productionx

(5)

There are currently no data available regarding the raw materials used for ceramic materials with which to calculate the value of worldwide production, only figures for certain countries (USGS, 2008). Once the value for production has been obtained, the value of x is calculated by simply finding the quotient, because the value of Rultimate reserve is known. The value of x referring to the reference value (for example, Sb) is then calculated. The method used to obtain it is similar to the one described earlier but with Sb and, hence, the result of this calculation gives the value of xref. Finally, the ADP of the ultimate reserve is calculated as the quotient between the x of the element to be determined and the xref.

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ref

elementi

x

xADP

(6)

This calculation is similar for the baseline reserve and the reserve, except that the data can be obtained in USGS (2008) instead of extracting them from Guinée (1995).

3.3 Human toxicity

The general category of toxicity considers the effects that toxic substances in the environment have on humans and on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The toxicity of a substance will depend on the substance itself, but also on the administration or exposure routes, the dose, how it is administered, and so forth. Toxicity affects the areas of human health, the natural environment and natural resources. It must also be stressed that a pollutant does not remain in the medium in which it is emitted, but may instead move to other spheres that will in turn also become polluted.

Different methods can be used to calculate the characterisation factors of toxicity, and there is still no clear agreement on which method should be used. The reference method, again, is the one devised by Guinée et al. (2002), in which they define the general procedure for calculating the impact of toxicity on humans (HTI), which would be given by:

i

iniin

n

mfHTPHTI ,,

(7)

where HTP is the characterisation factor of human toxicity potential, the units of which will depend on the method used to characterise it; fi,n is the fraction of substance i that is transported from the environmental behaviour interval n, which is dimensionless, and m is the mass that is emitted of each pollutant. In the same way, we calculate the aquatic ecotoxicity (Aquatic Toxicity Impact, ATI) and terrestrial ecotoxicity (Terrestrial Toxicity Impact, TTI) by means of the following expressions, where ATP and TTP are the characterisation factors for the toxicity of the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems respectively:

i

iniin

n

mfATPATI ,, (8)

i

iniin

n

mfTTPTTI ,, (9)

One of the most significant problems from an environmental point of view and in terms of its effects is the emission of particulate matter (PM). These may be channelled emissions (i.e. currents released into the atmosphere through a conduct) or diffuse emissions (i.e. currents released into the atmosphere from a surface or a volume), which are usually composed of minerals. The emissions from the stages related to frits, glazes and ceramic colouring agents have different compositions and may contain Zr, Ba, Zn, Pb, among other metals (Mallol et al., 2001). Furthermore, channelled emissions of pollutants are produced in the high-temperature stages and/or in those that involve a process of combustion (hot emissions), that is to say, spray drying, drying of unfired pieces, firing, melting of frits and calcination of pigments, or the decomposition of raw materials.

The gases and their effects associated with different impact categories, along with their corresponding characterisation factors, have been widely studied; this is not the case,

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however, with particles. The different types that exist can currently be found in a wide range of classifications. As far as the associated effects and the relationship with LCA are concerned, particles are only taken into account in the human toxicity category in CML 2 baseline 2000 assessment methodology and in the winter smog category in the Ecoindicator 95 methodology. Moreover, they are grouped under the same name (―particulates‖) and with the same characterisation factor, regardless of their

composition, type and particle size (PM10, PM2.5).

The development of characterisation factors in this category, which takes into account the impact of particulate matter, must be performed in keeping with two key features: the classification of each particle according to its size and composition, and the determination of the effects associated to exposure to such particles.

Atmospheric particulate matter can be classified into different groups depending on the criterion that is used. Whether they are classified in terms of grain size, the time they remain in the atmosphere, the mechanism by which they are formed, their origin or their chemical composition, particles can be found with a wide range of characteristics.

The effects that PM can have associated to them mainly affect human health and ecosystems. Yet, there are also other effects, such as those caused on the climate, on materials, on atmospheric visibility or on buildings and monuments, which can be very important depending on cases.

To consider the category of human toxicity, it is this necessary to classify the effects that particles can potentially have on people‘s health. A number of epidemiological studies provide evidence to show that there is a significant correlation between exposure to atmospheric particulate matter and a range of adverse effects on health. The effects that inhaling particulate matter can have on health depend on a number of factors, the most important of which are particle size, its chemical composition and the time of exposure to an environment with high levels of particulate matter.

PM10 particles can find their way into the tracheobronchial region, and are thus known as thoracic particles and are eliminated by ciliary action. Particles with a diameter between 0.1 and 2.5 µm can reach the alveolar cavity. They are thus called alveolar particles and reach the bronchioles, where they are not eliminated and therefore remain there on a chronic basis. Particles with a diameter below 0.1 µm are too small to settle during breathing, although they are either deposited on the alveolar walls by diffusion or expelled by the breathing process itself; they are therefore eliminated quickly and are not retained in large amounts on the lung parenchyma.

There is a relationship between a higher risk of suffering from chronic bronchitis and increased exposure to particulate matter. Similarly, there are studies to show that a 100 µg/m3 increase in PM10 levels entails a rise of 16% in the relative risk of mortality and a 12% increase in the number of hospitalisations. Other studies have focused on the effects of long-term exposure to the alveolar fraction (PM2.5), which, because of its size, has a greater capacity to penetrate inside the organism and a higher level of chemical reactivity. The findings of this research have revealed a significant correlation between increased mortality rate and levels of fine particulate matter (< 2.5 μm); this increased level of mortality is directly related to cardiovascular disorders.

The World Health Organisation recommends the drawing up of a European Directive on Air Quality in relation to PM2.5, although, due to the existence of studies that prove the adverse effects of large particles (with a diameter between 2.5 and 10 μm) on

health, it also suggests that steps should be taken to ensure the applicability of the

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standards concerning the control of PM10. As regards exposure time, effects on health are observed in both chronic and acute episodes of pollution. Both types of episode result in increased numbers of hospital admissions due to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, which are the main causes of the increases in mortality rates (WHO, 2002).

Most studies on exposure to high levels have been carried out in places close to road traffic; this source emits a considerable amount of < 0.1 μm particles, which some studies claim have very harmful effects on health. Exposure to ultrafine particles may therefore be one of the main causes of the adverse effects on health that is observed in exposure to high levels of particles from road traffic.

Regardless of the particle size, the effects of particulate matter on health depend on its chemical composition. Although the subject has not been settled altogether, most studies seem to indicate that the greatest impact on health is caused by elemental carbon particles, organic compounds, sulphates, nitrates and certain metals (As, Cd, Fe, Zn, Ni). The fact that most of the particles with this composition are to be found in the PM2.5 fraction adds to the adverse effects they have on health.

4. Conclusions

This study has highlighted the need to develop and/or improve new impact categories in order to achieve a more accurate and thorough view of the overall impact within the framework of the LCA of ceramic materials. New categories could be, for example, land use by quarries, and others that could be improved include the scarcity of abiotic resources caused by mining or human toxicity brought about by the emission of clay particles.

From an analysis of the proposed methodologies or guidelines for developing them, the following conclusions could be drawn:

In the case of the impact of land use, the methodology that is proposed here considers that the impacts on biodiversity, life support functions (land fertility) and landscape would be the most important when it comes to evaluating the possibilities of changing a certain land use. Applying multi-criteria assessment methodologies as a solution for considering the afore-mentioned impacts makes it possible to combine the advantages of all the different types of assessment of the environmental impact of land use and thereby achieve a reliable approximation of the general impact as a whole.

To be able to calculate regional characterisation factors that can be used to determine the impact of ARD, the information available in the databases must be improved. There are no databases that provided information about the degree of abundance or scarcity of ceramic raw materials, and so development becomes essential to be able to determine this category.

The characterisation factors of the particles developed in the case of toxic impact on human beings are in no way different, whether in terms of type, size or harmful effect. Hence, studies into the effects of particulate matter on health are needed to develop this category.

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted as part of project C46/2006, entitled ―Desarrollo de

categorías de impacto aplicadas a materiales cerámicos usando la metodología del

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análisis del ciclo de vida‖, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and

Transport.

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Correspondence (for further information please contact):

Daniel Garraín Cordero GID- Engineering Design Group Dpt. Mechanical Engineering and Construction, Universitat Jaume I Av. Sos Baynat, s/n E12071 Castellón (Spain) Tel: +34 964 729 252 Fax: +34 964 728 106 E-mail: garrain@uji.es URL: http://www.gid.uji.es

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