Life cycle assessment of biofibres replacing glass fibres as reinforcementin plastics

This article aims to determine the environmental performance of China reed fibre used as a substitute for glass fibre as reinforcement in plastics and to identify key environmental parameters. A life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed on these two materials for an application to plastic transport p allets. Transport pallets reinforced with China reed fibre prove to be ecol ogically advantageous if they have a minimal lifetime of 3 years compared w ith the 5-year lifetime of the conventional pallet. The energy consumption and other environmental impacts are strongly reduced by the use of raw rene wable fibres, due to three important factors: (a) the substitution of glass fibre production by the natural fibre production; (b) the indirect reducti on in the use of polypropylene linked to the higher proportion of China ree d fibre used and (c) the reduced pallet weight, which reduces fuel consumpt ion during transport. Considering the whole life cycle, the polypropylene p roduction process and the transport cause the strongest environmental impac ts during the use phase of the life cycle. Since thermoplastic composites a re hardly biodegradable, incineration has to be preferred to discharge on l andfills at the end of its useful life cycle. The potential advantages of t he renewable fibres will be effective only if a purer fibre extraction is o btained to ensure an optimal material stiffness, a topic for further resear ch. China reed biofibres are finally compared with other usages of biomass, biomaterials, in general, can enable a three to ten times more efficient v alorisation of biomass than mere heat production or biofuels for transport. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.