Life cycle assessment of a printed circuit board manufacturing plant in Turkey

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 25; no. 27; pp. 26801 - 26808
• Main Authors: Ozkan, Elif, Elginoz, Nilay, Germirli Babuna, Fatos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-09-2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air Pollution; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Circuit boards; Copper; Copper industry wastewaters; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Electrical Equipment and Supplies; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental impact; Environmental science; Etching; Eutrophication; Fabrication; Incineration; Life cycle analysis; Life cycle assessment; Life cycle engineering; Life cycles; Manufacturing; Manufacturing and Industrial Facilities - statistics & numerical data; Manufacturing industry; Ozone depletion; Ozone layer; Ozonosphere; Printed circuit boards; Printed circuits; Protection and Restoration of the Environment; Sewage; Sludge; Turkey; Waste Water; Waste Water Technology; Wastewater treatment; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water Pollution, Chemical; Turkey; Industry; Life cycle assessment; Printed circuit board; Manufacture; Waste minimization; Environmental impact
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-0280-z

The objective of this study is to investigate the environmental impacts of a printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing plant through streamlined life cycle assessment approach. As a result, the most effective recommendations on minimizing the environmental impacts for the mentioned sector are revealed and first steps towards establishing a country specific database are taken. The whole PCB production consists of two consecutive stages: namely board fabrication followed by the manufacturing of PCB. Manufacturing of PCB contributes the highest shares to freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential (FAETP) and ozone layer depletion potential (ODP). Eighty-nine percent of FAETP is found to be generated from the manufacturing of PCB. Almost all of this contribution can be attributed to the disposal of copper containing wastewater treatment sludge from etching operations to incineration. On the other hand, PCB manufacturing has 73% share in total ODP. Within the manufacturing of PCB, as etching operations are found to be of importance for all the impact categories except eutrophication potential (EP), it is recommended to focus further studies on in-plant control of etching.