f1498ae1-aa8c-4b89-9aa6-9ef86f7b21ceGypsum wallboard product, type X, 0.625 inch (15.875 mm)Materials productionOther materialsGypsum wallboard (GWB) is ubiquitous in building construction, covering walls, ceilings and partitions in both residential and commercial building applications.
Primary LCI data were collected for three major gate-to-gate processes in the production of gypsum wallboard (GWB): natural or crude gypsum ore extraction (six quarries and one underground mining site), gypsum paper manufacture (three plants) and GWB production (17 plants) for the reference year 2010. The selected GWB manufacturing plant sample included all GA member companies and represented about 25% of all establishments producing gypsum and about 30% of all GWB produced in the USA.
For other ancillary or process materials, such as the production of chemical inputs, fuels and electricity, secondary data from commercially available LCI databases were deemed acceptable (such as US LCI Database, North American adjusted ecoinvent, etc.).
Whenever available, cradle-to-gate material and energy input flow data were derived from the US LCI Database, incorporated in the SimaPro v.7.3.0 LCA Software, March 2011. The study drew on these data to model environmental impacts of fuel(s) extraction, processing and combustion, and various transportation modes for input material and waste transportation. The US adjusted European ecoinvent v.2.2 LCI database (“US-EI”), from May 2010, was used to address the environmental impact of numerous chemical inputs and ancillary materials and other relevant unit processes. Attributional modeling of the complete cradle-to-gate LCI for all intermediate and final product systems was performed using SimaPro v 7.3.
The “polluter pays principle” is applied for each product system which means waste processing (including wastewater treatment) are assigned to the product system that generates the waste or waste water until the end-of-waste state is reached. To solve the “multi-functionality” of coal-fired power generation process and calculate the environmental profile of the FGD synthetic gypsum input, a co-product of coal power plant, a “system expansion” approach was used to avoid allocation.
The weighted average specific density of gypsum wallboard product, type X, 5/8 inch (15.875 mm) resulted to 10.83 kg/m2.
Mr. David H. Reisdorph, LCA expert with the GreenTeam Inc. conducted the critical review of the GA LCA study.
Page number: 0
Quality network: 30United StatesIt represent the average US technology of manufacturing gypsum wallboard products for the reference year 2010.Unit process, single operationAttributionalnoneISO 14044:2006. Environmental Management – Life Cycle Assessment – Requirements and guidelines. 30.0Described below is the US Gypsum Association (GA’s) well-defined platform for plant selection for inclusion in the study sample.
§ In 2010, about 60 GWB manufacturing plants were in operation.
§ Of these, 17 plants were selected to adequately represent:
- GA’s membership production volume (including having at least one plant from each GA member company participate in the study);
- the scale of plant operations including a mix of small, medium and large operations;
- the geographical spread of the participating facilities included having at least one plant in each US census region included in the study.
§ To approximate the gypsum source ratio, a mix of plants processing either natural (crude) gypsum rock or flue gas desulfurized (FGD) synthetically derived gypsum or a blend of both these two major inputs was selected.
§ A mix of plants using locally derived gypsum ore (adjacent quarry operation) versus imported natural gypsum ore transported by various modes and distances were included in the sample (crude gypsum ore imports include Canada or Mexico depending on plant location).
§ A mix of plants that are dependent on local versus more distant sources of FGD synthetic gypsum were included in the sample.
For GWB manufacturing process, 17 LCI data questionnaires were completed to provide a GWB representative production weighted sample. For the gypsum paper manufacturing, three plants provided LCI data. Six quarries and one gypsum ore underground mining operation provided primary data on raw gypsum ore production for the reference year 2010. Two of the quarrying operations were located in Canada with the remaining operations located in the US.
Gypsum wallboard manufacturing is a complex technical system with a wide range of input materials and gypsum product outputs. As a result, plant specific generic formulations for 1,000 square feet of the two products of interest were used to calculate the required input raw (both primary and secondary) and ancillary materials. “Mass” was also deemed as the most appropriate physical parameter for allocation used for the gypsum wallboard system (between ½” Regular and 5/8” Type X GWB products and other types of calcined GWB co-products) to estimate the input energy flows (electricity, natural gas, propane, etc.), water input, emissions and waste flows.
A separate LCI model was created for each company per 1000 sq.ft of 5/8-inch Type X GWB product; all company specific input/output LCI flows were then aggregated to form the final LCI dataset (based on weighted average factor as per plant contribution to the total annual production).No statementDr. Lindita Bushi 2020-01-01T00:00:00.000ILCD format 1.1Dr. Lindita Bushi 2020-01-01T00:00:00.00000.00.001Data set finalised; entirely publishedNREL US Life Cycle Inventory (USLCI) LibraryVarious (NREL USLCI)trueFree of charge for all users and usesGaBi (source code, database including extension modules and single data sets, documentation) remains property of thinkstep AG. thinkstep AG delivers GaBi licenses comprising data storage medium and manual as ordered by the customer. The license guarantees the right of use for one installation of GaBi. Further installations using the same license are not permitted. Additional licenses are only valid if the licensee holds at least one main license. Licenses are not transferable and must only be used within the licensee's organisation. Data sets may be copied for internal use. The number of copies is restricted to the number of licenses of the software system GaBi the licensee owns. The right of use is exclusively valid for the licensee. All rights reserved.RNA: Gypsum wallboard product, type X, 0.625 inch (15.875 mm)Output1.01.00Mixed primary / secondaryUnknown derivationvaluable