Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12.3
Energy requirements in the manufacturing of materials used in
packaging applications.
Material
Virgin (MJ/Kg)
Recycled (MJ/Kg)
Glass (container basis)
Gaines and Mintz, 1994
19.7
17.2
Weeks, 2007
15.7
12.4
Steel
de Beer et al., 1998
19.0
7.0
American Iron and Steel Institute,
2005
14.6
—
Weeks, 2007
25.2
3.1
Aluminum (metal sheet to make cans)
Boustead and Hancock, 1981
345-351
Martchek, 2006
—
17.2
a
Parker, 1991
280
92.4
b
Weeks, 2007
266.4
9.7
World Bank, 1999
164
10-20
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET)
c
Gerngross and Slater, 2000
76
Weeks, 2007
113
27
PVC
ECVM, 2008a, 2008b
57
d
-65.9
e
High density polyethylene (HDPE)
Worrell et al., 2000
76
Weeks, 2007
84.9
10.6
Polystyrene
Bridgewater and Lidgren, 1983
82
e
-126
f
Low density polyethylene (LDP)
Worrell et al., 2000
87
Polypropylene
Worrell et al., 2000
93
Polylactate
Vink et al., 2003
82.5
Wood (as a pallet)
Boustead and Hancock, 1981
44
Paper (Boustead and Hancock, 1981)
Base paper
84
g
Board paper
103
g
Corrugated cardboard
Weeks, 2007
43.3
20.4
Newprint
Weeks, 2007
51.4
28.3
a
Without transportation.
b
Including transportation and recycling process.
c
Turning PET into bottles 20 MJ/kg
(Gleick and Cooley, 2009).
d
Suspension polymerization.
e
Emulsion polymerization method.
f
Bulk polymerization.
g
From standing timber.
Production of 1 kg of HDPE (without considering transportation of the gas) takes about
0.178 kWh of electricity, 0.99 kg of ethylene, and 1.34 MJ of thermal energy (Franklin
Associates, 2007). Assuming a conversion efficiency of 40 percent for electricity production,
an energy intensity of 26 MJ/kg to produce ethylene, and a net heating value for ethylene of
