Patent Application
20130018809
The invention concerns a computer-implemented method and system for evaluating eco-functional properties of a product. A single platform quantifies ecological and functional properties of the product.
Textiles have physical, chemical, functional, mechanical, comfort, aesthetic, ecological, thermal properties and so forth. Some of these properties are interrelated and have more significance than others. Functional properties have greater attraction since functionality is the base to decide the useful life of a product. A designer needs to design a product with functionality in mind first before considering other properties.
Another property which has equal significance to functionality is ecological property. The ecological property is the only property that covers a product from beginning to end. Ecological properties trace the products through its life cycle starting from raw material extraction until disposal. This is important because the environmental impact of each product manufactured needs to be considered.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle (3R's) implies reduction of waste, energy, materials, other resources, ability to be reused many times and finally to be recycled once they become useless. This first strategy will try to prevent the product from reaching the landfill very quickly which is problematic to environmental scientists. The second strategy is if the material reaches the landfill, it should not pose any serious effects on the environment, and it must easily biodegrade.
The concept of sustainability can be defined in many ways. A definition given by the World Commission on Environment and Development is, “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (1). Sustainability is the concept of using the renewable or replenishable resources and not exhausting all the potential resources to the detriment of future generations.
A tool to assess the environmental impact of a product is “Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)”. It is an analytical tool which can help in understanding the environmental impact from the acquisition of raw materials to final disposal (2). In accordance to the definition given by The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), LCA is an iterative process to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with a product, process or activity by identifying and quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment; to assess the impact of those energy and material used and released to the environment; and to identify and evaluate opportunities to effect environmental improvements. The assessment includes the entire life cycle of the product, process or activity, encompassing extracting and processing raw materials; manufacturing, transportation and distribution, use, reuse, maintenance, recycling and final disposal (3).
It is important for a designer or any product to design a product in such a way that it possesses excellent functional properties with equal consideration to the environmental impacts made by the product as well. In other words, the designed product should create a negligible amount of environmental impact, which can be done by selecting raw materials, energy sources, and chemicals from renewable resources and create less environmental burden. Also the product must enable itself to be reused many times, to be recycled and to be disposed of easily and safely into a landfill at the end of its entire useful life. A designer must look into the absolute aspects of Eco-Functional properties of the product before designing it.
Eco-functional performance of any product is of significant importance. Therefore it is desirable to provide a model from which eco-functional capabilities of any product can be assessed and a score/grade can be assigned for any textile or product.
In a first preferred aspect, there is provided a computer-implemented method for evaluating eco-functional properties of a product, comprising:
The product may be a textile product.
The EII may be computed by the equation: ΣCPFI+ERFPI+ELUI, where CFPI is a Carbon Foot Print Index, ERFPI is an Ecological Resources Foot Print Index and ELUI is an Environmental Load Unit Index.
The FI may be computed by the equation: ΣQI+SI+HSI+PI+CFI+IRI, where SI is a Strength Index, IRI is an Impact Resistance Index, HIS is a Human Safety Index, PI is a Permeability Index, CFI is a Colour Fastness Index, and QI is a Quality Index.
The Eco-I may be computed by the equation: ΣBI+RUI+RC, where BI is a Biodegradability Index, RUI is a Reusability Index and RCI is a Recyclability Index.
The predetermined rules to connect the inputs and the outputs may be any one from the group consisting of:
The Environmental Impact output may include Eco-Damage, ecological footprint and carbon footprint.
The raw materials input may be quantified by the EII and the ESI.
The ecological properties input may be quantified by RUI, RCI, and BI.
In a second aspect, there is provided a system for evaluating eco-functional properties of a product, comprising:
The present invention combines both functional and ecological properties in a single platform. This single platform is referred to as an Eco-Functional Model. The functional and ecological properties are interrelated in the sense that the functionality of a product governs the ecological properties of the same product. For example, a product that assumes better functionality delays the disposal of the same by means of giving longer life to the product under consideration and also delays the arrival of another similar but new product using raw materials, using energy to manufacture, labour, chemicals, and also avoids the disposal issues of the new product. The present invention provides such links between the functional and ecological properties.
The present invention is a method to evaluate the eco-functional properties of products, in particular, textile products and to assign an Eco-Functional Index/score to any type of product, in particular, a textile product such as shopping bags. The Eco-Functional Index enables grading of any product to deduce any solid conclusion about the environmental impact made by that product. Consequently, the present invention enables quantification of the eco-functional properties of any product using a single platform.
An example of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Referring to
Formulas 41, standards 42, equations 43 and rules 44 for this framework 29 are established in each of the models 40. According to the results calculated from the model 40, it is possible to determine the quality and functionality 32 of products and obtain an indication of the impact to humans and the environment including carbon emissions.
The ability of products to follow the concept of 3R's (Reduction-, Reuse and Recycle) 54 can also be further analyzed. This enables calculation of the eco-damage or carbon footprint and/or the ecological footprint 55 of the product. The process, the inputs 39 and the outputs 50 are linked which is shown in Table 1.
The model 40 is applied to any product, in particular, textiles. For example, shopping bags are considered to evaluate the concept of eco-functional. Currently available life cycle models discussed in ISO 14040 standards and commercial models developed will not include the functional considerations for calculation of environmental impacts. Also, other factors such as ability of the fiber/material to biodegrade, recyclable, reusable are not included. 3R's 54 have been included in the model 40. This model 40 also takes into account ecological sustainability of textile fibers for the calculation of environmental impact, which conventional life cycle models cannot.
Problems with conventional life cycle models include normalization, weighing, and single score evaluation are that they are very complicated and controversial. The model 40 avoids these problems or has simplified them in the model 40. Consequently, the model 40 enables evaluation of the entire life of a textile product with the inclusion of all relevant factors being included with due consideration. Connection of inputs 30 and outputs 50 with predetermined rules are generated from simple rules, simplified life cycle impact characterization equations, relevant standards pertaining to the functional and ecological properties of textile products. Also, the model 40 enables quantification and derivation of Recyclability Potential Index (RPI) for textile fibers. The model 40 also enables derivation of indices for ecological properties 13 and functional properties 12. Evaluation of shopping bags/textile products with a five point scale to derive their Eco-Functional Index with the aid of many indices in ecological and functional fronts, is provided by the model 40.
The first input for the model 40 is the fiber/raw material 31 used for the manufacture of the end product, i.e. shopping bags or any other textile product. To quantify this, a separate model is provided. The model 40 quantifies the environmental impact made by textile fibers and to derive the Environmental Impact Index (EII) and Ecological Sustainability Index (ESI). The results of this model in terms of EII and ESI of different textile fibers are depicted in
The other considerations to be given in the fiber/raw material input are the Environmental Analysis of Textile Manufacturing with regards to Fibers, which is shown in Table 2 below:
The second input for the model 40 is the process of manufacture 32 that is used. The entire textile process used to manufacture a particular type of shopping bag is studied in terms of process production lines. This includes quantity of water, energy required, additives, raw materials used and amount of airborne wastes, solid, liquid and other wastes emitted.
The third input for the model 40 is the functional properties 12 of textile products (for example, shopping bags), which can be taken from the results of the tests, which is shown in Table 3 below:
The last input for the model 40 is the ecological properties 13 of shopping bags, which is shown in Table 4 below:
For the quantification of reusability of shopping bags, an Eco-functional Tester instrumented is provided to evaluate the reusability, impact strength and load bearing capacity of shopping bags.
The various inputs 30 and outputs 50 selected for the model 40 are linked. For the fiber/raw material input 31, there are three cases described. In the first case, an Ecological Sustainable Index Rank (RESIR) and ability to biodegrade (RBIO) are used as the inputs for the first case with the output 55 of Environmental impact (REI) selected. Table 5 below enumerates the inference rules for this case:
In the second case, the ecological Sustainable Index Rank (RESIR) and Ability to Recycle/reuse (RAR) are used as the inputs with the output 54 of 3R's (R3r) selected. The following Table 6 enumerates the inference rules for this case:
In the third case, the Ecological Sustainable Index Rank (RESIR) and Non Polluting Process (RNP) are used as the inputs with the output 53 of Human Impact (RHI) selected. The following Table 7 enumerates the inference rules for this case:
For the process of manufacture input 32, the relevant outputs 50 to be connected are: Human Impact−Human Toxicity Potential and Environmental Impact (from LCA). For the Environmental Impact (from LCA), the following are included: Carbon footprint, Ecological footprint, Environmental burden−Emissions, and Environmental burden−Resources. Both outputs 53, 55 are connected by the equations below (5):
To calculate Human Toxicity=ΣiΣecomHTPecom,i*Mecom,i
The indicator result is expressed in kg 1, 4-dichlorobenzene equivalent. HTPecom,i is the Human Toxicity Potential (the characterisation factor) for substance i emitted to the emission compartment ecom (=air, fresh water, sea water, agricultural soil or industrial soil), while mecom,i is the emission of substance i to medium ecom.
Environmental Impact 55 is calculated by calculating Climate Change (carbon footprint), Ecological Footprint (Depletion of Abiotic Resources) and Environmental burden−Emissions.
Climate Change (carbon footprint) is calculated using Global Warming Index=Σiei×GWPi, where ei is the emission (in kilograms) of substance i and GWP is the global warming potential of substance i.
Ecological Footprint (Depletion of Abiotic Resources) is calculated using Abiotic Depletion=ΣiADPi*mi, where, ADPi is the Abiotic Depletion Potential (in kilograms) of Resourcei and mi (kg, except for natural gas and fossil fuel energy) is the quantity of resource i used.
Environmental burden−Emissions is calculated using Environmental Burden=ΣiFactori*mi. The total environmental burden is expressed in Environmental Load Units. Factori(ELU.kg−1) is the valuation weighing factor for the EPS method for the resource i, while mi is the quantity of resource i used.
For functional properties input 12, the following Table 8 gives the linkage to relevant outputs 50:
The Human Impact output RHI includes Human Safety and Human Toxicity.
For ecological properties input 13, the following Table 9 gives the linkage to relevant outputs 50:
Referring to
Table 10 explains the connection between the quality output 51 and functionality output 52.
Table 11 explains the connection between the 3R's output 54, Environmental Impact output 55 and Human Impact output 53.
The process of arriving at an overall result is shown in Table 12.
Referring to
The Ecological Sustainability Index (ESI) index must be derived (500) to calculate the Eco-Functional Index. The ESI is based on the results of ESI values shown in Table 13. The grading system pertaining to ESI is shown below in Table 13.
The Ecological Sustainability Index (ESI) values and its Ranking (ESIR) is shown below:
The Human Toxicity Index (HTI) and Environmental Impact Index (EII)) must also be derived (502, 501) to calculate the Eco-Functional Index. The grading system for deriving at HTI and EII are tabulated in Table 15.
The Environmental Impact Index (EII) is derived (501) by ΣCFPI+ERFPI+ELUI where CFPI is the Carbon Foot Print Index (CFPI), ERFPI is the Ecological Resources Foot Print Index and ELUI is the Environmental Load Unit Index.
The Functionality index (FI)) must also be derived (503) to calculate the Eco-Functional Index. The FI is the resultant index of many sub indices, which are discussed below in Tables 16 to 20. The grading system for deriving at FI is tabulated in Table 20. The sub-indices are: Strength Index (SI), Impact Resistance Index (IRI), Human Safety Index (HSI), Permeability Index (PI), Colour Fastness Index (CFI), Quality Index (QI). The Functionality Index (FI) is derived by ΣQI+SI+HSI+PI+CFI+IRI.
The Ecological Index (Eco-I) must also be derived (504) to calculate the Eco-Functional Index. The Eco-I is the resultant index of other three sub indices, which are described below in Table 21. The grading system for deriving the Eco-I is tabulated in Table 21. The sub-indices are: Biodegradability Index (BI), Reusability Index (RUI), and Recyclability Index (RCI). The Ecological Index (Eco-I) is derived by ΣBI+RUI+RC.
The Eco-Functional Index is the final result which is the aggregation of the individual scores/indices of each input 30. The Eco-functional Index is derived (505) by ΣESI+HTI+EII+FI+Eco-I, where ESI=Ecological Sustainability Index, EII=Environmental Impact Index, HTI=Human Toxicity Index, FI=Functionality Index and Eco-I=Ecological Index. The grading system for quantifying the Eco-functional Index is tabulated in Table 22 below:
Referring to
The Ecological Sustainability Index (ESI) 605 is mathematically expressed as follows:
EI=ΣαjYj=α1Y1α2Y2α3Y3+α4Y4α5Y5+α6Y6+α7Y7 equation (1)
ESIk=(1−EIk/EImax)×100 equation (2)
where,
EI—Environmental Impact index,
EIk—Environmental impact index of the kth fiber under consideration,
EImax—The gained maximum scores of Environmental impact index among the selected fibers,
ESIk—Ecological Sustainability Index of the kth fiber under consideration,
αj—Weighting coefficient for the jth factor,
Y1—CO2 absorption/O2 emission in fiber production ready for textile processing,
Y2—Use of renewable resources in fiber production,
Y3—Land use in fiber production ready for textile processing,
Y4—Usage of fertilizers & pesticides in fiber production,
Y5—Fiber recyclability,
Y6—Fiber biodegradability
Y7—EILCIA-LCIA Impact categories, which is defined as:
Y
7ΣβiXi=β1X1+β2X2+β3X3
(X1, . . . X3)=f(x1,x2,x3), i.e. X1=f1(x1,x2,x3)
βi—Weighting coefficient for the ith LCIA indices
x1—Energy consumption in fiber production ready for textile processing
x2—Water consumption in fiber production ready for textile processing
x3—CO2 Emissions in fiber production ready for textile processing
Firstly, based on the data pertaining to the factors 601 photosynthesis effect (amount of oxygen produced), utilisation of renewable resources, land use, usage of fertilisers and pesticides, fiber recyclability and biodegradability, a set of scoring systems 603 (consists of numerical scores of 0 to 5 in all cases, except for photo synthesis effect (−1 to 5), based on the available results) is provided.
Secondly, based on the LCIA results 602 on the extent of damages created to human health, ecosystem quality and resources, another set of scoring system, (consists of numerical scores of 0 to 5 based on the available results) is provided. The scoring system corresponding to each category (Y1 . . . Y7) 606 is explained in detail below under the relevant sections.
As explained in equation 2, the ESI 605 is derived from the EI 604 of a fiber by dividing the EI of the fiber under consideration by the maximum EI derived among all the selected fibers, and a higher ESI implies less environmental impact, hence a more sustainable environment.
Table 1 shows the amount of oxygen produced:
CO2 Emission from Fibers (Cradle to Gate of Fiber)
By considering the above explained three factors 600 for life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment 602 is calculated using SIMAPRO 7.2 version of LCA software (17). Among the various impact assessment methods available (18), Eco-indicator'99 (Hierarchist version) method was selected to calculate the damage created by the fibers in the following categories, which can help in evaluating the environmental impact and the sustainability of the fiber production process:
For the quantification of recyclability, another model is provided. Recyclability Potential Index (RPI) cannot be decided by considering a single factor of a textile fibre/any material. It is a composite factor, taking into account of numerous factors in various angles. Though there are many possible factors to be looked at, at this moment, only environmental and economical sides are taken into consideration to derive RPI.
RPI=ΣEGI1+EGI2,
EG1=ΣX1+X2+X3+X4,
EG2=x1/x2,
To produce 1 kg of a textile fibre, an enormous amount of resources are spent. The two major potential resources being spent in producing any textile fibre are energy and water. The following Table 1 lists the energy and water needs for the production of 1 kg of virgin fibre.
To arrive at these results, the above said impacts are modeled with the aid of Simapro 7.2 version of software. Environmental impacts in the above categories are modeled for producing 1 kg of virgin fibre with the aid of suitable datasets available in Simapro 7.2 version. Ecological footprint is modeled by Ecological Footprint V1.00, carbon footprint was modeled by IPCC 2007 GWP 100a method and ecological damage was quantified by Ecoindicator'99 method, where only human health impacts are considered. The corresponding results of all ten fibres can be seen from Table 2.
To model this scenario, the environmental impact of keeping 1 kg of any textile fibre under consideration is modeled with the aid of Simapro 7.2 version of LCA software. As a last step, environmental effects are measured by means of ecological, carbon footprints and ecological damage in terms of human health. The results of this scenario are given in Table 3.
It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects illustrative and not restrictive.
