Volume 42, Issue 9 pp. 1771-1779
Research Article

Life Cycle Optimization for Synthetic Rubber Glove Manufacturing

Gary K. X. Poh

Gary K. X. Poh

UCSI University, Faculty of Engineering, Technology and Built Environment, No. 1, Jalan Menara Gading, UCSI Heights, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Search for more papers by this author
Irene M. L. Chew

Irene M. L. Chew

Monash University Malaysia, School of Engineering, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia

Search for more papers by this author
Jully Tan

Corresponding Author

Jully Tan

Monash University Malaysia, School of Engineering, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia

Correspondence: Jully Tan ([email protected]), Monash University Malaysia, School of Engineering, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 47500 Bandar Sunway, Selangor, Malaysia.Search for more papers by this author
First published: 20 May 2019
Citations: 17

Abstract

Production of synthetic gloves may cause adverse environmental impacts, including global warming, carbon footprint, acidification, photochemical ozone formation, eutrophication, human toxicity, and water footprint. Thus, life cycle assessment is applied as an environmental management tool to evaluate its environmental impacts. Life cycle optimization is implemented to minimize energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases by proposing five alternative process improvement scenarios. Using electricity generated from biodiesel shows the least environmental impacts as compared to the other alternatives for the production of synthetic gloves. Future economic analysis is needed to evaluate the cost feasibility of these alternatives.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.