Ivan Eastin

Role of Green Building Programs in Enhancing the Usage of Environmentally Certified Wood in the U.S. Residential Construction Industry

The residential construction industry is the largest market for certified wood in the U.S., although low awareness among homebuyers coupled with unreliable supply and high price, provides little economic incentive for its use by homebuilders. However, the increasing use of Green Building Programs, which incentivize the use of certified wood, represents an opportunity to expand the demand for certified wood in the U.S.. This article investigates the role of the LEED for Homes green building program in increasing the awareness and usage of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified wood products among U.S. homebuilders. The study results are based on responses obtained from a national survey of 402 residential homebuilders and remodelers. The results reveal a strong relationship between homebuilders’ awareness and use of certified wood and their use of the LEED program. A majority of the respondents who reported using FSC certified wood cited the awarding of “green building points” within the LEED program as one of the major reasons for using certified wood. The study also found that homebuilders who were aware of certified wood, but had not yet used it, reported that “low customer demand” and “high price premium” were the main reasons for not using certified wood.

Life cycle assessment of residual lignocellulosic biomass-based jet fuel with activated carbon and lignosulfonate as co-products

BackgroundBio-jet fuels are emerging as a valuable alternative to petroleum-based fuels for their potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel dependence. In this study, residual woody biomass from slash piles in the U.S. Pacific Northwest is used as a feedstock to produce iso-paraffinic kerosene, through the production of sugar and subsequent patented proprietary fermentation and upgrading. To enhance the economic viability and reduce the environmental impacts of iso-paraffinic kerosene, two co-products, activated carbon and lignosulfonate, are simultaneously produced within the same bio-refinery. A cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed for the residual woody biomass-based bio-jet fuel and compared against the cradle-to-grave LCA of petroleum-based jet fuel. This paper also discusses the differences in the environmental impacts of the residual biomass-based bio-jet fuel using two different approaches, mass allocation and system expansion, to partition the impacts between the bio-fuel and the co-products, which are produced in the bio-refinery.ResultsThe environmental assessment of biomass-based bio-jet fuel reveals an improvement along most critical environmental criteria, as compared to its petroleum-based counterpart. However, the results present significant differences in the environmental impact of biomass-based bio-jet fuel, based on the partitioning method adopted. The mass allocation approach shows a greater improvement along most of the environmental criteria, as compared to the system expansion approach. However, independent of the partitioning approach, the results of this study reveal that more than the EISA mandated 60% reduction in the global warming potential could be achieved by substituting petroleum-based jet fuel with residual woody biomass-based jet fuel. Converting residual woody biomass from slash piles into bio-jet fuel presents the additional benefit of avoiding the impacts of slash pile burning in the forest, which results in a net negative impact on ‘Carcinogenics’ and ‘Respiratory effects’, and substantial reduction in the ‘Smog’ and ‘Ecotoxicity’ impacts. The production of woody biomass-based bio-jet fuel, however, did not show any significant improvement in the ‘Acidification’ and ‘Eutrophication’ impact categories.ConclusionsThe study reveals that residual woody biomass recovered from slash piles represents a more sustainable alternative to petroleum for the production of jet fuel with a lower impact on global warming and local pollution. Future research should focus on the optimization of chemical processes of the bio-refinery to reduce the impacts on the ‘Acidification’ and ‘Eutrophication’ impact categories.

Lignin-Modified Carbon Nanotube/Graphene Hybrid Coating as Efficient Flame Retardant

To reduce fire hazards and expand high-value applications of lignocellulosic materials, thin films comprising graphene nanoplatelets (GnPs) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) pre-adsorbed with alkali lignin were deposited by a Meyer rod process. Lightweight and highly flexible papers with increased gas impermeability were obtained by coating a protective layer of carbon nanomaterials in a randomly oriented and overlapped network structure. Assessment of the thermal and flammability properties of papers containing as low as 4 wt % carbon nanomaterials exhibited self-extinguishing behavior and yielded up to 83.5% and 87.7% reduction in weight loss and burning area, respectively, compared to the blank papers. The maximum burning temperature as measured by infrared pyrometry also decreased from 834 °C to 705 °C with the presence of flame retardants. Furthermore, papers coated with composites of GnPs and CNTs pre-adsorbed with lignin showed enhanced thermal stability and superior fire resistance than samples treated with either component alone. These outstanding flame-retardant properties can be attributed to the synergistic effects between GnPs, CNTs and lignin, enhancing physical barrier characteristics, formation of char and thermal management of the material. These results provide great opportunities for the development of efficient, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable flame retardants.

Cradle-to-Gate Life-Cycle Impact Analysis of Glued-Laminated (Glulam) Timber: Environmental Impacts from Glulam Produced in the US Pacific Northwest and Southeast*

Abstract This study was an update on the 2000 life-cycle inventory data on material and energy inputs associated with the production of 1 m3 of glued-laminated (glulam) timbers produced in the Paci...

Role of Online Survey Tools in Creating Temporally Accurate Environmental Product Declarations within the Context of the US Wood Products Industry

Abstract An environmental product declaration (EPD) presents quantified environmental information on a product or process in a simplified form. EPDs are based on the life-cycle assessment (LCA) of ...