Thumrongrut Mungcharoen

Biodegradable kinetics of plastics under controlled composting conditions.

This study models and evaluates the kinetics of C-CO(2) evolution during biodegradation of plastic materials including Polyethylene (PE), PE/starch blend (PE/starch), microcrystalline cellulose (MCE), and Polylactic acid (PLA). The aerobic biodegradation under controlled composting conditions was monitorated according to ISO 14855-1, 2004. The kinetics model was based on first order reaction in series with a flat lag phase. A non-linear regression technique was used to analyze the experimental data. SEM studies of the morphology of the samples before and after biodegradation testing were used to confirm the biodegradability of plastics and the accuracy of the model. The work showed that MCE and PLA produced the high amounts of C-CO(2) evolution, which gave readily hydrolysable carbon values of 55.49% and 40.17%, respectively with readily hydrolysis rates of 0.338 day(-1) and 0.025 day(-1), respectively. Whereas, a lower amount of C-CO(2) evolution was found in PE/starch, which had a high concentration of moderately hydrolysable carbon of 97.74% and a moderate hydrolysis rate of 0.00098 day(-1). The mineralization rate of PLA was 0.500 day(-1) as a lag phase was observed at the beginning of the biodegradability test. No lag phase was observed in the biodegradability testing of the PE/starch and MCE. The mineralization rates of the PE/starch and MCE were found to be 1.000 day(-1), and 1.234 day(-1), respectively. No C-CO(2) evolution was observed during biodegradability testing of PE, which was used for reference as a non-biodegradable plastics sample.

Carbon Footprint of Products

According to ISO 14040:2006 and ISO 14044:2006, the carbon footprint of products (CFPs) is the system to calculate the category indicator of the targeted product for the global warming potential or “climate change” in life cycle assessment.

Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emission of Alternative Vehicle Fuels in Thailand Using Well to Wheel Assessment

Energy consumption and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) of major Alternative vehicle fuels (AVFs) in Thailand are estimated and compared with conventional fuels by means of full Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The tool utilized here is the Well-to-Wheels (WtW) module of own model covering the entire lifecycle including: raw materials cultivation (or feedstock collection); fuel production; transportation and distribution; and application in automobile engines (ICE and hybrid engine), compared with conventional petroleum-based gasoline and diesel pathways. The model is based on Thailand’s national conditions with Tsinghua-CA3EM model. Part of this model structure has been adjusted to Thailand specific situations. Therefore, a majority of the parameters have been modified with local Thailand data. Results showed that the all alternative vehicle fuels can reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions compared to conventional fuels. Hybrid ICE engine to reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions when compared to the ICE engine. Biofuels-ICE engine, especially bioethanol from molasses, had the highest reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions. LPG- Hybrid ICE engine had the highest reduce energy consumption.

Erratum to: 10-year experience with the Thai national LCI database: case study of “refinery products”

This is a corrigendum and clarification on behalf of the authors. Figure 4 (including the figure legend) in the original version of this article has been corrected as follows: In addition, the authors would like to emphasize that the refinery case study reported in this paper came from the Thai LCI database development of petroleum and petrochemical industry project phase 1 (2006–2007). The current available LCI data on the Thai LCI database website were from the project phase 2 (2008–2011). Presently, the project phase 3 is on-going (2015-present), and the updated data will be available in the near future.

Assessment of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions of Polylactic Acid (PLA)/Starch and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Trays

This study aims to assess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Poy(lactic acid) (PLA) with cassava starch blend (PLA/starch) and Poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) trays from cradle to grave. The various waste treatment scenarios were considered. The functional unit is specified as 10,000 units of 8 x 10 x 2.5 cm. of PLA/starch and PET trays which weigh 597.6 and 582.7.5 kilograms, respectively. The results from cradle to production gate were found that GHG emissions of PLA/starch has 51.38% lower than that of PET. This is because PET has higher weight of the trays. The resin production stage of PET tray has the highest of greenhouse GHG emissions. The results from cradle to grave show that the highest total GHG emissions are observed from PLA/starch or PET trays with 90% of landfill and 10% of incineration. The lowest GHG emissions from disposal PLA/starch and PET trays are from landfill with biogas recovery and incineration with heat recovery. This can be reduced GHG emissions by 3.11103 and 1.28103 kg CO2 equivalent.