Integration of water footprint accounting and costs for optimal chemical pulp supply mix in paper industry

Abstract Chemical pulp is one of the most important raw materials used in the paper industry. This material is known to make a significant contribution to the water footprint and cost of final paper products; therefore, chemical pulp is crucial in determining the competitiveness of final products'. Several studies have focused on these aspects, but there have been no previous reports on the integrated application of raw material water footprint accounting and costs in the definition of the optimal supply mix of chemical pulps from different countries. The current models that have been applied specifically to the paper industry are based mainly on general sectorial data; therefore, they cannot reflect the importance of the efficiency of the different processes in the supply chain of paper production. The objective of this study was to develop a multi-objective optimization model to identify the supply mix that minimizes the water footprint accounting results and costs of chemical pulp, thereby facilitating the assessment of the water footprint by accounting for different chemical pulps purchased from various suppliers, with a focus on the efficiency of the production process. Water footprint accounting was adapted to better represent the efficiency of pulp and paper production. A multi-objective model for supply mix optimization was also developed using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). Water footprint accounting confirmed the importance of the production efficiency of chemical pulp, which affected the final results, with an average factor of 4.7 m 3 wood/t paper. The MCDA that we developed was used to determine the optimal mix of chemical pulps from different countries, which demonstrated how the optimal mix changed when considering only one of the two variables. Herein, we also discuss the latest developments in impact assessments related to water based on a life cycle assessment, which should be used as a framework for the future development of the model that is presented.

[1]  Ana Cláudia Dias,et al.  Comparison of methodologies for estimating the carbon footprint – case study of office paper , 2012 .

[2]  Jing Shen,et al.  ADDRESSING WATER FOOTPRINT CONCEPT: A DEMONSTRABLE STRATEGY FOR PAPERMAKING INDUSTRY , 2012 .

[3]  Irina Volf,et al.  Water footprint assessment in the winemaking industry: a case study for a Romanian medium size production plant , 2013 .

[4]  B. Bates,et al.  Climate change and water. , 2008 .

[5]  M. Finkbeiner,et al.  Water Footprinting: How to Address Water Use in Life Cycle Assessment? , 2010 .

[6]  Pauli Miettinen,et al.  How to benefit from decision analysis in environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) , 1997 .

[7]  Helen H. Lou,et al.  Hierarchical Pareto Optimization for the Sustainable Development of Industrial Ecosystems , 2006 .

[8]  Antonio Scipioni,et al.  Water Footprint to Support Environmental Management: An Overview , 2014 .

[9]  Arjen Ysbert Hoekstra,et al.  Towards Quantification of the Water Footprint of Paper: A First Estimate of its Consumptive Component , 2012, Water Resources Management.

[10]  Llorenç Milà i Canals,et al.  Water Footprint and Life Cycle Assessment as approaches to assess potential impacts of products on water consumption. Key learning points from pilot studies on tea and margarine , 2012 .

[11]  Kimberley Opie,et al.  Carbon, water and land use footprints of beef cattle production systems in southern Australia , 2014 .

[12]  Andrew J. Higgins,et al.  A comparison of multiple criteria analysis techniques for water resource management , 2008, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[13]  James E. McDevitt,et al.  An evaluation of alternative water footprint methodologies using an indicative tissue paper supply chain , 2011 .

[14]  Ming-Chyuan Lin,et al.  Using AHP and TOPSIS approaches in customer-driven product design process , 2008, Comput. Ind..

[15]  Jyri Seppälä,et al.  Decision Analysis Frameworks for Life‐Cycle Impact Assessment , 2001 .

[16]  Maite M. Aldaya,et al.  A water footprint assessment of a pair of jeans: the influence of agricultural policies on the sustainability of consumer products , 2013 .

[17]  S. Pfister,et al.  Assessing the environmental impacts of freshwater consumption in LCA. , 2009, Environmental science & technology.

[18]  A. Holma,et al.  Assessing environmental impacts of biomass production chains - application of life cycle assessment (LCA) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). , 2012 .

[19]  M. Aldaya,et al.  The Water Footprint Assessment Manual: Setting the Global Standard , 2011 .

[20]  K. Hubacek,et al.  Environmental implications of urbanization and lifestyle change in China: Ecological and Water Footprints , 2009 .

[21]  Stephan Pfister,et al.  Review of methods addressing freshwater use in life cycle inventory and impact assessment , 2013, The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

[22]  P. R. van Oel,et al.  The green and blue water footprint of paper products: methodological considerations and quantification , 2010 .

[23]  Jiangjiang Wang,et al.  Review on multi-criteria decision analysis aid in sustainable energy decision-making , 2009 .

[24]  Jingzheng Ren,et al.  Fuzzy Multi-actor Multi-criteria Decision Making for sustainability assessment of biomass-based technologies for hydrogen production , 2013 .

[25]  Jingzheng Ren,et al.  Sustainability of hydrogen supply chain. Part II: Prioritizing and classifying the sustainability of hydrogen supply chains based on the combination of extension theory and AHP , 2013 .