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Alternative Materials for Printed Circuit Board Production: An Environmental Perspective
- Source :
- Sustainability, Volume 13, Issue 21, Sustainability, Vol 13, Iss 12126, p 12126 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2021.
-
Abstract
- This article investigates the potential environmental impacts of four-layer printed circuit board (PCB) production from cradle to grave. The study starts with a lifecycle assessment of conventional PCB production. Then, the alternative materials of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polylactic acid (PLA)/glass fiber composite and paper are investigated for the substrate. A conventional PCB adopts copper as the conductive material and requires an etching process. The environmental impacts of changing the conductive deposition method to an additive method by printing silver nanoparticles is studied. In a conventional PCB, electricity generation contributes 41% of the global warming potential (GWP) and 38% of the abiotic resource depletion (ADP), in the fossil category. By applying an additive manufacturing method, the GWP of PCB manufacturing can be reduced to 14% of that of the conventional method. A sensitivity analysis of silver recycling illustrates that a 40% higher silver recycling rate would decrease the GWP of silver material by about 48–60%. Uncertainty in the energy consumption of PCB production would alter the environmental impacts<br />however, even with the most conservative energy consumption in a conventional PCB production method, the environmental impacts of the additive method are about five times lower than those of conventional PCB production.
- Subjects :
- sustainable electronics
Geography, Planning and Development
TJ807-830
Substrate (printing)
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
TD194-195
Renewable energy sources
Silver nanoparticle
Printed circuit board
bio-materials
lifecycle assessment
Production (economics)
GE1-350
Environmental effects of industries and plants
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
business.industry
printed circuit board
Energy consumption
Pulp and paper industry
Renewable energy
Environmental sciences
Electricity generation
Printed electronics
Environmental science
printed electronics
business
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20711050
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Sustainability
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....66af9bb3512cf9d08a4fe85796ad4159
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112126