Analysis of the Environmental Impact of Foam Glass

Foam glass was widely used as a green energy saving material with good performances of light, thermal insulation and sound absorption. Using waste glass as raw material for foam glass production, can not only turn waste into treasure and reduce resource consumption, but also protect the environment. In this article, the foam glass which produced in Jiaxing, China was studied based on the method of life cycle assessment (LCA), and the resources, the energy consumption and the emission of pollutants at the same time were evaluated. The results show that the characterization value of GWP is the largest. The foaming stage is the main contributor which accounts for 79.7%. Similarly, the foaming stage is the major contributor to AP, POCP, EP and HTP .The characterization value of ADP is the smallest. The foaming stage and annealing stage is the main contributor to ADP which account for 43.0%, 49.7% respectively. It has been found that the foaming stage makes the most contribution to the environmental impact. AP, GWP, POCP and EP of the foaming stage are extremely prominent compared to other stages. The authors used the methods of equal weight coefficient and AHP to weight the single indicator. The results show that the environment impact caused by the foaming stage is the largest, then grinding stage and cutting stage follow behind. The environment impact caused by the transportation stage is the smallest.