Life Cycle Assessment of Microwave Activated Hot-Melt Adhesives

A comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) is presented to evaluate the environmental impacts of two adhesive technologies: the traditional hot-melt adhesive production and the Microwave (MW) activatable hot-melt adhesives. This technology is very useful for the creation of reversible adhesive suitable for many applications in various industries including the automotive and the aerospace industry. The LCA was performed to quantify and verify the environmental impacts of all the involved processes. The main advantages of this new class of adhesives are mainly, the energy reduction during the production phase (as the electromagnetic activation occurs in few seconds) and the possibility of recycling the bonded components at the end of life. This is because the MW/RF-activatable adhesives are reversible, as they can be re-melt through the MW/RF irradiation, without heating the bonded components, which could be easily disassembled and recycled. The LCA was carried out according to the ISO14040 and 14044,using the Simapro 8.05.13 software coupled with the Ecoinvent 3 database.