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The problems addressed in order to attempt to falsify this

hypothesis are:

H1. What are the attributional LIME scores, expressed

in Japanese Yen, for an LCA comparison between LF

and TL?

H2. What is the consequential change in LIME score when

a global change between TL and LF is made?

Environmental life-cycle assessment of solders inelectronics

The total global environmental load and impact on the

biosphere, troposphere, and stratosphere is mainly the result

of the industrial metabolism connected to product systems in

which resources continuously are converted into useful

products and services demanded by human societies.

Environmental LCA is most commonly used by universities

and companies as a method to evaluate the mass balance of

inputs and outputs of specific product systems and to organise

and convert those inputs and outputs into environmental

themes or categories relative to resource use, human health,

and ecotoxicity explained by Rebitzer et al. (2004) and

Pennington et al. (2004). In Figure 1 the phases of LCA and

their inter-relationships are schematically shown.

In this context, an example of a LCA goal could be to

compare the life cycle impact of a mobile phone using Pb and

one without Pb. The scope, which means what is intended to

be included with the system boundary, could be just the

solder life-cycle or also include the life cycles of all those parts

of the phone using Pb, e.g. printed wiring board finishes,

termination finishes, ball grid array interconnections, and

internal chip-to-substrate interconnects for controlled

collapse chip technology (Garner et al ., 2 00 0) . T he

functional unit, the basis of the calculation, must be chosen

and must reflect the function of the life-cycle. In this case, it

could be “the average use of one mobile phone during threeyears”. The scope decides which unit processes to quantify in

the inventory analysis within the system boundaries, of which

examples are shown in Figure 2. In LCA a unit process is

defined as the smallest system for which data is collected

(Andræ et al., 2005). One variant of LCA is the so-called

attributional LCA (ALCA), sometimes also referred to as

retrospective or accounting LCA. The ALCA aims to specify

how much of the global environmental load within the system

boundaries belongs to a certain human activity. ALCA

commonly uses average data in contrast to specific data, and

is used to compare two or more alternatives and also to findthe most environmentally relevant unit processes. Another

variant of LCA is the so-called Consequential LCA (CLCA)

where the consequences of decisions, such as phasing out Pb

from electronics, are evaluated. These consequences can also

relate to activities outside of the system boundaries, should

these activities be affected (Ekvall and Andræ 2006). In

CLCA, the change in the global environmental load as a

result of adding or removing a specific human activity is

studied. The CLCA make use of marginal data as it is the

marginal producers and consumers that are affected by a

small change. One of the practical problems with the CLCA is

how to identify who these marginal actors will be. An attempt

was made to model the Pb and Pb scrap markets (Ekvall and

Andræ 2006). The inventory flows (obtained in the data

collection step as emissions, resource consumptions, and

waste amounts) from either an ALCA or CLCA, are classified

according to which possible environmental impacts, e.g.

global warming, they could cause. Anthropogenic and

potential environmental impacts, which may be global,

regional, local or a combination of these, include global

warming, ozonelayer depletion, photo-chemical oxidant

creation, acidification, local air pollution, human toxicity,

ecotoxicity, eutrophication, and resource consumption. For

example, the CFC’s are classified as being able to contribute

both to global warming and to ozone layer depletion. After the

classification the flows are characterised according to their

relative importance for each environmental impact indicator.

The present research will focus on the integration of the

environmental impact indicators for resource depletion,global warming, and ozonelayer depletion as these

environmental effects are global. In Figure 2 the scope of

the present attributional solder paste life-cycle model, as

currently used by most LCA practitioners, is shown. The use

of the electronic product is outside the system boundary.

Figure 3 shows the scope of the present consequential

model from the perspective of the global shift to LF from TL.

Methodology for impact assessment – LIME

Based on a finished inventory analysis where all data sources

are given (Ekvall and Andræ 2006), the method “Life-cycle

Impact assessment Method based on Endpoint modelling,

LIME” was applied (Itsubo et al., 2004b). The origin of this

methodology is a study conducted by the LCA National

Project of Japan aiming at the development of a Japanese

version of a damage-oriented impact assessment method. In

LIME, the potential damage is measured for four safeguard

objects: human health, the utilisation of non-renewable

resources (social assets), the increase of extinction risk

(biodiversity), and the loss of primary production caused by

mining of resources (primary productivity) are individually

measured. Modelling socio-economic impact was based on the

concept of user-cost, which accounts for the equity of future

generations. Interviews were performed in Japan where a

statistically representative population answered questions on

Figure 1 The phases in an LCA

1. Goal and Scope

definition

2. Inventory analysis

3. Impact

assessment

Interpretation

Source: International Organisation for Standardisation (1997)

Global environmental impact assessment of the Pb-free shift

Anders S.G. Andrae, Norihiro Itsubo and Atsushi Inaba

Soldering & Surface Mount Technology

Volume 19 · Number 2 · 2007 · 18–28

19



how they valued different types of damage to the environment.

This approach made it possible to make a monetary weighting

between, e.g. human health and biodiversity. The Yen scores in

this context are what the Japanese society is willing to pay to

avoid a unit of damage, caused by the environmental loadings,

t o t he s af eg ua rd o bj ec ts s how n i n Fi gu re 4 . Th e

present research made use of weighted LIME factors

expressed in Yen/kg enabling a comparison and integration of

the damage derived from different impact categories such as

global warming and ozonelayer depletion. In Figure 4 the

LIME concept is shown with a focus on global impacts. Pb

emissions are considered a local impact, as opposed to

compounds belonging to global impact categories, and are

therefore not included within the scope.

Figure 2 The scope of the attributional model for solder pastes

Primary Ag

production

Electricity

production

Fuel

production

Bulk alloy

production

Solder powder

production

Paste

production

Paste

application

(Reflow soldering)

Use of

Electronic

product

Preparation for

solder recycling

Solder

incineration

Landfill of

solder

Primary Sn

production

Primary Cu

production

Flux

production

Figure 3 The scope of the consequential model of the global shift

Primary Pb

production

Electricity

production

Fuel

production

Bulk alloy

production

Solder powder

production

Paste

production

Paste

application

(Reflow soldering)

Use of

Electronic

product

Preparation for

solder recycling

World

Market for

Pb scrap

World

Market for

Pb

Pb recycling

Alternative

Pb use

Function of

alternative Pb use

Function and

use of competing products

Production and

Use of complimentary products

Solder

incineration

Landfill of

solder

Scrap collection

from

other Pb products

Waste management

of other Pb products

Primary Sn

production

Flux

production




Volume 19 · Number 2 · 2007 · 18–28

20



For LIME, the resource consumption indices are originally

based on the resource characterisation as developed by the

French company Conception Development Durable

Environment CODDE (2007) for a Raw Material Depletion

(RMD) Indicator. Equation (1) explains how the indicator is

calculated:

RMD ¼X1

Ri £ Y i ¼ R i M i

£ I i . . .1

kg £ Years

£ kg

RMD is the total characterisation factor; Ri the available

reserve base of a resource (i ) such as a high-grade metal ore,

coal, etc. which realistically can be extracted; Y i the number

of years left of resource (i ) considering the rate at which it is

currently depleted; M i the production of resource (i ); and I i the inventory flow of resource (i ). The inventory flow is the

amount of, e.g. silver needed to produce the functional unit.

Table I shows the figures used to calculate the RMD values.

At this stage the recycling of metals is not included, but would

presumably delay the decrease of Y i .

Owing to lack of comparable cradle-to-gate resource data for

Ag, Pb, Cu and Sn production, it was assumed that the metal

resource consumption was only the produced metal. For

example, for 1 kg of Ag produced, 1 kg of Ag metal resources

was assumed as input, whereas the extraction and processing

energy inputs were taken from the literature. For Ag a mixed

model assuming Ag to be a by-product mainly of Canadian

Zn/Pb and Australian Au production was used (Teck

Cominco Metal Ltd, 2004; Stewart and Petrie, 2006; NewBoliden, 2005), for Pb a model assuming Pb to be a product

of primary Pb production (Althaus and Classen, 2005), for

Cu a model assuming Cu to be a by-product of Ni production

(Althaus and Classen, 2005), and for Sn a model assuming Sn

to be a product of primary Sn production (Althaus and

Classen, 2005). However, the most relevant LCI data would

have been a global average for ALCA and the marginal for

CLCA. Further, for the ALCAs, the outflow of printed board

assemblies from the preparation process has a positive

economic value. Therefore, it was not regarded as waste but

a raw material inflow to the life-cycles where the recycled

metals are used. Thus, for ALCA, the metal recycling

Figure 4 Conceptual figure of LIME

InventoryImpact

category

Category

endpoint

Safeguard

object

Ag

Sn

Oil

CH4

CO2

CFC

Resource

consumption

Global

warming

Ozonelayer

depletion

User

cost

Infectious

diseases

Thermal

stress

Forestry

production

Skin cancerHuman health

Social assets

Biodiversity

Net primary

productivity

Single index,

Yen, ¥

Crop

production

Terrestial

ecosystem

Vascular

plant speciesCharacterisationDamage

assessment

Weighting

PbOther cancerHuman-toxic

chemical

Notes: CFC = ChloroFluoroCarbons. Local toxic emissions like Pb are not part of the scope

Table I The basis for RMD indices

Substance R i (kg) M i (kg/year) Y i (year) Reference

Ag 5.7 £ 108 1.97 £ 107 28.9 USGS (2004a)

Sn 1.1 £ 1010 2.64 £ 108 41.7 USGS (2004b)

Cu 9.4 £ 1011 1.46 £ 1010 63.1 USGS (2004c)

Ni 1.4 £ 1011 1.4 £ 109 100 USGS (2004d)

Zn 4.6 £ 1011 9.6 £ 109 47.9 USGS (2004e)

Pb 1.4 £ 1011 3.15 £ 109 44.4 USGS (2004f)

Oil 1.76 £ 1014 3.87 £ 1012 45.4 GeoHive Global Statistics (2004a, b), Tomkiewicz (2006) and Asif and Muneer (2007)

Coal 9.09 £ 1014 3.79 £ 1012 240 GeoHive Global Statistics (2004c, d) and Ekawan and Duche ˆ ne (2006)

Natural gas 1.49 £ 1014 2.24 £ 1012 66.7 GeoHive Global Statistics (2004e, f) and Afgan et al. (2007)




Volume 19 · Number 2 · 2007 · 18–28

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processes belong to subsequent life-cycles. Owing to lack of

economic and marginal data, e.g. for the Sn market, the

inventory result for the consequential LF study was assumed

to be identical to the one for the attributional LF study. All

LIME results and others presented below are expressed per

0.53 cm3 solder paste (corresponds to 2.5 g TL having a

density of 4.7g/cm3, 90wt% metal alloy and 10wt% flux)

applied to a printed board assembly before the reflowsoldering process. The quantity 2.5 g was chosen based on the

USEPA study of a typical printed circuit board assembly

(Geibig and Socolof, 2005).

Inventory analysis results

Three LCI’s covering 416 substance flows were investigated.

Totally 97 resources and seven gases were relevant for global

impacts. In Table II the results for nine selected flows are

displayed and they were selected based on an initial LIME

screening of the product systems. Pb is included though it is

presently not quantified for global impact categories. The

column farthest to the right represents the consequential

inventory result of the shift.

Impact assessment results

The results were obtained by multiplying the obtained

inventory data by the corresponding weighting factors

(Itsubo et al., 2004b). The characterisation indices and

LIME factors used in the present study are shown in Table III.

Overall, 98 mass% of the resource input flows, 100 mass%

of the greenhouse gases, and 100 mass% of the ozone

depleting gases, had a corresponding LIME index. The total

LIME scores for the CLCA comparison between TL and LF

w ere around 1 .8 and 3 .4 ¥, respectively. T he total

LIME results for the ALCA were also near 1.8 and 3.4¥,respectively. In Table IV it is shown that Sn and Ag resources

from Sn and Ag production, respectively, were the hot spots

in this study.

F igure 5 shows the LIME result w here resource

consumption, global warming and ozonelayer depletion are

weighted into a single index.

The consequence is that the total LIME score will increase

by 1.6¥ or by 90 per cent.

Sensitivity check

A life-cycle impact assessment method which can be

compared to LIME is the Eco-indicator ‘99 (Eco-i. 99)

method as it is based on the disability adjusted life year

(DALY), concept (Abou-Zahr, 1999). The DALY concept

combines in one score the time lived with disability and the

time lost due to premature mortality. As shown by Table III

Eco-i. 99 has not reported a weighted index for damage to

resources caused by extraction of Ag and some other

resources. The results shown in Figure 6 were obtained by

multiplying the obtained inventory data by the corresponding

weighted damage factors. The major similarity is that

consumption of Sn resources is one of the dominating flows.

Completeness check

The robustness of the results in Figure 5 are hampered by at

least five factors:

1 not all emissions to air and the resources, which

theoretically could have globally related LIME indices,

were reported by Itsubo et al. (2004b), e.g. carbon

monoxide (Holloway et al., 2000);2 too low resolution of the inventory result, which means

more flows of for example CFC’s could possibly be

“hidden” inside the system boundaries;

3 poor precision in the numerical values of emissions and

resources, which means different kinds of temporal and

measurement uncertainties;

4 poor precision of the LIME indices, which means

different kinds of temporal, spatial, and geographical

uncertainties; and

5 poor representation of unit processes, which means that a

greater number of factories in reality represent the average

presently used.

However, considering what turned out to be the dominating

issues of the study, Ag and Sn resources, the global perspectiveof the study, as well as the relatively small product systems, it is

unlikely the results would change drastically should the effects

of these five factors be greatly improved.

Discussion and interpretation

The CLCA and the ALCA results both indicate that the

overall LIME scores in Yen will increase considerably per

Table II Selection of LCI results expressed per functional unit of TL and LF

Substance Category Unit ALCI TL ALCI LF ALCI LF – ALCI TL CLCI TL ALCI LF – CLCI TL

Coal Resource G 83 103 20 82 21

Oil Resource G 12 18 6 15 3Natural gas Resource G 12 15 3 12 3

Sn Resource G 2.9 3.9 1 2.9 1

Ag Resource G 0 0.16 0.16 0 0.16

Pb Resource G 1.7 0 21.7 0.73 20.73

Cu Resource G 0 0.03 0.03 0 0.03

CH4 Emission to air G 0.77 0.94 0.17 0.78 0.16

CO2 Emission to air G 228 290 62 234 56

Pb Emission to air G 0.032 ,0 20.032 0.03 20.03

Pb Emission to water G 0.15 ,0 20.15 0.13 20.13

Pb Emission to soil G ,0 ,0 0 20.001 0.001




Volume 19 · Number 2 · 2007 · 18–28

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functional unit. The most important differences between TL

and LF are two-fold: Sn and Ag resource consumption. The Ag

resources from Ag production are significant due to the

relatively high LIME factor for Ag, about 6,900¥/kg. CO2

emissions from electricity production are also noticeable.

However, considering global warming results alone, it was

earlier reported for a similar inventory to the present study that

the solder application process and the Sn production were the

processes mainly affected (Ekvall and Andræ 2006). The

marginal Pb usage, as a result of the ban on the use of Pb in

solder, will be where the competition is the largest and where

the Pb consumers are most sensitive to a Pb price change. On

the margin, in remote areas, diesel combustion to generate

electricity is expected to be replaced by Pb back-up batteries

(the marginal Pb usage) when Pb is banned in solders.

All impacts attributable to Pb production will not disappear as,

on the margin, Pb will be used in Pb-acid batteries (instead of

solder pastes) which in combination with photovoltaic cells will

replace diesel combustion for electricity generation. In fact,CLCA helped identify this offset in the impact relatedto the Pb

production. Figure 6 shows the relative importance for

different processes as evaluated by LIME compared to Eco-i.

99 and the three environmental impact categories on which

they are based. Considering RMD results alone, they show a

big resemblance to the overall LIME results. The present

CLCA study predicts that the LIME score will rise as the

avoidance of the environmental impacts connected to diesel

combustion does not outweigh the increased resource

consumptions and emissions from Ag, Sn, and energy

production.

Table III Indices used

Substance Impact on LIME (Yen/kg) Eco-i. 99 (year/kg) RMD (102153 kg21

3 year21) GWP20 (kg/kg) ODP (kg/kg)

Ag Resource 6,900 61,000

U Resource 1,030

Sn Resource 390 14 2,200

Wood Resource 105

Cu Resource 53 0.87 16Ni Resource 47 0.39 71

Zn Resource 45 0.045 45

Mn Resource 39 0.0074

Pb Resource 29 0.18 160

Oil Resource 1.5 0.14 0.13

Coal Resource 1.27 0.006 0.0046

Al Resource 1.18 0.057

Natural gas Resource 0.69 0.11 0.10

Fe Resource 0.44 0.0012

Cr Resource 0.37 0.022

Bauxite Resource 0.19 0.012

Gravel and sand Resource 0.062

Mass of rock Resource 0.062

Rock salt Resource 0.062

C2F6, R-116 Air 22,900 52 7,700

Ozone-depleting gases Air 19,000 27 1

CFC/HCFC Air 19,000 27 1

CF4 Air 11,000 36 3,900

N2O Air 570 1.8 330

CH4 Air 44.3 0.11 64

CO2 Air 1.74 0.0055 1

Notes: Eco-i. 99 ¼ Eco-indicator ‘99 (hierarchist perspective, H, A) weighted damage factors (Dreyer et al., 2003), GWP20 ¼ global warming potential during20 years, ODP ¼ ozone depletion potential

Table IV Top contributors to LIME single index given per solder paste typeSolder paste Life-cycle stage Unit process Flow Percentage of contribution

TL Manufacturing Sn production Sn resource consumption 62

Use Solder paste application CO2 emissions to air from electricity production 15

Use Solder paste application Coal resource consumption from electricity production 5

LF Manufacturing Sn production Sn resource consumption 45

Manufacturing Ag production Ag resource consumption 31

Use Solder paste application CO2 emissions to air from electricity production 9




Volume 19 · Number 2 · 2007 · 18–28

23



Further, it is likely that the Eco-i. 99 H, A weighted factor

for Ag resources would be relatively high, and obviously

would indicate more similarities between overall and

individual Eco-i. 99 and LIME scores.

Moreover, electricity production could be of higher

importance, although not likely to change any conclusions. The

data quality is poor for the model of the scrap Pb market and

waste management of competing sources of scrap Pb. However,

this part of themodel does nothavea biginfluenceon theresults.

Other analyses of the shift to Pb-free solders

USEPA performed an attributional cradle-to-grave LCA

comparison between Pb solders and Pb-free solders (Geibig

and Socolof, 2005). The present study cannot be easily

compared to the one by USEPA, among other things due

to the lack of inventory transparency. Nevertheless,

two similar solder pastes to the present ones were

evaluated by the USEPA. These were Sn63Pb37 (SnPb)

and Sn95.5Ag3.9Cu0.6 (SAC). The results from the

environmental impact categories “Nonrenewable resource

use (NRR)” “global warming (GW)” and ”Ozone depletion

(OD)” used by USEPA were used for a comparison with the

present LIME analysis. The USEPA functional unit was

1,000 cm3 of solder metal alloy applied before the reflow

oven, compared to the present 0.53cm3 of solder paste.

Figure 7 shows the comparative results for the two studies

expressed per USEPA functional unit, where 9,300 g of TL

and 8,170 g of LF correspond to that measure. The units

are kg resources for NRR, kg CO2-equivalents for GW, and

kg £ 106 CFC-11-equivalents for ODP.

Figure 6 The consequential LIME results compared to Eco-i. 99 and environmental impact categories GWP20

–20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Global

LIME

Eco-i. 99 GWP20 ODP RMD

Pb production

Diesel combustion

Ag production

Sn production

Solder paste application

Others

Notes: Global warming potential during 20 years(GWP20), ODP = ozone depletion potential,

RMD = raw material depletion

Figure 5 The consequential LIME results expressed per functional unit obtained when subtracting the CLCA TL from the ALCA ( ¼ CLCA) LF

Global LIME (toxicity not included)

–0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

O t h e r s S o l d e r p a s t e a p p l i c a t i o n

S n p r o d u c t i o n

A g p r o d u c t i o n

D i e s e l c o m b u s t i o n

P b p r o d u c t i o n

Consequense of shift

Yen / F.u.




Volume 19 · Number 2 · 2007 · 18–28

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The NRR difference is mainly due to the “inert rock”

resource consumption used in the USEPA model of electricity

generation. The relatively low ODP value for TL is due to

effects identified by the use of CLCA, where the ODP from

alternate Pb usage (battery production) offsets ODP

connected to electricity and Sn production. When the top

contributing inventory flows for NRR, GW and OD for SnPb

and SAC were multiplied by the respective LIME single

index, the Zn-Pb-Cu resource consumption and CO2

emissions related to electricity generation for solder

application were the dominating flows for SAC and SnPb,

respectively. This comparison shows that USEPA did not

characterise the resource consumption, but just reported the

magnitude and top contributors. For example, “inert rock”

having a moderate LIME index, dominated the NRR which

merely reports the amount of resources used. Should another

type of characterisation by for example RMD have beenperformed, other flows would have appeared as important.

Furthermore, the analysis of the USEPA study confirmed that

stratospheric ozone depletion is of minor importance for the

LIME score.

Verhoef et al. (2004) and Reuter and Verhoef (2004)

showed that dynamic modelling, as a life-cycle inventory of

the total upstream system, could be useful for assessing the

environmental aspects of the manufacturing of solders. The

system boundaries included the ore processing, metal

production and solder production activities for solder alloys

including Sn60Pb40 and several Pb-free combinations. No

inventory data were reported, but it was evaluated using the

Eco-i. 99 method. However, the question was raised, whether

a ban on use of Pb will lead to an environmental benefit, as

the manufacturing of solders could be considered a global

open loop recycling and production system. Verhoef argues

that the governmental decisions to introduce Pb-free will push

the system out of the existing steady state globally, and while

production of Pb, Cu and Sn would not be affected

s ig ni fic an tl y, lo ca l c ha ng es c ou ld b e i mp or ta nt .

Nevertheless, the resource depletion dominated Eco-i. 99

scores were higher for SnAgCu than for Sn-Pb, but became

smaller as the authors changed the weighting of resource

depletion to 5 per cent as compared to the initial settings of

Eco-i. 99. The findings indicated that preventing human

toxicity will instead lead to resource damage. An important

concluding remark is that there exists a limited production

infrastructure for co-products in Pb ore processing. In case of

an extended ban on lead, both the availability and recovery of

a range of metals will be affected (Verhoef et al., 2004; Reuter

and Verhoef, 2004).

Effect of recycling

It is uncertain how much of the Sn, Ag, Pb, and Cu solder

metals that will be recycled will specifically be used for

production of new solders. Quantification of this is especially

important for Ag and Sn. Based on this research increased

recycling of Ag and Sn could be significant in decreasing the

global impact. In the present research it was not possible to

apply the LIME factors for other than global effects, as the

local LIME is adjusted for Japanese conditions. This

screening of the global situation was however useful as it

strengthens earlier results showing that the social andeconomic impacts, due to the consumption of resources for

Sn and Ag production, could rise as a result of the shift to Pb-

free solder paste (Itsubo et al., 2004c, p. 441 Figure 2(b)-(c)).

Consequential LCA including Ag and Sn

An important discussion is whether a consequential model for

LF would lead to different conclusions. How much will global

Sn and Ag usage rise as far as electronics solder is concerned?

Using Deubzer’s replacement scenario from the year 2003 to

2006 (Deubzer, 2007) the rise could be from about 68 Gg

before the shift (29 mass% of the global Sn consumption) to

about 113 Gg (35 mass%) for Sn after the shift, and from

0.075 Gg (0.2mass%) to 3.6 Gg (12 mass%) for Ag (it is

uncertain exactly how much electronic solder is globally used,

but it was about 120,000 tonnes in 2003 and probably more

than 10 per cent more in 2006). It mainly depends on the

primary production, recycling, pricing and electronics market

consumption of these metals, where economies such as that of

China Govern more and more the world market trends for Sn.

The shift to Pb-free solder could lead to a decreased use of Ag

and Sn in a mix of other products. Which marginal Sn

consumers, having the possibility to substitute Sn, are most

sensitive to a change in Sn price? Which marginal Ag

consumers, having the possibility to substitute Ag, are most

sensitive to a change in Ag price? A change in the Sn and Ag

prices will affect the uses of these metals. For some products

Figure 7 Comparative results for the USEPA solder LCA study and the present regarding three different environmental impacts

0

500

1000

1500

2000

kg

NRR ODP

Environmental impact category

USEPA SnPb

USEPA SAC

Present study TL

Present study LF

GW




Volume 19 · Number 2 · 2007 · 18–28

25



the Sn or Ag cost is a small part of the total production cost,

while for others Sn or Ag have important functional

advantages, making the demand for Sn and Ag less sensitive

to changes in the Sn or Ag price. If the marginal products

using Sn cannot replace Sn in the long run, the total Sn

production will go up. This is under the condition that all

other major users of Sn, for example producers of Sn-coated

cans, also use the same amount of Sn after the shift to Pb-freesolder. However, if the Sn price increases too much,

materials such as Al, glass, paper, plastic and Sn-free steel

can substitute for Sn in, for example, pet food cans. On the

other hand, Sn can also find new markets for example as

alloys in automotive balance weights.

As for annual Ag consumption, industrial and decorative

uses, photography and jewelry and silverware represent more

than 95 percent, and the electronics and photography

industries are the main consumers (Lanzano et al., 2006).

The unique properties of Ag restrict its substitution in most

applications. Further, long-term analyses of the Sn and Ag

markets are required to forecast what can happen.

Comparing the ALCA results for TL and LF is not the

same as predicting the consequences of shifting from TL toLF. Occasionally, as seems to be the case regarding the solders

in the present study, the two techniques, ALCA and CLCA,

more or less provide the same conclusion. It is obvious that

ALCA is too rudimentary for estimating future environmental

impacts, but on the other hand CLCA needs to be more

developed in co-operation with econometricians to be more

accurate and comprehensive.

Conclusions

The following conclusions can be drawn based on the

research carried out in the present study:.

as far as globally related environmental impacts areconcerned, the shift from TL to LF solder paste is likely to

increase them;. a significant increase was detected due to increased Ag

and Sn production;. no significant increase in the LIME score could be related

to the increased generation of electricity for the LF solder

application processes as compared to TL;. the LIME score is highly dependent on the Ag and Sn

weighting factors;. ozone depleting substances had an insignificant influence

on the LIME scores; and. this study confirms earlier work reporting that the

resource consumption will be higher for SnAgCu solder

pastes than conventional SnPb.For LIME it has earlier been shown, in a scenario for Japan,

that the toxicity of Pb was most important leading to the

overall environmental superiority of Pb-free solders. The next

step would be to make a trade-off between the global impact

of the locally related impacts, such as those originating from

the use of human-toxic chemicals, and the known global

impacts. For example, the existence of industrial Pb aerosols

could make way for updated LCA indices (Rankin et al.,

2005).

Globally focused CLCA’s of solders also need to be

improved in a number of areas:

. the design of quantitative partial economic equilibrium

models for the electricity, Sn and Ag markets and the

corresponding scrap markets for the metals;. identification of marginal consumers for Sn, Ag and other

solder metals;. marginal data for primary metal production need to be

collected; and.

system expansion including Au and Ag containing printedwiring board surface finishes could be worthwhile.

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About the authors

Anders S.G. Andrae received his MSc degree

in Chemical Engineering from theRoyalInstitute

of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1997, his

Licentiate degree and PhD degree in Electronics

Production from Chalmers University of

Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2002 and

2005, respectively. Between 1997 and 2001 he

was at Ericsson working as an Environmental Engineer with

Life Cycle Assessment. He has published 17 papers in refereed

journals and conferences. Since, 2006, he has been a post

doctoral research scientist at the Advanced Industrial Science

and Technology (AIST), Research Center for Life Cycle

Assessment, Tsukuba, Japan. He is a Member of the IEEE and




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wonthe IEEE Young Award at the International Conference on

Electronics Packaging in 2006 for the paper entitled

“Consequential Toxicity Assessment of the Global Shift to

Pb-freeSolder Paste”. Anders S.G. Andraeis thecorresponding

author and can be contacted at: [email protected]

Norihiro Itsubo received his BSc degree from

Osaka University in Osaka, Japan, and received

his MSc and PhD degrees from University of

Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, in 1993, 1995 and 1998,

respectively. Between 1998 and 2001 he was at

the LCA Development Department, Japan

Environmental Management Association For

Industry. In 2001 he became a Research Scientist at AIST’s

Research Center for Life Cycle Assessment (AISTLCA),

Tsukuba, Japan. In 2003 he was awarded by the Reliability

Engineering Association of Japan for his work “LCA of IC

packages”. Between 2003 and 2005 he was a researcher for

the Environmental Assessment Research Team at AISTLCA,

and since 2005 he has been Team Leader for the LCA

Methodology Research Team at AISTLCA. In 2005 he was

appointed Associate Professor at the Environmental and

Information Studies Department at the Musashi Institute of

Technology, Yokohama, Japan, and splits his time between

Musashi Institute of Technology and AIST. E-mail: itsubo-

[email protected]; [email protected]

Atsushi Inaba received his BSc, MSc, and

PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from

Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan, in 1976, 1978and 1981, respectively. Between 1981 and 1986

he was at the National Institute for Resources

and Environment (NIRE) and between 1984 to

1986 at the National Bureau of Standard in the

USA. Between 1990 and 1992 he was at the International

Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna, Austria before

being appointed Chief of the NIRE Planning Office where he

was from 1999 to 2001. In 2001 he was appointed Director of

AIST’s Research Center for Life Cycle Assessment, Tsukuba,

Japan. In 2005 he was appointed Professor for Research into

Artifacts at the Center for Engineering, The University of

Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, and splits his time between the Director

and Professor roles. E-mail: [email protected]




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