Using a Data-Driven Approach to Unveil Greenhouse Gas Emission Intensities of Different Pulp and Paper Products

摘要

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been used to evaluate the life-cycle Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions of pulp and paper production, and most previous studies rely on process-based models for specific product types (e.g., printing paper), industry-average data, or information from a few mills. In this work, a data-driven approach is used to quantify GHG emissions intensities of different paper products manufactured by the U.S. mills. Facility-level emission data collected from publically available governmental databases and mill-level production data collected from the private sector were integrated to track the GHG emissions for different product lines and paper products in mills (in total, 165 mills were matched and analyzed). The results highlight the ranges of GHG emissions intensities by different product groups and categories, and can be used as a transparent data source for LCA practitioners, policymakers, and the pulp and paper industry to perform further analysis on carbon accounting and strategic planning for GHG mitigation.