THE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN AND CARBON FOOTPRINT ASSESSMENT OF NON-GLAZED FLOOR TILES

Abstract

Carbon emission from the manufacturing sector is a critical issue which is concerned by the
environmental authorities since the violation of the carbon emission cap might lead to the sanction by one of
Thailand's largest trade partner, European Union (EU). As a result, it is important for the manufacturers to be able
to assess their own products' carbon footprint. In this study, the selected case study is a ceramic factory which
manufactures non-glazed floor files. The scope of evaluation covers Business-to-Customer (B2C) transaction
while the life cycle of a product includes four stages, i.e., resource extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use and
waste disposal. The study results indicate that the highest contribution to the carbon emission is from the extraction
of ceramic clay while the manufacturing stage has the second highest effect on the emission. The distribution of
products, use and disposal are the life cycle stages which have small effects on the emission. Another objective of
this research is to conduct an empirical study which leads to the capability to quantify the effect of different factors
on the manufacturing of floor tiles. According to the experimental study, three factors, i.e., chalk clay, ball clay
and feldspar, are considered as the process inputs while the response variables are percent absorption and hardness.
Elaborately, 23 full factorial design was deployed to study the find the relationship between inputs and outputs.
The results has two folds. The first fold is useful for the manufacturers who would like to understand how much
their product has emitted the greenhouse gas to the atmosphere and it might lead to the minimization of their
emission. Moreover, the relation between the tile characteristic and factors affecting the manufacturing is known
so the manufacturer is able to efficiently optimize the manufacturing process in order to achieve the highest quality
products.