Abstract:

Aiming to systematically evaluate the environmental impact of vacuum blister molding for the manufacturing of PET blister trays， a 1⁃t polyethylene terephterate （PET） blister tray was selected as a functional unit. Based on an assessment method for the whole life cycle （LCA） and the environmental impact index of climate change （GWP） as a research focus， a carbon emission calculation model was established for the vacuum blister PET tray on the eFootprint system. The material consumption， energy consumption， and environmental impact evaluation indexes of the production process were quantitatively analyzed by the LCA calculation. The results indicated that in the entire production process of PET blister trays， the treatment of non⁃methane total hydrocarbon and PET sheet extrusion were the key issues with a higher cumulative contribution to carbon emissions， accounting for 47.67 % and 30.22 % respectively. Electricity is the key AP with a higher cumulative contribution to carbon emissions， accounting for 22.80 %. Through capturing the carbon footprint of the whole life cycle of the vacuum blister PET tray， the direction of future emission reduction of this production process was given. According to the concept of energy saving and emission reduction， the two key contributing factors in the process of vacuum blister molding were improved.

Key words: vacuum blister molding, life cycle assessment, global warming potential, carbon emissions, energy conservation and emission reduction