2006 Spring Meeting & 2nd Global Congress on Process Safety

(227b) Life Cycle Assessment of Water Usage in Post-Plating Rinse in Electroplating

Authors

Ashok V. Naimpally - Presenter, California State University, Long Beach
Luis H. Perez - Presenter, California State University, Long Beach
Uduak J. Ntuk - Presenter, California State University, Long Beach


A life-cycle analysis of the cumulative water usage in the post-plating rinse process for the electroplating of metals, was done for each of the following cases:

- Single tank (case 1) - 2 and 3 tanks arranged in a countercurrent manner (cases 2,3) - 2 and 3 tanks arranged in a cross-current manner

The life-cycle analysis for done for two types of materials of construction of the tanks:

- Steel - Plastics

For each of the materials the total water usage equals the operational water usage plus the annualized water usage for all steps from mining to fabrication of the materials constituting the tanks.

The results are presented in graphical and tabular formats.