Water footprint calculation and assessment of viscose textile

Abstract

Water footprint standards established by the International Standardization Organization (ISO), this paper proposed a newquantitative indicator for water alkalization, and calculated the water footprints involved in viscose textile production. Inaddition, water footprint accounting results were comprehensively evaluated by LCA polygon method which wasdeveloped to interpret LCA results. Results showed that: (1) water scarcity footprint of viscose textile production was60.511 m3H2O eq/ton, of which 85.71% was from the viscose fiber production; (2) water eutrophication footprint ofviscose textile production was 12.439 kg PO43–eq/ton, the major contribution (84.37%) was given by COD and BOD5;(3) water acidification footprint and water alkaline footprint of viscose textile production were 81.453 kg SO2eq/ton and55.675 kg OH–eq/ton, mainly due to H2SO4and NaOH input during the spinning process, respectively; (4) waterecotoxicity footprint of viscose textile production was 3828.169 km3H2O eq/ton, mainly derived from Zn2+in spinningwastewater; (5) LCA polygon analyses showed that environmental load in the spinning was the largest, followed by thepulping and then the dyeing.Keywords:viscose textile, wa