Carbon Footprint of Concentrated Latex: A Case Study in Southern Thailand

Abstract

Natural rubber latex comes from rubber tree usually contains between 30-40% rubber, the other 60-70% being mainly water [1]. Centrifugation is a simple way to concentrate suspensions in liquids. The result is concentrated latex containing about 60% rubber [1]. Mostly the rubber produced in Thailand is used for automotives, gloves, rubber bands and elastic. Thailand covers the natural rubber plantation area of 18.7 million rai (2.992 million hectares), of which mature area is 13.81 million rai (2.2096 million hectares). In 2013, the annual rubber output is expected to reach 3.86 million tons, of which 13% is domestically consumed, 83% is exported in the form of primary processing products [2]. Green markets and green products are increasingly concerned in Thailand market. Therefore this paper aims to investigation of the carbon footprint associated with concentrated latex. The use of fertilizer, chemical, fuels data during cultivation of rubber tree were collected from questionnaires and field surveys. Life cycle inventories of concentrated latex processing were included. One year collected data at different two concentrated latex manufacturers were used to determine the carbon footprint of concentrated latex. Dry rubber content (DRC) was used as the allocation method in the concentrated latex processing. The DRC allocation was range from 86.6% to 99.9% of intermediate product during the processing. Results show that the carbon footprint of natural latex cultivation and concentrated latex processing were from 0.0136 kgCO₂e to 0.0170 kgCO₂e per 1 kg of natural latex (wet weight). The main contribution is the fertilizer but different type of fertilizer. and total carbon footprint were from 82.3 kg CO₂e to 93.9 kg CO₂eper 1 kg of concentrated latex.