Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- Using composites for shipping container floors offers several advantages, including reduced energy use and a smaller carbon footprint compared to conventional wood floors. These advantages are gaining recognition in the shipping industry and also in the materials industry, says Bayer MaterialScience, whose paper: "Life Cycle Assessment of Composite Shipping Container Floors Compared to Conventional Wood Flooring" won the Best in Track Award for Green Composites at the recent Composites 2013 conference.
The paper compared environmental impacts such as energy and greenhouse gases associated with the entire life cycles of flooring made with fiberglass/polyurethane composites, plywood and bamboo wood, which showed that, although composite floors may require more energy or generate more greenhouse gases during manufacturing than wood floors, during the use phase the composite floor saves more energy and avoids greenhouse gases due to its lighter weight.
The paper was by George Pavlovich and Shen Tian, Product Safety & Regulatory Affairs; and Harry George, manager, New Applications, Polyurethanes, all of Bayer MaterialScience llc.
