A comprehensive life cycle assessment of vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) for applications at up to 70 °C

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIPs) with four core materials: fumed silica (FS) and three FS-based composites incorporating tree-based natural fibre (TNF) waste and tree-based natural ash (TNA), using a typical car painting booth (CPB) as a case study. A cradle-to-cradle evaluation is performed using two functional units: material transport capacity (6.2 tonnes per truck) and VIP dimensions (1 m × 1 m × 25 mm). VIPs were manufactured and their thermal conductivity measured over pressures of 0.64–1000 mbar and temperatures of 20–70 °C. Ageing effects were assessed by storing VIPs at 70 °C and 75% relative humidity for 12 months. Measured thermal conductivities were used to predict CPB energy consumption over a 10-year operational lifetime. Results show that FS–TNA VIPs (S4) reduced total cradle-to-cradle energy demand by 82,761 MJ compared with FS VIPs (S1) using Cut-off approach. However, this energy benefit did not translate into a climate advantage, as S4 exhibited a higher climate change impact of 893 kg CO2 eq, primarily due to pyrolysis-related emissions. Under the Allocation at Point of Substitution (APOS) approach, S4 reduced total energy demand by 17,216 MJ and climate change impact by 141 kg CO2 eq relative to FS, reflecting both operational energy savings and avoided biomass degradation emissions. When expressed per unit of energy saved relative to S1, S4 resulted in 55.0 kg CO2 eq per GJ under the modified Cut-off scenario used as the main modelling approach in this study, and (−) 8.2 kg CO2 eq per GJ under the modified APOS scenario used as an alternative allocation approach, highlighting the scenario-dependent energy–climate trade-off. Overall, the study demonstrates that trade-offs between embodied emissions, operational energy demand, and end-of-life modelling influence VIP environmental performance and provides a transparent methodology to support material selection for high-temperature industrial applications.