Quantifying the present and future environmental sustainability of cleanrooms

Journal article, 2024

We investigated future cleanroom energy consumption by examining parameters, such as cleanroom class, electricity mix, technical efficiency, and location. These parameters were integrated with life cycle inventory (LCI) data and Integrated Model to Assess the Global Environment (IMAGE) regions, combining shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs) and representative concentration pathways (RCPs) to calculate the carbon emissions. For various climatic zones, we considered heating and cooling degree days to estimate the energy consumption to maintain targeted temperatures. Therefore, we quantified the full spectrum of climate change impacts related to cleanroom operations across the globe and under future scenarios by evaluating 49,572 operational scenarios at the country level and 243 impact indicator maps, totaling over 68 trillion results from 2020 to 2060. Our findings stress the importance of strategic location for optimizing cleanroom operations. In applying our model, a scenario carbon emission calculator was developed to assist users in locating scenarios of interest more effectively by inputting their criteria into our models.