TOKYO - Microchips may be valuable parts of personal computers but their environmental burden is greater than thought, researchers said.
Scientists have estimated it takes at least 1.6 kilograms of fossil fuels and chemical inputs to produce a single two-gram memory chip for personal computers.
People need "to be aware that the technology is not free; the environmental footprint of the device is much more substantial than its small physical size would suggest," said Eric Williams of United Nations University in Tokyo in a release. Williams is the lead author of a study looking at the environmental implications of the Information Age.
Researchers had thought technological progress would reduce the amount of energy and materials needed to produce goods, a concept called dematerialization.
But the new findings suggest the opposite might be true.
Williams' team traced the production of one 32-megabyte DRAM computer chip from raw materials to finished product.
They found each chip required:
1.5 kilograms of fossil fuels 0.07 kilograms of chemicals 32 kilograms of water 0.6 kilograms of elemental gases, mostly nitrogen Compared to traditional goods such as an automobile, the microchip's energy needs are stark. Manufacturing one passenger car takes more than 1,496 kilograms of fossil fuel.
But when the weight of each product is taken into consideration, the ratio of fossil fuel to chemical inputs favours the car. The ratio is 2 to 1 for a car compared to 630 to 1 for a microchip. Williams said microchips and other electronics require more energy to manufacture because they are made from highly organized materials like quartz that take large investments of energy.
The study appeared in the Oct. 25 online issue of Environmental Science & Technology and will appear in print in the Dec. 15 edition of the journal.
Written by CBC News Online staff:
