Manufacturing actor’s LCA

Modern industrial environmental management encompasses life-cycle thinking. This entails considering not only the emissions and resource use of the company’s production processes, but also the environmental consequences of all processes related to a product’s life cycle. However, no single actor can influence the whole life cycle of a product. To be effective, analysis methods intended to support improvement actions should therefore also consider the decision makers’ power to influence.Regarding the life cycle of a product, there are at least as many perspectives on life-cycle thinking as there are actors. This paper presents an approach with which manufacturing decision makers can sharpen the focus in life-cycle assessment (LCA) from a conventional ‘products or services’ emphasis to a company’s manufacturing processes. The method has been developed by combining knowledge gained from earlier LCA studies with new empirical findings from an LCA study of an SKF manufacturing line.We demonstrate how system boundaries and functional units in an LCA can be defined when adding the perspective of a manufacturing decision maker to the product life-cycle perspective. Such analysis helps manufacturing decision makers identify improvement potentials in their spheres of influence, by focusing on the environmental consequences of energy and material losses in manufacturing rather than merely accounting for the contributions of individual stages of the life cycle to the overall environmental impact. The method identifies and directly relates the environmental consequences of emissions or raw material inputs in the product life cycle to manufacturing processes. In doing so, the holistic systems perspective in LCA is somewhat diminished in favor of the relevance of results to manufacturing decision makers.     

The energy consumption and environmental impacts of a color TV set in China

The present study analyses the different processes followed during color TV set production along with the energy consumption and the environment emissions in each stage. The purpose is to identify “hot-spots”, i.e. parts of the life cycle important to the total environmental impact. The analysis is performed using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, which is a method used to identify and quantify in the environmental performance of a process or a product from “cradle to grave”. LCA methodology provides a quantitative basis for assessing potential improvements in the environmental performance of a system throughout the life cycle. The system investigated includes the production of manufacturing materials, transport of manufacturing materials, color TV set manufacturing, transport of color TV sets, use of color TV sets, discarding color TV sets and partial plastic waste energy utilization. The environmental burdens that arise from color TV sets are mainly due to air emissions derived from fossil fuel utilization.     

全工业固废原料制备水泥工艺的生命周期评价研究

运用生命周期评价(LCA)方法,对以电石渣等工业固废为全部原料的水泥制造工艺产生的环境影响进行评价.通过对生产工艺进行分解及建模,基于实际数据建立生命周期清单,利用ReCiPe2016方法,在全球变暖、化石资源消耗、土地占用等17个小类及人体健康影响、生态系统影响及资源消耗3个大类中对工艺产生的环境影响进行评价.评价过程包括特征化、标准化和敏感性分析.结果表明,在以1 t成品水泥为功能单位的生产过程中,造成的环境影响总值为-0.0045 pt,其中,在人体健康影响和生态系统影响分类下最为显著,分别为-0.0027 pt和-0.0020 pt.与传统水泥生产相比,本工艺具有更低的资源能源消耗与碳排放量.固废作为原料来源带来的正面环境效益最为显著,而熟料煅烧与水泥粉磨则显示出最大的环境损害,也说明由于消纳了大量工业固废,本工艺对环境总体上是有益的.     

商用车铝合金与钢制轮辋生命周期环境影响评价对比分析

基于生命周期评价(LCA)理论,运用Ga Bi软件建模,采用EDIP 2003评价体系,对某款商用车铝合金轮辋和钢制轮辋的生命周期环境影响进行了评价和对比分析.结果表明:在原材料获取阶段铝合金轮辋对环境的影响要远远大于钢制轮辋;制造阶段两种轮辋对环境的影响相差不大;使用阶段钢制轮辋对环境的影响大于铝合金轮辋;综合所有阶段来看,当车辆总行驶里程低于11.6万km时,铝合金轮辋对环境的影响更大,超过11.6万km后,钢制轮辋对环境的影响更大.     

纯电动汽车驱动电机全生命周期评价

基于生命周期评价(LCA)理论,运用Ga Bi 6软件建模,对荣威E50纯电动汽车驱动电机全生命周期环境排放和资源消耗进行了评价,对比分析在中国不同区域使用下驱动电机生命周期过程资源环境影响,并对驱动电机生命周期过程中的生产制造能耗、使用能耗和原材料回收率做敏感性分析.结果表明,驱动电机全生命周期过程各环境影响类型指数排序为APGWPPOCPEPODP,且对环境的影响主要发生在使用阶段,其次是原材料获取和制造阶段.各大区域电网下驱动电机全生命周期过程环境排放影响从大到小为华东电网东北电网西北电网华北电网南方电网华中电网.从敏感性分析结果可知,使用能耗对驱动电机生命周期环境排放影响的敏感度大于生产制造能耗;铜的回收率对矿产资源消耗影响的敏感度远大于钢和铝的回收率.     

水源中央空调环境影响的生命周期评价

从原材料获取、生产加工、运行使用和废弃后处理处置 4个阶段 ,对水源中央空调按污染排放和资源能源消耗2种类型进行输入、输出清单参数以及相应生命周期环境影响潜值的统计计算与分析。以水资源和燃煤发电为基础的水源空调运行使用阶段的环境影响明显突出。水源中央空调环境影响的生命周期评价可为该产品环境绩效的改进设计提供有效的信息支持     

Environmental assessment of laser assisted manufacturing: case studies on laser shock peening and laser assisted turning

Laser assisted manufacturing processes, when compared with traditional manufacturing processes, have the potential to reduce cost, increase surface resistance to wear and fatigue, extend part/tool life, and expand the range of manufacturable materials. These processes have found niche applications in automotive, aerospace, and defense industries. However, very limited research has been conducted to evaluate and compare the environmental performance of laser assisted processes with traditional methods. This paper conducts case studies on two representative laser based processes, i.e. laser shock peening of 7075-T7351 Aluminum and laser assisted turning of compacted graphite iron. Life cycle assessment is used to benchmark the environmental performance of these two processes to conventional processes, i.e. shot peening and turning, respectively. The life cycle inventory of both the laser based processes and conventional processes are developed using SimaPro 7.1 and the Ecoinvent 2.0 database and life cycle impact assessment is performed using US EPA TRACI. The results of this study show that the environmental performance of the two laser based processes is significantly better than conventional processes. For laser shock peening of aluminum, contribution analysis indicates that this is mainly due to the significant extension of fatigue life of the workpiece being treated. For laser assisted turning of compacted graphite iron, the improved performance is mainly due to the extended tool life since cutting tool manufacturing is an energy intensive process. Development of high-power laser with a lower wavelength (e.g. direct diode system) could eliminate the use of paint in laser assisted turning. This, along with improved wall plug efficiency, makes laser assisted turning even more environmentally benign compared to conventional process. A brief cost analysis suggests that both laser shock peening and laser assisted turning can be economically viable with payback period less than three years for niche applications.     

Life cycle assessment of mobile phone housing

The life cycle assessment of the mobile phone housing in Motorola(China) Electronics Ltd. was carried out, in which materials flows and environmental emissions based on a basic production scheme were analyzed and assessed. In the manufacturing stage, such primary processes as polycarbonate molding and surface painting are included, whereas different surface finishing technologies like normal painting, electroplate, IMD and VDM etc. were assessed. The results showed that housing decoration plays a significant role within the housing life cycle. The most significant environmental impact from housing production is the photochemical ozone formation potential.Environmental impacts of different decoration techniques varied widely, for example, the electroplating technique is more environmentally frieodly than VDM. VDM consumes much more energy and raw material. In addition, the results of two alternative scenarios of dematerialization showed that material flow analysis and assessment is very important and valuable in selecting an environmentally friendly process.     

Life cycle assessment of coated white board: a case study in China

Life cycle assessment was carried out using IMPACT2002+ to estimate the environmental impact of coated white board production, which is common in China. Normalized results showed that the potential impacts of respiratory inorganics, terrestrial ecotoxicity, global warming, and non-renewable energy had a dominant contributions to overall environmental impact. Specifically, emissions from chemical and energy production processes exhibited higher potential impact (more than 80% of the total contribution) on the environment than that of emissions generated from transport, landfill, wastewater treatment, and paper plants infrastructure. Energy recovery from black liquor and energy generation based on natural gas are key factors in reducing overall environmental potential impact. The current paper presents improvements on the environmental performance of a coated white board production site in China.     

铅酸蓄电池生命周期评价

铅酸蓄电池是世界上产量最大、用途最广的一种二次电池。铅酸蓄电池生命周期过程中每一个环节都有可能对环境带来不利影响,评估从生产到废弃处理关键过程中对环境的影响,可以为制定有效的管理政策提供科研支撑。目前,尚缺乏针对我国特色的铅酸蓄电池行业全生命周期评价的研究,造成此行业的污染防治无据可依。因此,本研究针对铅酸蓄电池的生命周期进行评价,通过设定研究目的与范围、收集数据与分析清单、获得影响评价和解释结果,研究了铅酸蓄电池对环境的影响,结果表明铅酸蓄电池在生产环节的板栅浇铸过程和废弃处理环节的脱硫过程应属于管理中着重控制的部分。     

磷酸铁锂电池不同应用场景的生命周期评价

为评估磷酸铁锂(LFP)电池梯次应用的生命周期环境影响,设定直接应用和梯次应用2个应用场景,采用生命周期评价(LCA)方法,对应用场景生命周期各阶段的环境影响及其贡献进行分析.功能单位设定为应用总容量1GWh的LFP电池作为通讯基站(CBS)储能电池,循环寿命为800次.结果表明,2个应用场景的环境影响热点均为储能应用...     

中国水泥生产环境负荷研究

基于生命周期理论,采用CML环境影响评价方法对我国水泥生产的环境负荷进行了定量分析.结果表明,水泥生产的环境影响主要体现在温室效应、不可再生能源消耗和不可再生资源消耗,其环境负荷分别占对应环境影响类型世界总负荷的2.76%、2.34%和1.39%.2004年我国水泥生产的环境负荷约占世界总负荷的1.28%,其中,立窑生产工艺、湿法回转窑生产工艺和新型干法生产工艺的环境负荷分别为0.84%,0.12%和0.32%.通过行业结构调整,用新型干法生产工艺取代其它落后的生产工艺,可使我国水泥生产的环境负荷降至世界总负荷的1%左右.     

生态产品生命周期设计概念框架

生态产品是从原材料采掘到产品制造、运销、使用和最终报废处理整个生命周期总环境影响最小的产品，而生命周期设计是实现产品环境影响最小化和污染预防的最好方式之一。生态产品的开发，应从设计开始，生态产品生命周期设计的概念是一种基于产品系统的设计方法；其设计步骤有确定系统边界、环境现状评价、设计要求分析、各要求优先排序与协调，设计对策、设计方案评价等几个方面，随着ＩＳＯ１４０００体系的全面建立，产品生命周期     

Life cycle assessment of spray dried soluble coffee and comparison with alternatives (drip filter and capsule espresso)

This paper aims to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with spray dried soluble coffee over its entire life cycle and compare it with drip filter coffee and capsule espresso coffee. It particularly aims to identify critical environmental issues and responsibilities along the whole life cycle chain of spray dried coffee. This life cycle assessment (LCA) specifically uses foreground data obtained directly from coffee manufacturers and suppliers. Aside from energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions, water footprint is also studied in detail, including regionalization of water impacts based on the ecological scarcity method 2006. Other impact categories are screened using the IMPACT 2002+ impact assessment method.The overall LCA results for a 1 dl cup of spray dried soluble coffee amounts approximately to 1 MJ of primary non-renewable energy consumption, to emissions of 0.07 kg of CO_2-eq, and between 3 and 10 l of non-turbined water use, depending on whether or not the coffee cultivation is irrigated and wet treated. When considering turbined water, use can be up to 400 l of water per cup. Pouch – and to a lesser extent metal can packaging alternatives – show lower environmental burdens than glass or sticks.On average, about one half of the environmental footprint occurs at a life cycle stage under the control of the coffee producer or its suppliers (i.e., during cultivation, treatment, processing, packaging up to distribution, along with advertising) and the other half at a stage controlled by the user (shopping, appliances manufacturing, use and waste disposal). Key environmental parameters of spray dried soluble coffee are the amount of extra water boiled and the efficiency of cup cleaning during use phase, whether the coffee is irrigated or not, as well as the type and amount of fertilizer used in the coffee field. The packaging contributes to 10% of the overall life cycle impacts.Compared to other coffee alternatives, spray dried soluble coffee uses less energy and has a lower environmental footprint than capsule espresso coffee or drip filter coffee, the latter having the highest environmental impacts on a per cup basis. This study shows that a broad LCA approach is needed to help industry to minimize the environmental burdens directly related to their products. Including all processes of the entire system is necessary i) to get a comprehensive environmental footprint of the product system with respect to sustainable production and consumption, ii) to share stakeholders responsibility along the entire product life cycle, and iii) to avoid problem shifting between different life cycle stages.     

Ecodesign methods focused on remanufacturing

Understanding the product's ‘end-of-life’ is important to reduce the environmental impact of the products' final disposal. When the initial stages of product development consider end-of-life aspects, which can be established by ecodesign (a proactive approach of environmental management that aims to reduce the total environmental impact of products), it becomes easier to close the loop of materials. The ‘end-of-life’ ecodesign methods generally include more than one ‘end-of-life’ strategy. Since product complexity varies substantially, some components, systems or sub-systems are easier to be recycled, reused or remanufactured than others. Remanufacture is an effective way to maintain products in a closed-loop, reducing both environmental impacts and costs of the manufacturing processes. This paper presents some ecodesign methods focused on the integration of different ‘end-of-life’ strategies, with special attention to remanufacturing, given its increasing importance in the international scenario to reduce the life cycle impacts of products.     

Macro-level environmental comparison of near-dry machining and flood machining

This paper focuses on investigating several aspects of the machining process from an ecological perspective, the result being a macro-level analysis. The analysis presented here considers not only the environmental impact of the material removal process itself, but also the impact of the associated processes such as the material preparation, and the scrap processing. A macro-level assessment of the comparative life cycle environmental performance of the near-dry machining (NDM) using TiN-coated carbide tools and the flood machining (FM) is performed by a case study referring to the gear milling. The assessment, using the SimaPro 7.1.5 software and the ecoinvent1.5 database, includes combined Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the workpiece material, the scrap processing, the use of lubrication, and the energy consumption.     

电动与内燃机汽车的动力系统生命周期环境影响对比分析

以国内某两款同一车型的电动与内燃机汽车的动力系统为研究对象,通过生命周期分析软件GaBi建立生命周期评价(LCA)模型,在清单数据分析的基础上,采用CML2001模型对两种动力系统分别进行了定量的生命周期环境影响评价.评价结果表明,电动汽车动力系统的全生命周期综合环境影响比内燃机汽车动力系统高60.15％,并分别通过回收阶段分析、电能结构分析和敏感性分析对这一结果进行了解释:回收阶段中酸化、富营养化和光化学臭氧合成3种环境影响类型的直接排放大于回收得到的环境效益;电动汽车动力系统的环境影响随着火力发电比例的下降而减小,增大水能、风力和核能发电在电力系统中所占比例能有效降低电动汽车对环境的影响;动力系统重量对电动汽车动力系统的环境排放影响最为敏感,电池充电效率次之,制造阶段能耗的敏感度最小.将动力系统使用阶段的环境影响分配到整车,则电动汽车的生命周期环境影响比内燃机汽车低0.14％,且主要环境影响类型是全球变暖、酸化和富营养化.     

基于循环特性的镍氢和锂离子电池环境影响机制分析

为了了解镍氢电池和锂离子电池在生产、使用、废弃或回收过程中的环境影响,建立了一种简单快速的二次电池环境影响机制分析方法。通过生命周期评价(LCA)方法,采用Eco-indicator99体系,综合考虑电池循环容量衰减和循环次数的影响,建立了二次电池环境影响机制分析模型,并运用此模型对两种实验用二次电池(镍氢电池和锂离子电池)的环境影响机制进行了研究。结果表明:1)在所选取的两种二次电池当中,锂离子(Li-ion)电池的环境影响明显比镍氢(Ni-MH)电池的低;2)随着循环次数的增加Li-ion电池环境影响衰减比Ni-MH电池的明显,即随着使用循环次数的增加,Li-ion电池对环境的影响会降低到更多。综合来说,所选取的Li-ion电池比Ni-MH电池更具环境可持续性。文中所提出的环境影响机制分析模型同样可以应用于其他二次电池,以期为环境友好型二次电池的开发提供帮助。     

水泥窑协同处置工业废弃物的生命周期评价

以废白土、废催化剂和污染土壤等工业废弃物为研究对象,运用生命周期评价(LCA)方法,对水泥窑协同处置废弃物的环境影响进行评价.通过建立生产过程输入、输出清单,从全球变暖潜值、资源消耗潜值、人体毒性潜值等方面,基于Gabi5.0软件进行建模与计算,对水泥窑常规生产工艺与协同处置工业废弃物工艺产生的环境影响进行比较.结果表明:功能单位(1 t)水泥的生产过程中,常规生产工艺和协同处置工艺的环境影响潜值分别为5.78×10~(-11)和5.61×10~(-11),协同处置工艺使得全生命周期环境影响潜值降低了2.94%;水泥生产过程最主要的环境影响是全球变暖和人体毒性,其中,协同处置工艺下这两种环境影响分别降低了0.80%和1.80%,资源消耗相比常规生产降低了11.1%;从全生命周期看,水泥生产中熟料煅烧阶段对环境的影响最大,协同处置工艺下熟料煅烧阶段的环境影响相比常规生产降低了8.0%.协同处置工艺相比常规生产工艺有更好的环境效益.