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The goal of this study is to assess the total Life Cycle Global Warming Impact of the current HFC-134a (R134a) refrigeration system and compare it with the effect of proposed alternatives, HFC-134a Enhanced, HFC-152 (R152a), R744, R744 Enhanced and R290, based on life cycle analysis (LCA). The enhanced systems include control strategies to elevate the compressor suction pressure as the evaporator load is reduced. The hydrofluorocarbons HFC-134a and HFC-152a are greenhouse gases (GHGs) and are subject to the Kyoto Protocol timetables, which when the treaty takes effect will require participating developed countries to reduce their overall CO2 equivalent emissions of six GHGs by at least 5% by 2012 from 1990 levels.

Vehicle lightweighting has been a focus of the automotive industry, as car manufacturers seek to comply with corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model year (MY) 2017-2025 vehicles. However, when developing a lightweight vehicle design, the automotive industry typically targets maximum vehicle weight reduction at minimal cost increase. In this paper, we consider the environmental impacts of the lightweighting technology options. The materials used for vehicle lightweighting include high-strength steel (HSS), aluminum, magnesium and carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP). Except for HSS, the production of these light materials is more GHG-intensive (on a kg-to-kg basis) compared with the conventional automotive materials they substitute. Lightweighting with these materials, therefore, may partially offset the GHG emission reductions achieved through improved fuel economy.

Using the Life Cycle Analysis methodology, a detailed study of the car glass production phases (from the extraction of raw materials until the recycling) has been developped. This kind of approach goes in the board of the new Fiat strategies to achieve declared goals of environmental efficiency, not only to adapt its choices to new parameters of law, but also to obtain advantages of competitivity on the global market. In particular, with reference to the outline of FARE (Fiat Auto REcycling) project, the end of life of used glass for cars has been evaluated; the primary products of Fiat Punto model (windshield, windshield rear and lateral windows) are recovered to remanufacture and to get a new secondary product as the glass bottles for packaging (open loop recycling), since, until now, it is impossible to have a good quality of glass for cars from the same glass scraps.

Biomass is regarded as a renewable resource for upgrading to solid or liquid fuels or for electricity generation. Because its energy density is very low compared to petroleum or coal, the cost of transporting biomass is a significant part of the total biomass cost. For this reason it is usually regarded as a local resource. However, appropriate logistic systems may allow collection of biomass over a large geographical area, thus making it possible to consider efficient, large scale energy conversion systems. For areas without significant water transportation, the basic choices are between truck-based, train-based and pipeline transportation. Previous work has shown that pipeline transport is not effective for biomass delivery due to uptake of carrier fluid (water or oil) by the biomass. Hence, the choice becomes one between train and truck transport.

An important cornerstone of our society is the individual mobility which, today, chiefly can only be offered by the automobile. However, in the industrial countries the car at the same time is exposed to harsh criticism as far as environmental pollution is discussed. Goal of this presentation is to show a scientific method by means of which environmental loads during manufacture, use and utilization/disposal of whole systems - in this special case vehicles - can be quantified and optimized. In order to do this, the instrument of life cycle analysis of parts and processes is used and in the same way the scientific method is developed beyond the level of literature. Due to these modifications the results are only useful if the boundary conditions are mentioned in detail. Considerations on the system such as the examination of an automobile require a method extended by essential criteria due to its complexity.

The Japan Automobile Manufactures Association (JAMA), in pursuit of their goal of “creating products that put a minimum of load on the earth's environment”, have been carrying out an LCA Study related to motor vehicles. At the time of the previous TLC, for a single car taken as a collection of parts, an LCI study of the carbon dioxide emissions and consumption of energy only was carried out. It was based on 17 basic categories of materials and 13 basic manufacturing process categories. At the time of this study, the data obtained was limited to the total material consumption and energy consumption related to the manufacture of a typical 2000cc Japanese passenger car. The current study was focused on a 1500cc gasoline engine 4-door passenger sedan model, and we reclassified into approximately 140 classifications. The production process data was limited to the target model.

There are increased demands for ever more efficient and friendly environmental automotive and model airplane engines. The burning parameters have still an insufficient reliability to describe the complexity of a flame, their mass and energy flows in an internal combustion engine. The aim of this paper is to furnish a visualization by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) images for the development of oxides in specific orthogonal locii of two sets of chamber walls of Al-Si alloys that confine the flame (piston crown and engine head in the zone around its spark plug). They give a real description of the end of combustion and by means of the oxides generated they rescue some information on the flame combustion and oxidizing zone preferential directions during the engine life.

Internal combustion engines are subjected to severe service conditions, such as high pressure and temperature, and deficient lubrication. These service conditions are similar for all internal combustion engines, including two or four strokes engines. This work is part of a research program that has the objective of identifying the main wear mechanisms of some important components of a two stroke engine. In this initial stage, an aero-model IC Engine 1,2Hp (combustion chamber of 7.64 cm3, course of 18.4 mm) was tested, working at 11,600rpm, with no external applied load and using a conventional fuel with 10% nitro-methane (18% of lubricant, which contains of 20% castor oil and 80% synthetic oil). The wear was monitored through the evaluation of the thermal history of the cylinder head and SEM was used for the characterization of the: (1) piston (AISI52100 steel), (2) pin (Al-Si) and (3) cylinder head.

LCA as standardized methodology offers information which is very helpful besides the environmental analysis. The strategic management system in companies needs enormous amounts of different types of information to realize corporate risks and chances in very early stages. The following approach combines the approved methodology of LCA, which mostly is used as an operative tool, with strategic economic models from the market perspective. This leads to an interdisciplinary model for strategic risk management which is a completely new field of application for LCA and an also new, efficient way of generation and structure of information.

The European car manufacturers have combined their efforts and experience in the field of Life Cycle Assessment in a EUCAR working group. An overview on work program and status of project phase 1 and 2 is given. In particular, the efforts regarding end-of-life vehicle scenarios and key ‘in-use-phase’ parameters are addressed, e.g. real drive cycles and weight impacts on fuel consumption. In the field of impact assessment, available methodological approaches are evaluated from an automotive industries' point of view, targeting for a common position and prioritization.

These days, environmental issues have become more and more of a concern in the automobile industry. Especially, one of the environmental impact evaluation methodologies currently being developed and standardized is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a quantitative method for evaluating the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Our purpose for studying LCA is to choose environmentally friendly materials. We had used polyurethane (PU) as the material for the bumper fascia. We intended to adopt polypropylene (PP) as a replacement for polyurethane and decided to conduct a comparative LCA for the bumper assembly using PU and PP fascia. In this paper, the total life cycle (raw material, manufacturing, transportation, use and end of life) of the bumper will be studied through inventory analysis, impact assessment and interpretation.

In 1989, Volvo pledged to minimize the environmental effects of its operations by adopting a holistic approach to the environmental impact of its products, at every stage of their life cycle. As a means to achieve this goal, it was decided to use Life-cycle Assessment (LCA) philosophy. In collaboration with the Swedish Environmental Institute (IVL) and the Federation of Swedish Industries, an evaluation system based on the environmental goals adopted by the UN Conference on Environment & Development (UNCED), held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, has been developed. Based on this evaluation method, a computerized tool known as EPS - Environmental Priority Strategies in product design - was born. It is made for use by non-LCA practitioners such as design engineers and purchasing staff. This software, particularly well adapted to the profile of Volvo's products, was introduced in the company in the beginning of the nineties.

The U.S. EPA initiated the Common Sense Initiative (CSI) to develop “Cleaner, Cheaper, Smarter” environmental policy and management practices. This paper addresses the application of life cycle design and assessment tools to automotive instrument panels (IP) as part of the Automotive Manufacturing Sector CSI pilot project investigation. For this study, an “average IP” was modeled based on the instrument panels of three mid-sized U.S. car models: 1995 Chevrolet Lumina, 1996 Dodge Intrepid and 1996 Ford Taurus. This “average IP” consisted of seventeen different materials and weighed over 22 kg (49 lbs.). A life cycle inventory analysis was conducted to evaluate the environmental burdens associated with materials production, manufacturing, use, and retirement. A thorough evaluation of solid waste production and energy consumption was completed and partial inventories of air emission and water effluent releases were also conducted.

Many industrial applications have been proposed for cradle-to-grave assessment of the environmental burdens of products, including technology design and optimization, technology strategy, marketing and in lobbying regulators. Many industrial firms, including all European automobile producers, have developed life cycle assessment competences during the 1990s, and many have begun applying these to business decisions. In this paper the patterns of adoption of life cycle approaches in car producers are analyzed, together with their impacts on innovation. The paper concludes that while life cycle assessment provides a useful new framework for problem-solving, car producers will face a number of difficulties in extracting value from life cycle-based innovations.

Substituting alternative materials for conventional materials in automotive applications is an important strategy for reducing environmental burdens over the entire life cycle through weight reduction. Strong, light carbon composites and lightweight metals can potentially be used for components such as body structure, chassis parts, brakes, tie rods, or instrument panel structural beams. There are also proposed uses in conventional and alternative powered vehicles for other advanced materials, including synthetic graphite, titanium, and metals coated with graphite composite, that have special strength, hardness, corrosion resistance, or conductivity properties. The approach used in this paper was to compare the environmental life cycle inventory of parts made from carbon fiber-thermoplastic composites, synthetic graphite, titanium, and graphite coated aluminum, with parts made from conventional steel or aluminum.

In recent years, the environmental impact of automotive products and processes has become an issue of increasing competitive importance. Life cycle analysis (LCA) provides a tool that allows companies to assess and compare the environmental impact of a variety of material and process choices. This enables companies to manufacture environmentally sound products of exceptional value by environmentally conscious processes. In this study, we used LCA to compare the environmental burdens associated with three aluminum casting processes: lost foam, semi-permanent mold, and precision sand. We obtained data from one primary and one secondary facility for each of the three processes studied. These data included all of the environmental burdens associated with raw material and energy consumption, gaseous emissions, and waste generation. In addition, we modeled the environmental burdens associated with the production and transport of the materials used during the manufacturing processes.

There is a broad consensus that the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) framework according to IS0 14040-14043 is very useful for pursuing the vision of sustainable development in product design and optimization. However due to the necessary effort involved, in practice the application of this framework to complex products like automobiles is very limited. This article deals on the one hand with methodological approaches for simplifying LCA in a systematic way. On the other hand it presents the existing method of the Iterative Screening LCA as an already sound and efficient simplifying method, suitable for assessing complex products.

In accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO/FDIS 14041, different recycling scenarios of aluminum car body sheet have been examined by an LCA study, including shredding, sink-float sorting and remelting; dismantling and remelting; combination of both techniques. The study was based on the aluminum car body of an Audi A8. For benchmarking reasons, these different life cycle scenarios were compared with a conventional steel car body fulfilling the same functions and with a lightweight steel body with 25 % weight reduction. It was found that for most of the selected impact categories, the aluminum car body life cycle which ends in shredding, sink-float sorting and remelting compares favourably even with a steel light-weight construction. On the other hand, dismantling and remelting and the more realistic combination of both techniques show advantages in comparison with the shredding and sink-floating technique.

Shanghai had about a half million gasoline powered motorbikes in 2000. The motorbikes have become a significant contributor to ambient air pollution in Shanghai. This study selected an electric bike (e-bike) as a potential replacement for gasoline powered motorbikes. Life cycle assessment (LCA) was carried out for the two systems in terms of energy utilization and environment implications. LCA results indicated that e-bike is not better than the motorbike in all environment categories. The e-bike consumes less energy than the motorbike during its life cycle, and emits less GWP into air, and less BOD, COD, DS and HC into water. On the other hand, it generates more solid wastes, acidification potential, and HM than the motorbike, due to electric power production. Therefore, the Shanghai government should advocate advanced batteries and clean coal fired power plant technologies while implementing an electrical vehicle plan.

This study provides a life cycle assessment (LCA) of plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) fuel cycle. PHEVs recharging from the average electricity generation mix of China provide 16%-29% fossil energy consumption reduction, 39%-52% petroleum energy consumption reduction and 5%-26% greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction compared with conventional gasoline vehicle. The range of the results is primarily attributed to the different all electric range (AER) and PHEV types (power-split versus series designs). Impacts of electricity generation mix for battery recharging are studied by six different interprovincial power grids, one prediction electricity scenario, and the average electricity generation mix of China. Fossil energy consumption and GHG emissions of PHEVs recharging from six different interprovincial power grids show 9%-24% and 12%-29% differences respectively.