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The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performed on ethylene glycol based antifreeze solution and propylene glycol based antifreeze solution shows that the energy required by the ethylene glycol based solution is less than the energy used by the propylene glycol based solution. The propylene glycol based solution generates greater total solid waste than the ethylene glycol based solution. The propylene glycol based antifreeze solution has a higher potential impact in more of the impact categories than the ethylene glycol based solution based on mass loading techniques for characterization. However, conclusions beyond using mass loading on a category-by-category basis cannot be determined.

Over the last decades, electric vehicles (EVs) have emerged as an alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles. EVs have different propulsion and fuel intake system when compared to internal combustion engine vehicles. Therefore, cradle-to-gate (CTG) and well-to-wheel (WTW) greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) would be different. In this study, life cycle GHG emissions of vehicle cycle and fuel cycle are compared between EV and internal combustion engine (ICEV) powered by petrol and diesel as fuel. This study used the average curb weight of all three types of vehicles based on the availability and popularity in the Indian market (as a case study) for life cycle assessment. The Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transport (GREET) model developed by Argonne National Laboratory was adopted to conduct the life cycle assessment. The mileage of 150,000 km over the whole life period was assumed for all types of vehicles.

The ISO 14000 series of standards will include guidelines for product life-cycle assessment (LCA) that are intended to be applicable to all products, regardless of materials, production system, or end use. Practice in LCA, however, has lagged far behind theory. Existing methods are at best marginally applicable to high-technology manufactured products such as automobiles that can contain thousands of components made from hundreds of raw materials. Optimization of the environmental performance of such production systems cannot be reduced to simple measures of energy and material use. This paper identifies technical issues relevant to the development operational LCA methodologies for high-technology products and proposes a hierarchical approach that is consistent with the general principles of ISO 14000 but is tailored to the needs of LCA users within high-technology industries.

Global warming and climate change are among the top subjects of growing global concern. According to International Energy Agency (IEA), about 19% of the greenhouse gas emissions from fuel combustion are generated by the transportation sector, and its share is likely to grow. A forecast by US Census Bureau predicts that there will be 3.5 billion cars by 2050 for a population of 9 billion. In this context, numbers in the industrialized world are expected to double from around half a billion to over one billion. An increase in fleet volume will have a direct and major impact on increase of CO₂ emissions. Therefore, reducing vehicle fuel consumption is one of the most critical steps for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and reduction of vehicle weight is one of the best solutions for improving fuel efficiency.

This paper analyses the important role of the scientific and rational assessment system in the road traffic emissions reduction by the study of how each strategy affects, including technological progress, annual vehicle travel, as well as mileage-related impacts such as management and optimization of traffic flow. The consequence of air pollution will also be quantified, thus building a dynamic life cycle assessment system to measure pollution emissions from motor vehicles.

Internal Combustion Engine vehicles (ICEV) have approximately 80% of their environmental impact during operation, 20% during manufacturing and disposal/recycling at the end of life. On the other hand, Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) have a relatively lower impact during their use. However, BEVs produce proportionally higher equivalent-carbon dioxide (CO2e) emissions during vehicle manufacturing, which is adversely affected by the production of the battery. To account for the global environmental impact, a complete Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) needs to be done. In this work, data published by different sources and car manufacturers were used to predict the accumulated CO2e emissions along the vehicle life. In addition, a few scenarios with different assumptions were investigated. In particular, the impact of ICEVs and BEVs utilization in Brazil is lower than the world average due to the use of bioethanol as fuel and the low carbon intensity of the electricity.

Vinyl (Polyvinyl chloride or PVC) is the second largest plastic sold in the world. Vinyl has been used to make instrument panel (IP) skins in the automotive market for over forty years. Recently, questions have been raised about vinyl's life cycle environmental impact. To address these questions, the Vinyl Institute (VI) and the Chlorine Chemistry Council (CCC) had Ecobalance (life cycle consulting firm) perform a life cycle analysis (LCA) comparison between a flexible Vinyl/ABS IP skin and a Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO) IP skin. This paper will review the assumptions, analysis and conclusions of the LCA.

Car manufacturers spend steadily increasing efforts to design cars in such a way that material selection, production steps, use and recycling, respectively disposal, fulfill environmental expectations and requirements to an optimal, best known extent. The additional application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for car design supports a better and virtually “objective” understanding about resource consumption and environmental impacts during the complete life cycle of cars. Thus, LCA opens a high potential to contribute for future cars to improve them in terms of ecology as well as with regard to technological and even economic aspects. Holistic Life Cycle Costing (LCC) can hereby serve in a useful complementary manner. Co-operating with experienced partners and taking part in the development of LCA standards, Mercedes-Benz is developing LCA as a supporting tool for vehicle design.

Climate change is primary driver in the current discussions on CO2 reduction in the automotive industry. Current Type approval emissions tests (BS III, BS IV) covers only tailpipe emissions, however the emissions produced in upstream and downstream processes (e.g. raw material sourcing, manufacturing, transportation, vehicle usage, recycle phases) are not considered in the evaluation. The objective of this project is to assess the environmental impact of the product considering all stages of the life cycle, understand the real opportunities to reduce environmental impact across the product life cycle. As a part of environmental sustainability journey in business value chain, lifecycle assessment (LCA) technique helps to understand the environmental impact categories. To measure overall impact, a cradle to grave approach helps to assess entire life cycle impact throughout various stages.

This paper is part of a broader research project aiming at studying, designing, and prototyping a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine to achieve fast market implementation, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainable costs. The ability to provide a fast market implementation is linked to the fact that the technological solution would exploit the existing production chain of internal combustion engines. Regarding the technological point of view, the hydrogen engine will be a monofuel engine re-designed based on a diesel-powered engine. The redesign involves specific modifications to critical subsystems, including combustion systems, injection, ignition, exhaust gas recirculation, and exhaust gas aftertreatment. Notably, adaptations include the customization of the cylinder head for controlled ignition, optimization of camshaft profiles, and evaluation of the intake system.

This paper describes a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) done to evaluate the relative environmental performance of magnesium (Mg) and aluminum (Al) automatic transmission cases. Magnesium is considered a lighter weight substitute for aluminum in this application. Light weighting of vehicles increases fuel economy and is an important vehicle design metric. The objective of this LCA is to quantify energy and other environmental trade-offs associated with each alternative for material production, manufacturing, use, and end-of-life management stages. Key features of the inventory modeling and the data collection and analysis methods are included in this paper along with life cycle inventory profiles of aluminum and magnesium alternatives. The life cycle inventory (LCI) was interpreted using a set of environmental metrics and areas needing further research were identified. A qualitative cost assessment was done in conjunction with this LCA to highlight potential cost drivers.

In order to review improvement of the recycling rate for an end-of-life vehicle, we implemented a life cycle assessment on the three treatment scenarios for automobile shredder residue (ASR): (A) Direct landfill of whole ASR, (B) Landfill after volume reduction and solidification, (C) Landfill of dry-distillation residue after energy recovery. As a result, we confirmed that case C was effective in achieving the numerical targets of the JAMA voluntary action plan for 2002.

The aim of this article is to show how Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used at PSA Peugeot-Citroën. The encountered difficulties and its limitations are emphasized regarding a practical example: end-of-life scenarios of a polypropylene bumper skin. The step evaluating the environmental impacts from the inventory results is particularly developped.

In the coming years, higher reductions in the environmental burdens of the car will be achieved through a better design of the automobile. A controversial debate continues to surround the issue of building this environmentally friendly vehicle. Car designers alike anticipate new design guidelines and evaluation tools capable of reaching these environmental goals. Life Cycle Assessment is one of the tools available today with an application to assist the automobile industry with these new design goals. The paper will demonstrate the potential benefits of LCA for the new design guidelines within the automobile industry.

Life Cycle Assessment allows us to state the actual environmental impacts of cars on their total life cycle. As such, it provides us help in the design of cleaner cars. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of Life Cycle Assessment in car design through a case study developed for a car manufacturer.

With the emergence of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), new consideration must be given to life cycle climate performance (LCCP) evaluations to support analysis of BEVs and their associated mobile air conditioning (MAC) systems. Instead of estimating greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG) from fuel consumption, as in ICE vehicles, emissions from BEVs are dependent on carbon emission intensities produced by electricity generation for the energy the BEVs consume. MAC systems in BEVs differ from those of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) in that their air conditioning (AC) compressors are electrically driven. Additionally, a BEV MAC system may consist of a heat pump which provides the vehicle with both heating and AC. Finally, a BEV may also include a chiller, acting as part of a thermal management system for the drivetrain and batteries.

The main difference between conventional and electric vehicles is between the drive system and the energy storage. Especially the batteries play an important role within the life cycle assessment of electric vehicles. Based on our work within the „Rügen project” /IFEU 1997a/ we now have derived full energy and mass flow analyses for the production, supply, and recycling of four types of batteries: lead/acid, Ni/Cd, Na/NiCl2, and Na/S. The assessments were made in accordance with the present state of the discussion concerning the standardization of life cycle assessments (ISO/DIS 14040 - 14043) and considering the following impact categories: Resource demand, greenhouse effect, ozon depletion, acidification, eutrophication, human and eco toxicity, and photosmog. In a second step also the usage of the batteries has been assessed. The results show that there are significant differences between the batteries if the usage of them is very low.

Products and services cause different environmental problems during the different stages of their life cycle. The Life Cycle Assessment tool aims to identify possibilities to improve the environmental behavior of the systems under consideration. Herefor it is necessary to systematically collect and interpret material and energy flows for all relevant processes. The whole life cycle of a system has to be considered to prevent the neglecting of shift of possible important environmental aspects. In order to support designers, engineers and decision makers to make better informed decisions, it is necessary to perform LCA studies and economical assessments at a very early stage in product design. It is very well known, that the cost and environmental performance responsibility for a product lies mainly in the hand of the designers. Therefore management tools and procedures have to be found or developed to include LCA in this early stage.

The feasibility and economic worth of the Low Heat Rejection Engine (LHRE) are being studied for applications to the commercial truck market. Naturally, customer acceptance will be dependent upon the overall life cycle cost (LCC). Estimation of LCC is a lengthy, complex effort for current production engines, and has been even more difficult for new engine concepts for which there is no field experience. As part of a larger program to study the LHRE, a LCC methodology has been developed to quickly assess the economic worth of various LHRE concepts and configurations relative to the current state-of-the-art. The LCC model accounts for three major contributing elements; namely initial cost, fuel usage and maintenance. A model for each of these elements is developed, accounting for the significant influential parameters. All possible combinations of various LHRE and exhaust energy recovery system (EERS) concepts under study were analyzed.

The cost–effectiveness of using alternative fuels (AF) versus a conventional fuel (gasoline) in light duty vehicles is traditionally presented with a simple analysis on what can best be described as “one sheet of paper.” Unfortunately, oversimplification of the cost analysis can lead to extensive errors in the results and misleading cost and/or benefit conclusions. An extensive model for analyzing the costs and benefits of using alternative fuels has been developed which allows in–depth modeling of major characteristics of a single vehicle (or an entire fleet) which uses alternative fuel. Net present value (NPV) theorem financial modeling has been used to compute a true lifetime cost of ownership. An important output of the model is the required fuel spread needed in order to obtain a NPV of zero dollars, indicating that the savings resulting from using the alternative fuel offset the cost of the additional AF components.