scholarly journals Product Design Evaluation Using Life Cycle Assessment and Design for Assembly: A Case Study of a Water Leakage Alarm

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatbita Suhariyanto ◽  
Dzuraidah Wahab ◽  
Mohd Rahman
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Design Evaluation ◽  
Design For Assembly ◽  
Water Leakage ◽  
Design Efficiency ◽  
Use Stage ◽  
Assembly Principles ◽  
Manufacturing Stage

This study proposed the use of an LCA supported by a design efficiency evaluation based on Design for Assembly principles to reduce the environmental impact of a product. To illustrate the methodology, a water leakage alarm (WLA) was selected as the object for a case study. Based on the identification and evaluation of the LCA results, it was inferred that the stage with the highest environmental impact was the manufacturing stage (75.35%), followed by the use stage (23.88%), the disposal of the WLA (0.64%), and finally, the disposal of the batteries (0.14%). For the manufacturing stage, the most interrelated categories were the hazardous waste and human toxicity, while the use stage was the main contributor to ozone depletion and acidification. Moreover, the disposal of the WLA and batteries contributed to the bulk waste. Furthermore, from the assembly evaluation, the design efficiency of the product was 14%. Two recommendations for improving the design of the WLA were: (1) to reduce the number of screws from three units to one unit, and (2) to eliminate the use of a cable and to replace it with a wireless component. By implementing both the proposed recommendations, the design efficiency was improved by as much as 34%. From the environmental perspective, there is not much difference between the wired alarm and wireless alarm. The wired alarm was considered to be more environmentally friendly in terms of product manufacturing but the wireless alarm has an advantage in terms of design and energy efficiency. By combining LCA and DFA design evaluation, a more comprehensive perspective of the product life cycle can be achieved.

Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Smartphones with Device Reuse

2012 ◽  
pp. 252-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xun Li ◽  
Pablo Ortiz ◽  
Brandon Kuczenski ◽  
Diana Franklin ◽  
Frederic T. Chong
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Quantitative Analysis ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Energy Materials ◽  
Societal Benefit ◽  
Life Cycle Stages ◽  
Elementary School Education ◽  
Manufacturing Stage

The rapid growth of information technology has not only brought substantial economic and societal benefit but also led to an unsustainable disposable model in which mobile devices are replaced in a matter of months. The environmental impact of this stream of handsets in terms of manufacturing energy, materials, and disposal costs is alarming. This chapter aims at raising today’s environmental issues of the increasing smartphone market, as well as providing a quantitative analysis on the environmental impact of different life-cycle stages of the smartphones, including the manufacturing stage, using stage, and recycling. To achieve sustainable computing and best utilize the energy consumed during manufacturing the large number of devices, this chapter demonstrates the methodology and techniques towards reusing smartphones by presenting a case study on reusing smartphones for elementary school education.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Environmental Impact Assessment of Circular Agriculture: A Case Study in Fuqing, China

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1810 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weiguo Fan ◽  
Peng Zhang ◽  
Zihan Xu ◽  
Hejie Wei ◽  
Nachuan Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Environmental Impact Assessment

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment of LNG Fueled Vessel in Domestic Services

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hwang ◽  
Jeong ◽  
Jung ◽  
Kim ◽  
Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Marine Fuel ◽  
Pm 2.5 ◽  
Fuel Supply ◽  
Selection Of

This research was focused on a comparative analysis of using LNG as a marine fuel with a conventional marine gas oil (MGO) from an environmental point of view. A case study was performed using a 50K bulk carrier engaged in domestic services in South Korea. Considering the energy exporting market for South Korea, the fuel supply chain was designed with the two largest suppliers: Middle East (LNG-Qatar/MGO-Saudi Arabia) and U.S. The life cycle of each fuel type was categorized into three stages: Well-to-Tank (WtT), Tank-to-Wake (TtW), and Well-to-Wake (WtW). With the process modelling, the environmental impact of each stage was analyzed based on the five environmental impact categorizes: Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP), Photochemical Potential (POCP), Eutrophication Potential (EP) and Particulate Matter (PM). Analysis results reveal that emission levels for the LNG cases are significantly lower than the MGO cases in all potential impact categories. Particularly, Case 1 (LNG import to Korea from Qatar) is identified as the best option as producing the lowest emission levels per 1.0 × 107 MJ of fuel consumption: 977 tonnages of CO2 equivalent (for GWP), 1.76 tonnages of SO2 equivalent (for AP), 1.18 tonnages of N equivalent (for EP), 4.28 tonnages of NMVOC equivalent (for POCP) and 26 kg of PM 2.5 equivalent (for PM). On the other hand, the results also point out that the selection of the fuel supply routes could be an important factor contributing to emission levels since longer distances for freight transportation result in more emissions. It is worth noting that the life cycle assessment can offer us better understanding of holistic emission levels contributed by marine fuels from the cradle to the grave, which are highly believed to remedy the shortcomings of current marine emission indicators.

The Implementation of Genetic Algorithm in the Manufacturing Process of a Product for Reduced Environmental Impact: A Case Study of a Pulley Crankshaft

2015 ◽  
Vol 761 ◽  
pp. 651-655
Author(s):  
Hazwan Syafiq ◽  
Zahari Taha ◽  
Razali Muhamad
Keyword(s):  
Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Manufacturing Process ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Specific Product ◽  
Cad System ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Minimal Environmental Impact

Life Cycle Assessment or LCA method is believed to be a good solution to improve sustainability in a manufacturing process. This method allows designers to identify opportunities to improve the environmental aspects of products at various points in their life cycle. In this paper, the implementation of LCA through the development of an Environmental Impact Assessment Tool (EIAT) is demonstrated via a case study of Volkswagen pulley crankshaft. EIAT is a tool that aids designers to improve the environmental impact in a manufacturing process by designing or producing products with minimal environmental impact and minimal use of resources, such as the material and energy. EIAT also offers the optimization of design solutions to reduce potential environmental impact of a specific product according to its design features. A pulley crankshaft was modelled in a CAD system where the form is fixed to maintain its function. Pulley crankshaft features, such as the type of material, diameter of pocket, stock thickness and diameter are the parameters that were optimized through the Genetic Algorithm encoded in EIAT. EIAT was validated with Eco-It (an established LCA tool) and with actual experiments. Results show a difference of less than 9% error between EIAT with the results produced by Eco-It and the actual experiments.

scholarly journals Environmental and Economic Optimisation of Buildings in Portugal and Hungary

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 13531
Author(s):  
Benedek Kiss ◽  
Jose Dinis Silvestre ◽  
Rita Andrade Santos ◽  
Zsuzsa Szalay
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Residential Building ◽  
Thermal Transmittance ◽  
Energy Efficient Buildings ◽  
Engineering Problems ◽  
Mathematical Optimisation ◽  
Optimisation Algorithms

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a scientific method for evaluating the environmental impact of products. Standards provide a general framework for conducting an LCA study and calculation rules specifically for buildings. The challenge is to design energy-efficient buildings that have a low environmental impact, reasonable costs, and high thermal comfort as these are usually conflicting aspects. Efficient mathematical optimisation algorithms can be applied to such engineering problems. In this paper, a framework for automated optimisation is described, and it is applied to a multi-story residential building case study in two locations, Portugal and Hungary. The objectives are to minimise the life cycle environmental impacts and costs. The results indicate that optimum solutions are found at a higher cost but lower global warming potential for Portugal than for Hungary. Optimum solutions have walls with a thermal transmittance in the intervals of 0.29–0.39 and 0.06–0.19 W/m2K for Portugal and Hungary, respectively. Multi-objective optimisation algorithms can be successfully applied to find solutions with low environmental impact and an eco-efficient thermal envelope.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Analysis of Sotol Production in Mexico

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Madrid-Solórzano ◽  
Jorge Luis García-Alcaraz ◽  
Emilio Jiménez Macías ◽  
Eduardo Martínez Cámara ◽  
Julio Blanco Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Northern Mexico ◽  
Improvement Interventions ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories

Sotol is a Mexican distilled spirit produced in Northern Mexico. The estimated annual production of sotol is at around 5,200 hl per year. This industry grows at an average rate of 5% per year. The Mexican Sotol Council and the Sotol Certificate Council are regulatory bodies dedicated to monitoring that sotol producers comply with the Official Mexican Standard NOM-159-SCFI-2004. Currently, those regulatory bodies try to improve the sotol production process and good practice guidelines to contribute to cleaner production. This paper reports a case study of artisanal sotol production in Chihuahua State in Mexico. Life cycle assessment (LCA) technique was used to compute the environmental impact of sotol and its performance to identify system hotspots and propose improvement interventions. SimaPro software, v.9.1®, is used for the LCA, applying CML-IA baseline V3.05/EU25 method to evaluate and select environmental impact categories. The system boundary included the stages of harvest, cooking, milling, fermentation, distillation, bottling, and packaging. The findings indicate that each of the stages required for sotol beverage processing significantly affects the marine ecosystem. The milling and bottling stages have the highest environmental impact. A 750-ml bottle of artisan sotol causes 5.92 kg CO2 eq, based on empirical data. Sotol makers should focus on reducing energy consumption caused by input transportation and equipment for milling.

scholarly journals Bridge Carbon Emissions and Driving Factors Based on a Life-Cycle Assessment Case Study: Cable-Stayed Bridge over Hun He River in Liaoning, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5953 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZhiWu Zhou ◽  
Julián Alcalá ◽  
Víctor Yepes
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Building Materials ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cable Stayed Bridge ◽  
Full Life Cycle ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Bridge Structures ◽  
Development Analysis

Due to the rapid growth of the construction industry’s global environmental impact, especially the environmental impact contribution of bridge structures, it is necessary to study the detailed environmental impact of bridges at each stage of the full life cycle, which can provide optimal data support for sustainable development analysis. In this work, the environmental impact case of a three-tower cable-stayed bridge was analyzed through openLCA software, and more than 23,680 groups of data were analyzed using Markov chain and other research methods. It was concluded that the cable-stayed bridge contributed the most to the global warming potential value, which was mainly concentrated in the operation and maintenance phases. The conclusion shows that controlling the exhaust pollution of passing vehicles and improving the durability of building materials were the key to reducing carbon contribution and are also important directions for future research.

scholarly journals Environmental Impact Assessment of Transportation Infrastructure in the Life Cycle: Case Study of a Fast Track Transportation Project in China

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Quanxue Deng ◽  
Jingxiao Zhang ◽  
Ayokunle Olubunmi Olanipekun ◽  
Sainan Lyu
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Transportation Infrastructure ◽  
Project Life Cycle ◽  
Infrastructure Project ◽  
Environmental Emissions ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Project Life

The transportation sector generates enormous amount of environmental emission. This study aims to assess the environmental impact of the environmental emissions in a transportation infrastructure project life cycle. Using the fast track transportation project in China as a case study, the materials used and the energy consumed over the life cycle were converted into environmental emissions. The life cycle of fast track transportation project was divided into three phases including construction, maintenance and repair, and demolition phases. Both qualitative and quantitative method were applied to explore the environmental impact of transportation project. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method was used for the development environmental impact assessment (EIA) model to analyze the contribution of each process in the transportation project life cycle. The empirical results show that the construction phase has the highest environmental impact (62.7%) in the fast track transportation project life cycle, followed by the demolition (35.8%) and maintenance phases (1.7%). Among the materials used in the fast track transportation project, steel has the highest proportion of environmental impact in the construction phase (55.5%). This indicates the enormous environmental impact of the construction phase in fast track transportation project life cycle results from the use of steel material. This study contributes to reducing environmental emissions by revealing the greatest phase of environmental impact and material-source of environmental impact over the life cycle in a transportation infrastructure project.

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