A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Magnesium Front End Autoparts

Dubreuil, Alain; Bushi, Lindita; Tharumarajah, A.

doi:10.4271/2010-01-0275

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…For the review, twenty-six LCAs on light-duty vehicle mass reduction were identified. The studies, listed in Table 1, were published in 2010 or later and focus on the application of LCA to investigate the impacts of reducing mass from vehicles or their components (Baroth and McKay, 2012;Bushi et al, 2015;Das, 2011Das, , 2014bDhingra and Das, 2014;Ding et al, 2016;Du et al, 2010aDu et al, , 2010bDubreuil et al, 2012;Ehrenberger, 2013;Kelly et al, 2015;Kim et al, 2010;Koffler, 2013;Lewis et al, 2014;Li et al, 2015;Marretta et al, 2012;Mayyas et al, 2012c;PE International, 2012a,b;Raugei et al, 2015;Simões et al, 2016;Stasinopoulos et al, 2012;Steel Market Development Institute, 2016;Tempelman, 2011;Tharumarajah and Koltun, 2010;Witik et al, 2011). The cutoff year of 2010 was selected to focus the review on LCAs that may capture more recent innovations in mass reduction technology, changing material compositions in light-duty vehicles, updated inventory data, and policy changes that have driven mass reduction efforts to the forefront.…”

Section: Recent Lca Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SF6 is the most potent GHG with a 100-year global warming potential 23,900 times greater than CO 2 and an estimated atmospheric life of 3200 years (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007; Raugei et al, 2015). Although the weight reductions result in greater reductions during the use phase, the difference between aluminum and magnesium is not significant enough to warrant the impacts associated with magnesium production, particularly the use of SF6 (Dubreuil et al, 2012).…”

Section: Magnesiummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many of the studies discuss the phase-out of SF6 in favor of less climate-damaging cover gases such as SO2 (Kelly et al, 2015;Li et al, 2015;Raugei et al, 2015) or R134a (Ehrenberger, 2013;Raugei et al, 2015;Tharumarajah and Koltun, 2010). Li et al and Dubreuil et al found that even with the use of SO2 as a cover gas, the magnesium industry would need to rely on other technology improvements to provide life-cycle GHG emissions reductions relative to aluminum for vehicle mass reduction (Dubreuil et al, 2012;Li et al, 2015). Dubreuil et al also highlighted the importance of recycling to reduce the impacts associated with the use of magnesium components and the need for more significant market penetration of magnesium components in order to achieve economically viable magnesium recovery at EOL.…”

Section: Magnesiummentioning

confidence: 99%

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Critical factors affecting life cycle assessments of material choice for vehicle mass reduction

Hottle

Caffrey

McDonald

et al. 2017

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment

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New greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for cars and light trucks are taking effect for model year 2017, progressing towards an anticipated sales-weighted average level of 173 g/mile C0 2 for model year 2025, and fuel economy standards increasing each year to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) target of 51.4 mpg fleet-wide by 2025 (for a projected vehicle sales mix). As a result, vehicle manufacturers are looking for solutions that can meet these goals without sacrificing marketable vehicle attributes (Nehuis et al., 2014;U.S. EPA, 2012aU.S. EPA, , 2014. Reducing mass enables vehicles to operate more efficiently during the use phase because energy demands (e.g., acceleration, rolling friction) on the powertrain are reduced. This reduction in mass can have major benefits on the total life-cycle impacts of vehicles because the current use phase accounts for 84-88% of the total life-cycle energy consumption and GFIG emissions for conventional light-duty vehicles. Comparatively, the manufacturing contributes approximately 4-7% of the energy consumption over the life of a light-duty vehicle (Keoleian and Sullivan, 2012;Mcauley, 2003; Sullivan and Cobas-Flores, 2001; Sullivan et al., 1998). Because of this dominant contribution of impacts from the use phase, mass reduction efforts and other use-phase efficiency measures provide an effective means to reduce the total life-cycle impacts. Flowever, the share of life-cycle impacts between the production and use phase for vehicles is likely to shift away from the use phase with increasing efficiency and with reduced light-duty vehicle GFIG emissions standards, as shown in the example comparison in Fig. 1

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Section: Recent Lca Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Magnesiummentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Magnesiummentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Critical factors affecting life cycle assessments of material choice for vehicle mass reduction

Hottle

Caffrey

McDonald

et al. 2017

Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…5). The latter can at least be partly Automotive Poulikidou et al (2015), Mayyas et al (2012b), Ribeiro et al (2007), Geyer (2008), Fitch and Cooper (2003) Impacts of lightweighting Automotive Das (2000), Das (2014), Duflou et al (2009), van Acker et al (2009, Kim et al (2010), Geyer (2008), Raugei et al (2015), Ding et al (2016), Delogu et al (2017), Koffler (2014) Material substitution Wood Petersen and Solberg (2004) Automotive Akhshik et al (2017), Alves et al (2010), dos Santos et al (2014b), Das (2011), Dubreuil et al (2012), Hardwick and Outteridge (2016), Puri et al (2009), Sun et al (2017), Song et al (2009), Tharumarajah and Koltun (2007), Witik et al (2011), Wötzel et al (1999), Zah et al (2007) Re-design/ Eco-design Wood Bolin and Smith (2011a, 2011c, Cobut et al (2015), dos Santos et al 2014 2018, Petersen and Solberg (2004), Phungrassami and Usubharatana (2015), Rivela et al (2007;2006), Wenker et al (2016) Automotive Hakamada et al (2007) Studies mentioned more than once means that multiple objectives were formulated Table 6 Objectives of the reviewed E-LCA studies…”

Section: Factors Influencing Methodical Choices In E-lcamentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparing the incomparable? A review of methodical aspects in the sustainability assessment of wood in vehicles

Mair-Bauernfeind

Zimek

Lettner

et al. 2020

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose The choice of materials used for a vehicle can contribute to reduce negative environmental and social impacts. Bio-based materials are considered a promising solution; however, the sustainability effects still need to be assessed. Depending on the material assessed, it is questionable which environmental and social impact categories or subcategories should be included since recommendations in guidelines are vague and case studies in this regard are limited. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on the choice of impact categories, methods, and indicators for E-LCA and S-LCA when assessing wood as substitute for conventional materials in automotive applications. Method The research is based on a literature review covering 115 case studies of S-LCAs and E-LCAs focusing either on wood-based products or on components in automotive applications. The selected case studies were analyzed according to the following criteria: considered stakeholder groups and chosen subcategories (S-LCA sample), sector or product system (S-LCA sample), year of publication and geographical scope (S-LCA and E-LCA sample), chosen LCIA method(s) and impact categories, objective(s) of the studies, analyzed materials and used software support (E-LCA samples). Results and discussion For S-LCA some relevant social topics for bio-based product systems, like food security or land- and worker-related concerns, could be identified. The E-LCA literature suggests that the objective and material type determine calculation approaches and impact category choices. Some material-related environmental issues like biodiversity loss in the case of bio-based product systems or ecotoxicity for steel and toxicity in the case of aluminum could be identified. For S-LCA the geographical and sectorial context and the affected stakeholders are the determining factors for methodical choices, however, the results show almost no difference in subcategory choice and geographical context. Influencing factors for methodical choices in E-LCA might be the objective of the study, data availability, the up-to-dateness of the LCIA approach, the geographical scope of the study, the materials analyzed, and the availability of software support. Conclusion Some relevant environmental and social impact categories as well as influencing factors on methodical choices could be identified from existing literature. However, a clear picture on these issues could not be drawn. Further research is needed on the motivation of researches on certain methodical choices as well as on environmental issues connected with materials or geographical-related social topics.

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“…Most of the product-based studies assume that the model parameters, such as the proportion of recycled content in the product, are constants (e.g. Bertram et al 2009;Buxman 1994;Carlsson 2009;Davies 2003;Dubreuil et al 2010;Hakamada et al 2007;Ribeiro et al 2008;Tharumarajah and KoltunI 2007). A few of the studies account for temporal effects by assuming that some parameters change according to fixed functions of time.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

A system dynamics approach in LCA to account for temporal effects—a consequential energy LCI of car body-in-whites

Stasinopoulos

Compston

Newell

et al. 2011

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to take steps towards a life cycle assessment that is able to account for changes over time in resource flows and environmental impacts. The majority of life cycle inventory (LCI) studies assume that computation parameters are constants or fixed functions of time. This assumption limits the opportunities to account for temporal effects because it precludes consideration of the dynamics of the product system. Methods System dynamics methods are used in a consequential, fleet-based LCI that accounts for some aspects of the dynamics of the wider system. The LCI model compares the life-cycle energy consumption of car bodyin-whites (BIWs) in Australia made from steel and aluminium. It incorporates two dynamic processes: the flow of BIWs into and out of the fleet, and the recycling of aluminium from end-of-life BIWs back into new BIW production. The dynamical model computes both productbased and fleet-based estimates. Results and discussion The product-based computations suggest that an aluminium BIW consumes less energy than a steel BIW over a single life cycle. The fleet-based computations suggest that the energy benefits of aluminium BIWs do not begin to emerge for some time. The substitution of aluminium for steel is a low-leverage intervention that changes the values of a few parameters of the system. The system has a delayed, damped response to this intervention because the large stock of BIWs is a source of high inertia, and the long useful life leads to a slow decay of steel BIWs out of the fleet. The recycling of aluminium back into BIW production is a moderate-leverage intervention that initially strengthens a reinforcing feedback loop, driving a rapid accumulation of energy benefits. Dominance then shifts to a balancing loop, slowing the accumulation of energy benefits. Both interventions result in a measureable reduction in life-cycle energy consumption, but only temporarily divert the underlying growth trend.Conclusions The results suggest that product-based LCIs overestimate the short-term energy benefits of aluminium by not accounting for the time required for the stock of preexisting steel components to decay out of the fleet, and underestimate the long-term energy benefits of aluminium components by not accounting for changes in the availability of recycled aluminium. The results also suggest that interventions such as lightweighting and other efficiency measures alone can slow the growth of energy consumption, but are probably inadequate to achieve sustainable energy consumption levels if the fleet is large.

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A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Magnesium Front End Autoparts

Cited by 13 publications

References 8 publications

Critical factors affecting life cycle assessments of material choice for vehicle mass reduction

Critical factors affecting life cycle assessments of material choice for vehicle mass reduction

Comparing the incomparable? A review of methodical aspects in the sustainability assessment of wood in vehicles

A system dynamics approach in LCA to account for temporal effects—a consequential energy LCI of car body-in-whites

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