Compared Environmental Life Cycle Assessments of car wheels

are sidestepped by the fact that only the contribution to fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are considered during the life of the vehicle ( The USE PHASE ). This will be demonstrated par the study.<br><br> The use phase is not all , and to evaluate correctly the environmental profile of the wheel, all the steps of the wheel life are to be taken into account : Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 3 Raw materials Materials production : Steel Aluminium Use phase Wheel manufacturing End-of-life Recycling elor 3All rights reserved for all countries roduced without prior written specific authorization of Arcelor eged Information -Arcelor 's proprietary information L.C.A. - Life Cycle Assessment principles The LCA methodology is ISO-standardized It consists in 1. Inventorying all the pertinent materials and energies required for manufacturing the wheels, taking into account things from the initial raw materials to the end-of-line or rec clin of the wheel Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 4 2.<br><br> Calculating the more common environmental impacts for the overall life cycle of the wheels, for example " The total primary energy required " The contribution to the Global Warming (mainly CO2 emissions) " The contribution to the air acidification (acid rains) " Eventually others (ozone depletion, &) Credits PE consulting elor 3All rights reserved for all countries roduced without prior written specific authorization of Arcelor eged Information -Arcelor 's proprietary information Calculation of environmental impacts The impacts come out of models implemented in a software (Gabi, developed by the University of Stuttgart) These models need inventory data as input, for each step of the life cycle Main Input data come from " For steel production: International Iron & Steel Institute (IISI, Brussels) " Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 5 (available in Gabi Software) " For the steel wheel manufacturing: Magnetto plant in Tergnier " For the aluminium wheel manufacturing: internal document " For evaluating the use phase, a same given car of reference is considered for both the steel wheel and aluminium rim cases " Transports of matters are considered too, utilizing calculations for emissions given by Gabi Software elor 3All rights reserved for all countries roduced without prior written specific authorization of Arcelor eged Information -Arcelor 's proprietary information Overall Results The results are calculated taking into account the contribution of the wheels during the use phase of the vehicle and also the production and recycling of materials (steel, aluminium) The aluminium rim has not at all an environmental advantage. Results show a favorable environmental profile for steel when the whole life cycle is considered for materials Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 6 Unit Steel Wheel (production + use phase) Aluminium Wheel (production + use phase) Variation from Steel to Aluminium Primary Energy Requirements MJ 3079 3595 +17% Global Warming Potential kg CO2 equiv. 206 238 +16% Acidification kg SO2 equiv.<br><br> 0,06 0,14 +133% elor 3All rights reserved for all countries roduced without prior written specific authorization of Arcelor eged Information -Arcelor 's proprietary information Noticeable Results Despite the use phase is quite equivalent for the steel wheel and the aluminium rim, the impact of the materials production phase is not negligible, for the diesel powered chosen reference vehicle running 250 000 km. Primary energy requirements (MJ) 100% Global Warming Potential (kg C02 Equiv.) 100% Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 7 7,8% 15,3% 92,2% 84,7% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Steel wheel Aluminium wheel Use phase Production + Recycling 8,3% 15,1% 91,7% 84,9% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% Steel wheel Aluminium wheel Use phase Production + Recycling elor 3All rights reserved for all countries roduced without prior written specific authorization of Arcelor eged Information -Arcelor 's proprietary information Detailed results for wheels production, delivery and recycling The production of the polymer hubcap for the steel wheel has got a relative high burden compared to steel production, because automotive steel is well recycled (95%) and there is a wide Primary Energy Requirements (MJ) 239 105 74 47 13 551 415 0 124 12 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 Total Materials Hubcap Wheel plant Transports Steel Aluminium Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 8 market for steel. Polymer hubcaps are not recycled, or when it occurs, they can not benefit from a high number of recycling steps as steel can.<br><br> Global Warming Potential (kg CO2 equiv.) 16,58 6,73 8,02 0,88 0,96 36,40 28,30 0,00 7,26 0,84 0,00 5,00 10,00 15,00 20,00 25,00 30,00 35,00 40,00 Total Materials production Hubcap Wheel plant Transports Steel Aluminium elor 3All rights reserved for all countries roduced without prior written specific authorization of Arcelor eged Information -Arcelor 's proprietary information Detailed results for use phase Primary Energy requirement per wheel (MJ) 2840 3044 2800 2850 2900 2950 3000 3050 3100 CO2 Emissions per wheel (kg CO2) 189 202 190 195 200 205 Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 9 2700 2750 Steel wheel Al wheel 180 Steel wheel Aluminium wheel The respective values for steel and aluminium cases differ approximately by 7%. As a result, we can estimate that, strictly speaking, there is no significant difference . In fact, this difference of 7% is close to the accuracy magnitude of the data.<br><br> elor 3All rights reserved for all countries roduced without prior written specific authorization of Arcelor eged Information -Arcelor 's proprietary information Proposal of communication guidelines It is important to fight against materials that pretend to be an environmental alternative to steel because they are lighter than steel. The present study demonstrates a contrary case. These issues should be discussed within adequate communities with the scope to lead them thinking in terms of global life cycle , not only of use phase.<br><br> Arcelor Research 3 Innovation R&D © 2006 3Ar Cannot be disclosed, used, or re CONFIDENTIAL 3Privil Mtg Name or Doc Reference Date 10 " Carmakers community, internet site of steel wheels makers,... " European institutions (DG Environment, DG Energy and Transport, Parliament&) " INRETS (Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Sécurité - France) and other technical public bodies dedicated to transports " Selected NGOs dedicated to the place of the individual car in the Society, such as cLa voiture citoyenne d in France&) " Specialized automotive magazines

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