Electrical and electronic components in the automotive sector: Economic and environmental assessment |
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Authors: | Juan C Alonso Julia Dose Günter Fleischer Kate Geraghty André Greif Julio Rodrigo Wulf-Peter Schmidt |
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Institution: | 1.LEAR Automotive (EEDS) Spain SL,Valls (Tarragona),Spain;2.Department of Systems Environmental Engineering,Technical University of Berlin, Institute for Environmental Engineering,Berlin,Germany;3.Technical Department,Rohm and Haas Electronic Materials Europe Ltd.,Coventry,UK;4.SIMPPLE,Tarragona,Spain;5.K?ln,Germany |
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Abstract: | Background Aims and Scope Automotive electrical and electronic systems (EES) comprise an area that has grown steadily in importance in the past decade
and will continue to gain relevance in the foreseeable future. For this reason, the SEES project (Sustainable Electrical &
Electronic System for the Automotive Sector) aims to contribute to cost-effective and eco-efficient EES components. Scenarios
for the recovery of automotive EES are defined by taking into consideration the required improvements in EES design and the
development and implementation of new technologies. The research project SEES is funded by the European Commission (Contract
no. TST3-CT-2003-506075) within the Sixth Framework Programme, priority 6.2 (see 〈www.sees-project.net〉 for more information).
This paper presents the findings of an assessment of the environmental and economic improvements for automotive EES from a
system perspective, taking into account all life cycle steps.
Methods Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) case studies have been employed within the SEES project to define
optimum design and end-of-life scenarios. These case studies have been applied to two selected EES components: an engine wire
harness and a smart junction box, both manufactured by LEAR and assembled in an existing Ford car model. The component design
has a significant impact on the product system and its processes, including its use and end-of-life (EOL) phase. For each
of the analysed components, two potential design alternatives have been compared with the original design, based on designers’
recommendations from the status quo scenario results. These include the use of alternative wiring systems with a reduced copper
content (flat flexible cable), lead-free solder alloys and new fixation mechanisms to facilitate disassembly. The overall
EOL scenario determines the technologies of processes that must be modelled within the EOL phase of a product system. The
analysed end-of-life scenarios include: status quo car recycling and two alternatives: 1. disassembly for specific EES component
recycling; 2. advanced post-shredder recycling of shredding residues. The influences of the different design and EOL treatment
scenarios on the LCA and LCC results have been analysed.
Results The most dominant life cycle phases for the LCA results are manufacturing (including raw material extraction and manufacturing
of materials and components) and the use-phase. Similarly, manufacturing was the predominant phase during the LCC study. Disassembly
costs were shown to be significant during the EOL phase. Among the analysed design alternatives, the highest environmental
improvement potential were gained from the use of alternative wiring systems with reduced weight and copper content, but with
slightly increased life cycle costs. Smaller differences of the results were determined for the different end-of-life scenarios.
Discussion The results of the EOL scenario depend on the component in question. The influence of variations in process data, model choices,
e.g. which LCIA model was used for calculating the Human Toxicity Potential (HTP), which inventory data for copper production
was used and other variables have been assessed in the sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates a strong
dependency of results for HTP on the selected model. The presented results are based on a public report of the SEES project.
The study has undergone a critical review by an external expert according to ISO 14040, § 7.3.2.
Conclusions The environmental impacts during the life cycle of the analysed products are generally most strongly influenced by material
production and the use phase of the products. In comparison, improvements during the EOL phase have only a very limited potential
to reduce environmental impacts. The studied design changes displayed clear environmental advantages for (lighter) flat, flexible
cables. Whereas, the lead-free solder design alternatives showed a slight increase in some environmental impact categories.
The application of these design changes has been limited in some cases by technical issues.
Recommendations and Perspectives Focussing only on end-of-life improvements cannot be recommended for automotive EES products. A life-cycle perspective should
be utilised for assessing improvements in individual life cycle stages of a product. The presented results will be an input
for Eco-design guidelines for automotive EES, to be developed at a later stage within the SEES project.
ESS-Submission Editor: Dr. Lester Lave (II01@andrew.cmu.edu) |
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Keywords: | Automotive electrical and electronic components design alternatives dismantling end-of-life scenarios LCA case studies LCC case studies recycling smart junction box wire harness |
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