Reducing the environmental impact in the design process of the electric drive transmission
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2022-08-22
Department
Major/Subject
Sustainable Energy and Environment
Mcode
MJ2418
Degree programme
Environomical Pathways for Sustainable Energy Systems
Language
en
Pages
55+12
Series
Abstract
The automation industry is one of the sectors that have a notable impact on the environment and global warming. While the current incentives tend to decrease the tail emission of vehicles, it is impossible to decarbonize this sector without optimizing the manufacturing processes as well. This thesis work focuses on the powertrain mounts system assembly to analyze its environmental impact. Raw material is the main sector that results in a high carbon footprint. Total carbon footprint, human toxicity and fossil depletion potential of powertrain mounts system is around 420 kg CO2eq, 103.5 kg 1,4-DCBeq and 117.3 kg oil_eq, respectively. The raw material processing is responsible for 77% of the total emissions, followed by the manufacturing of components of the powertrain mount system with 26%. Half of the greenhouse gases emission directly come from the production of electricity which is consumed throughout the whole supply chain. The study for individual raw materials shows that aluminum is the main contributor in all impact categories, while polyamide is the less harmful material among others. Although the carbon footprint of logistics and assembling is almost negligible, they have a higher impact on agricultural land occupation (19%) and ionising radiation potential (17%), respectively. The study demonstrates that the global warming potential of aluminum alloys can be decreased around 10 times by using secondary aluminum. Moreover, shifting the platform to BEV from ICE reduces carbon footprint by 65% in total, while the discrete decline in the carbon footprint of raw material, manufacturing, and logistics is 59%, 85%, and 72%, respectively. Furthermore, the location of suppliers is one of the main factors regarding the carbon footprint as electricity is the key factor in direct emission. The CO2eq emission can be decreased by around 40% in manufacturing by obtaining components from European suppliers, especially Nordic countries. This also leads to a reduction in the environmental impact of logistics. Moreover, Techno-economic comparison shows that producing parts in Norway instead of China can lead to additional savings due to the upcoming emission taxes for import products in Europe.Description
Supervisor
Santasalo-Aarnio, AnnukkaThesis advisor
Nedström, CharlottaKeywords
powertrain, environmental impact, life-cycle assessment, circular economy, electric vehicle, carbon footprint