Exploring Life Cycle Impact Assessment As A Prioritisation Strategy With a focus on climate change and mineral resource depletion in the automotive sector
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2023
Författare
Bunke, Vincent
Rutfjäll, Sara
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
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Sammanfattning
With the release of the 6th assessment report from IPCC, there is a larger need
than ever to invest in climate change mitigation. This can be seen in the company
Aurobay which develops combustion engines primarily for Volvo Cars. Last year
they conducted an LCA on the mild-hybrid VEP MP Gen3, and are now aiming to
understand and quantify the impact of the emissions based on the results.
This thesis explores the possibility of directly comparing the impacts of climate
change and mineral resource depletion. A literature study was conducted
evaluating midpoint impact categories by using the RACER criteria. Three methods
suitable for climate change (IPCC, Environmental Footprint and ILCD) and mineral
resource depletion (CML, Environmental Footprint and ILCD) were found during an
organised workshop. The next step focused on endpoint methods, where the aim
was to find two methods able to incorporate both impact categories. Contextspecific
criteria were derived for this purpose. A second workshop was organised
where it was decided to use Environmental Footprint and Ecological Scarcity.
Normalisation approaches for the two selected endpoint categories were presented and
used to calculate final scores. For climate change, yearly budgets and total budgets
based on IPCC’s SSP1 scenarios 1.9 and 2.6 were used. For mineral resource
depletion, yearly budget and total budget based on the different reserve estimates,
ultimate, reserve base and economic reserve were used. In addition, an Aurobay
approach was created, based on their sustainability targets using simple linear
reduction. The results showed that the chosen normalisation reference alters the
severity to a high degree where larger budgets result in lower impacts. This can also be
seen in the way that there are clear budgets for climate change in contrast to mineral
resource depletion where there are no such targets. It was concluded that at this stage,
this should not be used as an indicator within development, more research is needed
along with extensive work on other impact categories. However, this approach could be
applied when comparing different substances within an impact category, if one were to
use the same method and budget.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
LCIA , climate change , mineral resource depletion , ADP , SSP , normalisation , engine , midpoint , endpoint , impact categories