The Environmental Opportunities and Challenges of Composite Cars
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Industrial ecology (MPTSE), MSc
Publicerad
2021
Författare
Berg, Ivan
Sandberg, Kevin
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The transport sector faces several challenges when it comes to reducing its contribution
to global warming and dependence on fossil fuels. This means that the
transport sector needs to find alternative energy sources for its vehicles as well as
to decrease the energy use in the use phase of the life cycle. This can be achieved
by turning from vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines to electrical
vehicles as well as to reduce the weight of the vehicles. The latter can be accomplished
by substituting conventional materials with lightweight materials such as
carbon fiber composites. However, there are also solutions on how to combine these
strategies where the energy is stored in the body, which will reduce the mass of the
vehicle as a consequence of reduced battery size.
The aim of the thesis was to assess the environmental impact of two composite
vehicles based on either carbon fiber reinforced polymers or structural batteries as
well as to give suggestion on how these materials can substitute conventional materials
to reduce the weight while keeping or increasing the system performance.
This implied a conceptual design of a conventional battery electric vehicle where
the components were replaced with either carbon fiber reinforced polymers or structural
batteries. This resulted in three conceptual vehicles based on different materials
which functioned as input data to the inventory analysis of a cradle-to-grave
life cycle assessment where the vehicles were assessed according to global warming
potential, crustal scarcity indicator and cumulative energy demand.
The result showed that both carbon fiber reinforced polymers and structural batteries
have the potential to reduce the weight of a conventional battery electric vehicle
of approximately 30-50% while keeping or increasing the mechanical and electrochemical
performance of the vehicle. The result showed that the vehicle based on
carbon fiber reinforced polymers provides environmental benefits over a conventional
electric vehicle, while structural batteries cause more environmental impact. However,
the result indicated that the carbon fiber reinforced polymers and structural
batteries could decrease its environmental impact drastically if the energy use was
reduced in the carbon fiber production as well as the structural batteries manufacturing
process in addition to using fossil carbon lean energy system.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Multifunctionality , Lightweight Materials , Structural Batteries , Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers , Life Cycle Assessment