Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of a Surface Radar System
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Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Modellbyggare
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Sammanfattning
This study was undertaken with the primary objective to assess the
environmental impacts of a surface radar system called Arthur by applying
environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). The project was initiated and
spearheaded by Saab AB, the proprietor of the system. In addition to assessing
its environmental impact, the project was geared towards enabling Saab AB to
acquire an understanding of the LCA methodology and to determine its
usefulness in their present context.
The LCA was conducted following the guidelines in ISO14040. Data on the
foreground system was mainly obtained from the collaboration with Saab AB,
and the Ecoinvent database was utilised for obtaining data on the background
system. To evaluate the potential environmental impacts, the ReCiPe method
was employed, with particular emphasis on four impact categories: climate
change, fossil fuel, terrestrial acidification, and surplus ore. The first three were
selected for the purpose of facilitating a comparison with a previous LCA study
conducted in 2015. Furthermore, an additional impact indicator for mineral
resource scarcity, the crustal scarcity indicator, was applied to complement the
surplus ore indicator.
The results showed that the highest impacts occurred during the use phase,
primarily due to the combustion of diesel fuel in the vehicle. Considering this
finding, an alternative fuel, fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), was also assessed.
Using FAME led to a reduction in, e.g., climate change, but there was a trade-
off with other impact categories, such as terrestrial acidification. The results
also showed that the two components main computer and cable set have the
highest potential for reducing environmental impacts, and should therefore be
given the highest priority for improvement efforts. Comparing the results with
those of the previously-conducted LCA on the same product system in 2015
revealed lower overall impact results in the present study. However, this does
not necessarily entail a reduction in actual environmental impacts, as variations
in the methodology and data could instead be the reasons.
Finally, it is recommended that the collaborating company Saab AB would
benefit from establishing a more comprehensive database within the
organisation to improve the reliability of LCA results and reduce the time
required for data collection in future LCA projects.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
life cycle assessment, surface radar system, climate change, fossil fuel, terrestrial acidification, mineral resource scarcity, ISO14040, ReCiPe, Ecoinvent