Environmental Impact from an AGV System Assessing GHG emissions from Kollmorgen’s products during operation and identifying reduction possibilities

Abstract

This thesis was conducted at Kollmorgen Automation AB to investigate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from their products during operation, find the most important factors contributing to the emissions, and finally define possible improvement measures for reducing them. Kollmorgen’s products are used in automated guided vehicle (AGV) systems at their end-users’ applications. The method for calculating the emissions was mainly the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) which was used throughout the report. Various assumptions were used to calculate GHG emissions from Kollmorgen’s products during operations since they are used worldwide. Furthermore, three case studies were executed to investigate the emissions from their products during operation and provide an understanding of AGV systems. Several interviews were held at the case studies and with colleagues at Kollmorgen to identify factors affecting the emissions and find possible improvement measures. Finally, two driving tests were performed to assess the improvement measures’ impact on the GHG emissions and validate them. The results demonstrate that Kollmorgen’s products had larger GHG emissions during operation than expected given that their main product is a software. However, Kollmorgen’s emissions were also found to only represent 5-10 % of the total AGV system, which indicated the importance of considering AGV systems’ emissions. Several factors affecting the GHG emissions were also identified along with improvement measures to reduce the emissions. The results from the driving tests clearly indicated that the driving pattern of an AGV has a significant impact on energy consumption and thereby the GHG emissions. However, one of the factors with the highest impact on the GHG emissions was the energy mix which differs between regions and is something Kollmorgen’s products can not influence. The discussion covered the significance of assessing the environmental impact of Kollmorgen’s products and AGV systems in general. The possible improvement measures were concretized and the implementation of them would lead to an important reduction in GHG emissions. Finally, the reliability