Eco-Selection and The Eco Audit Tool - Lecture Unit 12

Unit 12.
Eco-selection
and the
Eco-audit tool
Introducing students to life-cycle thinking
Mike Ashby
Department of Engineering
University of Cambridge
© M. F. Ashby, 2011
For reproduction guidance see back page
This lecture unit is part of a set created by Mike Ashby to help introduce students to materials, processes and rational selection.
The Teaching Resources website aims to support teaching of materials-related courses in Design, Engineering and Science.
Resources come in various formats and are aimed primarily at undergraduate education.
www.grantadesign.com/education/resources
Outline
 Material consumption and life-cycle

 LCA - problems and solutions
 Eco-audits and the audit tool
 Strategy for materials selection

 Demo
 Exercises
Resources
 Text: “Materials and the Environment”, Chapters 1 - 9
 Text: “Materials: engineering, science, processing and design”, Chapter 20
 Text: “Materials Selection in Mechanical Design”, Chapter 16
 Software: CES Edu with Eco-Audit tool
 Poster: Wall chart of Eco-properties of materials
M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Material production
Concern 1: Resource consumption, dependence
96% of all
material
Usage
20% of
Global
energy

Carbon to atmosphere
Concern 2: Energy consumption, CO2 emission
20% of all
carbon to
atmosphere

The product life-cycle
Resources
Life cycle
assessment (LCA)
Combust Landfill
Emissions and waste

Life cycle assessment (LCA)
Typical LCA output
ISO 14040 series
PAS 2050 Aluminum cans, per 1000 units
• Bauxite 59 kg
Resource • Oil fuels 148 MJ
• Electricity 1572 MJ
consumption
• Energy in feedstock 512 MJ
• Water use 1149 kg
• Emissions: CO2 211 kg
• Emissions: CO 0.2 kg
Roll up into an
Emissions “eco-indicator” ?
• Emissions: NOx 1.1 kg
inventory • Emissions: SOx 1.8 kg
• Particulates 2.47 kg
• Ozone depletion potential 0.2 X 10-9
Impact • Global warming potential 1.1 X 10-9
assessment • Acidification potential 0.8 X 10-9
• Human toxicity potential 0.3 X 10-9
 Full LCA expensive, and requires great detail and skill – and even
then is subject to uncertainty
 How can a designer used these data?

Design guidance vs. product assessment
Market need
Problem statement
Alternative schemes Concept
Layout and
Eco – audit
materials Embodiment ability
CAD, FE analysis,
optimization, costing Detail
Product specification
Life cycle
Production assessment

Eco-audit for design
Need: Fast Eco-audit with sufficient precision to guide decision-making
 1 resource – energy (oil equivalent) 1 emission – CO2 equivalent
 Distinguish life-phases
600 16
14
400
12
C02 equiv (kg)

300 10
Energy (MJ)
8
200
6
100 4
2
0
0
-100 -2
This is the life-energy and life-CO2 These are potential benefits

(as prescribed in ISO 14040 and PAS 2050) (could be recovered at end of life)
Eco-aware design: the strategy (1)
The steps
Analyse Explore
Fast
results, identify options with
eco-audit
priorities “What if..”s
600 600
Initial design What if ..
400 400 Different material?
300 300
Energy (MJ)
Energy (MJ)
200 200
100 100
0 0
-100 -100

Eco-aware design: the strategy (2)
The steps Look at the first three steps

Analyse Explore Use CES to Recommend
Fast
results, identify options with select new Materials actions & assess
eco-audit
priorities “What if..”s and/or Processes potential savings
600
Use eco-audit to
400
indentify
design objective
300
Energy (MJ)
200
100
-100
Material Manufacture Transport Use End of life

Minimize: Minimize: Minimize: Minimize: Select:
• material in part • process energy • mass • mass • non-toxic materials
• embodied energy • distance • thermal loss • recyclable
• CO2/kg
• electrical loss materials
• CO2 / kg • transport type
The CES Eco-audit tool
User inputs Data from CES

User interface Eco database
 Bill of materials  Embodied energies
 Manufacturing process  Process energies
 Transport needs  CO2 footprints
 Duty cycle  Unit transport energies
 End of life choice  Recycling / combustion
Eco audit
model
Outputs
(including
tabular data)

Typical record showing eco-properties

The simple Audit tool: Levels 1, 2 and 3
Add record
Eco Audit Today’s Webex
Synthesizer Webex Feb 10 at 4.00 PM UK time
Options….
^ 1. Material, manufacture and end of life ?
1 Component 1 Cast iron 30% 2.4 Casting Recycle

1 Component 2 Polypropylene 0% 0.35 Molding Landfill
How Name Choose Set recycle Enter Choose Choose end-of-

many? material from content mass process life path
CES DB tree 0 – 100%
v 2. Transport ?
v 3. Use ? HELP at
each step
v 4. Report ?

Material and process energy / CO2
Component name Material Process Mass (kg) End of life

Component 1 Aluminum alloys Casting 2.3 Recycle
• Casting Available • Reuse

• Forging / rolling processes • Refurbish
• Extrusion • Recycle
• Wire drawing
End of life • Combust
• Powder forming options • Landfill
• Vapor methods
CES EduPack
materials
tree
Total embodied energy
Total process energy
Total mass
Total end of life energy

Transport
Transport stage Transport type Distance (km)

Stage 1 32 tonne truck 350
Stage 2 Sea freight 12000
Transport energy
Transport CO2
Table of transport types:

MJ / tonne.km
CO2 / tonne.km

Use phase – static mode
Energy input and output Fossil fuel to electric
Power rating 1.2 kW

Energy conversion path
W Fossil fuel to heat, enclosed system
Usage 365 days per year
kW Fossil fuel to heat, vented system
MW Fossil fuel to electric
Usage 0.5 hours
hpper day Fossil fuel to mechanical
ft.lb/sec Electric to heat
kCal/yr Electric to mechanical (electric motor)
Total energy and CO2 for use BTU/yr Electric to chemical (lead-acid battery)
Electric to chemical (Lithium-ion battery)
Electric to light (incandescent lamp
Electric to light (LED)

Bottled water (100 units)
 1 litre PET bottle with PP cap

 Blow moulded
 Filled in France, transported 550 km to UK
 Refrigerated for 2 days, then drunk
Number Name Material Process Mass (kg) End of life

100 Bottles PET Molding 0.04 Recycle
100 Caps Polyprop Molding 0.001 Recycle
100 Water 1.0
Transport
Stage 1 14 tonne truck 550 km
Use - refrigeration
Fossil to electric 0.12 kW 2 days 24 hrs/day
The output: drink container
400
The audit reveals
300 the most energy
and carbon
Energy (MJ) 200 intensive steps…
100
End of life … and allows rapid

0
Material Manufacture Transport Use “What if…”
-100
100% virgin PET
with recycling
-200
12
10
8
Carbon (kg)
2
End of life
0
Material Manufacture Transport Use
-2
100% virgin PET
PET Glass ?
-4
with recycling
-6
Change the materials
 1 litre glass bottle with aluminum cap

 Glass moulded
 Filled in France, transported 550 km to UK
 Refrigerated for 2 days, then drunk
Number Name Material Process Mass (kg) End of life

100 Bottles PET
Soda glass Molding
Glass mold 0.45
0.04 Recycle
100 Caps Aluminum

Polyprop Rolling
Molding 0.002
0.001 Recycle
100 Water 1.0
Transport
Stage 1 14 tonne truck 550 km
Use - refrigeration
Fossil to electric 0.12 kW 2 days 24 hrs/day
Glass bottle replacing PET
400 Change 800

of scale
300 600
400
Energy (MJ)
200
Energy (MJ)
100 200
End of life End of life

0 0
Material Manufacture Transport Use Material Manufacture Transport Use
-100 -200
100% virgin PET 100% virgin glass
with recycling with recycling
-200 -400
12 60
Change
10 of scale 50
8 40
Carbon (kg)
Carbon (kg)
6 30
4 20
2 10
0 0
-2 -10
-4 100% virgin PET -20 100% virgin glass

-6 -30
Use recycled PET instead of virgin?
400 400
300 300
200
Energy (MJ)
200
Energy (MJ)
100 100
End of life
0 0
Material Manufacture Transport Use Material Manufacture Transport Use End of life
-100 -100
100% virgin PET 100% recycled PET
-200 -200
12 12
10 10
8 8
Carbon (kg)
6
Carbon (kg)
4 4
2 2
End of life
0 0
-2 -2
-4 100% virgin PET -4 100% recycled PET

-6 -6
Is it practical to use recycled PET?

Combust instead of recycle
400 400
300 300
200
Energy (MJ)
200
Energy (MJ)
100 100

0 0
-100 -100
100% virgin PET 100% virgin PET
with recycling with combustion
-200 -200
12 12
10 10
8 8
Carbon (kg)
Carbon (kg)
6 6
4 4
2 2
End of life
0 0
-2 -2
-4 100% virgin PET -4 100% virgin PET

with recycling with combustion
-6 -6
Ship by air freight, refrigerate 10 days
400 1000
Change 800
300
of scale
600
Energy (MJ)
200
Energy (MJ)
400
100
200
Disposal
0 Disposal
Material Manufacture Transport Use 0
Material Manufacture Transpt Use
-100 -200 100% virgin PET
100% virgin PET
with truck transport with air freight
-200 -400
12 60
10 Change 50
8
of scale 40
Carbon (kg)
30
Carbon (kg)
4 20
2 10
Disposal Disposal
0 0
Material Manufacture Transport Use Material Manufacture Transpt Use
-2 -10
-4 100% virgin PET -20 100% virgin PET

with truck transport with air freight
-6 -30
Teaching with the CES Eco-audit tool
Introductory level teaching Pre-loaded in CES Edu 2011

• Overview of the life cycle  Bottled mineral water.prd
• Shown how Eco Audit Tool works  Hair dryer.prd
• Pre-loaded projects  Electric kettle.prd
Which life phase dominates?  Portable space heater.prd
What could you do about it?  Family car.prd
• Self-made projects  Wind turbine.prd
Students can explore change of
 Material
 Recycle content
 Transport mode
 Transport distance
 Use pattern
 Electric energy mix
 End of life
Jug kettle
Bill of materials and processes
2 kW jug kettle
 Made SE Asia
 Air freight to UK
 Life: 3 years
Transport Use
 6 minutes per day
 12,000 km, air freight
 300 days per year
 250 km 14 tonne truck
 3 years

Eco audit: the jug kettle
What do we learn?
 Little gained by change of material for its own sake

 Much gained by insulation – double wall with foam or vacuum
 Or make hot water on the fly – only as much as needed

The advanced Audit tool: EcoSelector
Add record
Eco Audit
Synthesizer Same as the
Options…. simple model
^ 1. Material, manufacture and end of life ?
1 Component 1 Cast iron 30% 2.4 Casting Fine machining 10% Recycle 95%
Joining and finishing
Machining, % recovered
Component 1 Painting 0.55 m2 at end of life
grinding, %
Component 1 Welding 0.7 m removed
v 2. Transport ? Choose joining Set

(adhesives, fastners, parameters
welding)
v 3. Use ? and finishing
For advanced teaching the Enhanced
(painting, plating,
powder coating) Eco Audit Tool is available in the Eco
v 4. Report ? Design Edition of CES EduPack

So what?
CES has two tools-sets to help explore the materials dimension of

environmental design
Tool 1. Eco-audits allows students to implement quick, approximate

“portraits” of energy / CO2 character of products.
Tool 2. Selection strategies allows selection to re-design products to meet

eco-criteria, using systematic methods
They allow fast audits and systematic materials selection for redesign

Lecture Unit Series
These PowerPoint lecture-units are on the Teaching Resource Website
Each frame of each unit has explanatory notes. You see them by opening the
PowerPoint slide in Notes view (View – Notes pages) or by clicking this icon in the
bottom toolbar of PowerPoint

Also Available for Sustainability
On the topics of:

Eco Design & Eco Audits
Low Carbon Power Systems
• Exercises with Worked Solutions

• Other Lecture Units
• White Papers
• Interactive selection case studies
• Webinar recording
• Poster
• Sample Eco Audit Project Files
• Links to other good resource sites
• Eco Indicator Database
http://teaching.grantadesign.com/open/eco.htm
Reproduction Author
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Mike Ashby
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
University of Cambridge, Granta Design Ltd.
License.
www.grantadesign.com/education
Please make sure that Mike Ashby and Granta Design are www.eng.cam.ac.uk
credited on any reproductions. You cannot use this resource
for any commercial purpose.
The Granta logo, the Teaching Resources logo and laptop

image and the logo for the University of Cambridge are not
covered by the creative commons license.
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Accuracy
We try hard to make sure these resources are of a high quality. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please contact us
by email at teachingresources@grantadesign.com
M. F. Ashby, 2011
Granta’s Teaching Resources Website aims to support teaching of materials-related courses in Engineering, Science and Design.
The resources come in various formats and are primarily aimed at undergraduate students.
This resource is one of 23 lecture units created by Mike Ashby.
The website also contains resources donated by faculty at the 800+ universities and colleges worldwide using
Granta’s CES EduPack.
The teaching resource website contains both resources that require the use of CES EduPack and those that don’t.
Some of the resources, like this one, are open access.
www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

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Unit 12.

 Material consumption and life-cycle

 Eco-audits and the audit tool

 Strategy for materials selection

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Concern 1: Resource consumption, dependence

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Concern 2: Energy consumption, CO2 emission

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

 How can a designer used these data?

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Alternative schemes Concept

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Need: Fast Eco-audit with sufficient precision to guide decision-making

 1 resource – energy (oil equivalent) 1 emission – CO2 equivalent

C02 equiv (kg)

This is the life-energy and life-CO2 These are potential benefits

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

The steps Look at the first three steps

Material Manufacture Transport Use End of life

User inputs Data from CES

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

^ 1. Material, manufacture and end of life ?

1 Component 1 Cast iron 30% 2.4 Casting Recycle

How Name Choose Set recycle Enter Choose Choose end-of-

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Component name Material Process Mass (kg) End of life

• Casting Available • Reuse

Total embodied energy

Total process energy

Total end of life energy

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Transport stage Transport type Distance (km)

Stage 2 Sea freight 12000

Table of transport types:

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

Energy input and output Fossil fuel to electric

Power rating 1.2 kW

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

 1 litre PET bottle with PP cap

Number Name Material Process Mass (kg) End of life

100 Caps Polyprop Molding 0.001 Recycle

100 Water 1.0

End of life … and allows rapid

 1 litre glass bottle with aluminum cap

Number Name Material Process Mass (kg) End of life

100 Caps Aluminum

100 Water 1.0

400 Change 800

End of life End of life

-4 100% virgin PET -20 100% virgin glass

-4 100% virgin PET -4 100% recycled PET

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

End of life End of life

-4 100% virgin PET -4 100% virgin PET

-4 100% virgin PET -20 100% virgin PET

Introductory level teaching Pre-loaded in CES Edu 2011

Students can explore change of

Bill of materials and processes

M. F. Ashby, 2011 www.grantadesign.com/education/resources

 Little gained by change of material for its own sake