A General Method of Life Cycle Assessment Mazda Motor Corporation

Format:

Conference/Event

Author/Creator:

Nitta, Nitta, author.

Contributor:

Moriguchi, Yoshihisa

Conference Name:

SAE 2012 World Congress & Exhibition (2012-04-24 : Detroit, Michigan, United States)

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Warrendale, PA SAE International 2012

Summary:

In previous Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods, environmentalburden items to be analyzed, prior to a life cycle inventoryanalysis, were assumed as the main factors of environmentalproblems regardless of the product category. Next, the life cycleinventory analysis, in which the total amount of environmentalburden items emitted during the life cycle of a product wascalculated, and an environmental impact assessment were performed.The environmental impact assessment was based on the initiallyassumed environmental burden items. The process, in other words,was a particular solution based on this assumption. A generalsolution unconstrained by this assumption was necessary.The purpose of this study was to develop a general method of LCAthat did not require such initially assumed environmental burdenitems, and to make it possible to perform a comprehensiveenvironmental impact assessment and strategically reduceenvironmental burden of a product. This could be achieved bycombining scientific knowledge on environmental burden items thatcould cause environmental problems, database on the environmentalburden items emitted during the material production and productassembly, and sales portfolio of the product.The general method of LCA was applied to passenger cars.Dominant environmental burden items that could have environmentalimpact were identified to focus attention on their reduction.In the life cycle of a passenger car, CO₂, SOX, NOX, andNMVOC were identified as dominant environmental burden items thatcould cause global warming, acidification, and formation ofphotochemical ozone. Efforts to reduce the environmental impactwere focused on the improvement of fuel efficiency for a new carmodel. As a result, it was confirmed that the new car model emitted5% less CO₂, 2% less SOX, 3% less NOX, and 2% less NMVOC thanthe predecessor.The application of the general method of LCA to other productsneeds to be studied further. Additionally, new scientific knowledgeon the environmental burden items needs to be reflected in thedatabase

Notes:

Vendor supplied data

Publisher Number:

2012-01-0649

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license