Automotive Electronic Control Components Energy Consumption and Environmental Emissions Analysis in China Based on Economic Input-Output Life-Cycle Assessment Model

Abstract

With the rapid growth of vehicle population and electronic control components used in automotives in China, the energy consumption and environmental emissions of automotive electronic control components in 2007 are calculated by adopting the EIO-LCA model. The calculation results indicate that automotive electronic control components consume 20306000 tons of standard coal equivalent (SCE), which is a large consumption of energy, and make a lot of toxic environmental emissions. However, in China, after the automotives are scrapped, the automotive electronic components are either discarded carelessly or smashed into pieces along with the vehicles for material recycling. This unreasonable treatment of these components can result in great damage to the environment and resource wastage. Therefore, in this study, the automotive electronic control components recycling strategy and a technology roadmap in accordance with China’s actual conditions are provided for energy conservation and toxic environmental emissions reduction.