Abstract
The influence of alloy composition on the environmental impact of the production of six aluminum casting alloys (Al Si12Cu1(Fe), Al Si5Mg, Al Si9Cu3Zn3Fe, Al Si10Mg(Fe), Al Si9Cu3(Fe)(Zn) and Al Si9) has been analyzed. In order to perform a more precise environmental impact calculation, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) with ReCiPe Endpoint methodology has been used, with the EcoInvent v3 AlMg3 aluminum alloy dataset as a reference. This dataset has been updated with the material composition ranges of the mentioned alloys. The balanced, maximum and minimum environmental impact values have been obtained. In general, the overall impact of the studied aluminum alloys varies from 5.98 × 10−1 pts to 1.09 pts per kg, depending on the alloy composition. In the analysis of maximum and minimum environmental impact, the alloy that has the highest uncertainty is AlSi9Cu3(Fe)(Zn), with a range of ±9%. The elements that contribute the most to increase its impact are Copper and Tin. The environmental impact of a specific case, an LED luminaire housing made out of an Al Si12Cu1(Fe) cast alloy, has been studied, showing the importance of considering the composition. Significant differences with the standard datasets that are currently available in EcoInvent v3 have been found.
Highlights
Nowadays there is great social concern about the protection of the environment
Once the life cycle inventories were introduced in SimaPro, the balanced, minimum and maximum environmental impacts were obtained for the alloys
The minimum environmental impact is produced by alloy #6 (Al Si9) with an environmental impact of 6.09 ˆ 10 ́1 pts; it can be observed that the alloying elements that create the highest environmental impact are copper, silicon and tin, elements commonly used in aluminum alloys [29]
Summary
Nowadays there is great social concern about the protection of the environment. Problems like climate change, the greenhouse effect or acid rain are consequences of environmental issues that affect our daily life. Enterprises have made great efforts to design their products over the last few years to produce goods that preserve environmental resources and reduce the amount of waste and environmental impact. The ecodesign concept originated with the aim of prevention in the design stage, instead of correction, as most of the environmental impacts are defined when the product idea is conceived and the product is designed [1,2]. Material selection takes an important role on the environmental performance, as its affects the whole product life cycle: raw material acquisition, manufacturing process, transportation, and end of life [3,4]. Many examples of ecodesigned products illustrate this process [5], in areas such as automobiles, bicycles or lighting [6,7], increasing their market competitiveness [8]
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