Abstract
The past two decades have seen growing pressure on vehicle manufacturers to reduce the environmental impact of their vehicles. One effective way to improve fuel efficiency and lower tailpipe emissions is to use advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) that offer equal strength and crash resistance at lower mass. The present study assesses the life cycle environmental impacts of two steel grades considered for the B-pillar in the Ford Fusion: A press-hardened boron steel design as used in the previous model of the vehicle and a hydroformed component made from a mix of the molybdenum-bearing dual phase steels DP800 and DP1000. Information related to the component masses and grades was provided by Ford. Process models for the steelmaking process, finishing, forming, vehicle use and end of life were created in the GaBi LCA software tool. Sensitivity analyses were conducted on the impact of the hydroforming process for the new component, for which only proxy data were available and on the mix of DP800 and DP1000 in the B-pillar. Results have been presented for the environmental impact categories deemed most relevant to vehicle use. The life cycle assessment showed that the new DP800/DP1000 B-pillar design has a lower impact for the environmental impact categories assessed. Overall, the global warming potential (GWP) of the new DP800/DP1000 design was 29 % lower than the boron steel design over the full life cycle of the vehicle. The use phase was found to be the major source of environmental impacts, accounting for 93 % of the life cycle GWP impact. The 4 kg weight saving accounts for the majority of the difference in impacts between the two B-pillar designs. Impacts from manufacturing were also lower for the new design for all of the impact categories assessed despite the higher alloy content of the steel. A sensitivity analysis of the hydroforming process showed that even if impacts from forming were 100 % greater than for press hardening, the GWP from production of the new B-pillar design would still be lower than the boron steel version. The molybdenum-bearing DP1000/DP800 B-pillar was found to have lower life cycle and production impacts than the previous boron steel design. The assessment indicates that significant improvements in the environmental impacts associated with the body structure of vehicles could be made through the increased use of AHSS in vehicles without compromising crash performance.
Highlights
Over the past two and a half decades, the transport sector has become a growing source of concern for governments, consumers and other stakeholders seeking to tackle the combined pressures of climate change, air pollution and resource use
The life cycle assessment showed that the new DP800/DP1000 B-pillar design has a lower impact for the environmental impact categories assessed
This paper presents the results of a life cycle assessment study commissioned by the International Molybdenum Association (IMOA) in 2014 to assess the life cycle impacts of two B-pillar designs from different generations of the Ford Fusion
Summary
Over the past two and a half decades, the transport sector has become a growing source of concern for governments, consumers and other stakeholders seeking to tackle the combined pressures of climate change, air pollution and resource use. Mitigation strategies aimed at reducing the environmental impacts associated with transport can be categorised into three broad categories: Reducing the need for transportation, increasing the use of low-impact transport modes such as walking and cycling and improving vehicle technology and fuels (de Wilde 2013) Within this third category, improvements can be made through abatement technologies to reduce tailpipe emissions such as catalytic convertors (Bosteels and Searles 2002), changes in the composition of fuels themselves such as reducing sulphur in diesel (Blumberg et al 2003), the use of electric or hybrid vehicles (Hawkins et al 2012) and improvements in vehicle fuel efficiency through measures such as reduced rolling resistance (Bridgestone 2013) and vehicle lightweighting (ThyssenKrupp 2009), which forms the focus of this study
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