SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING (CDC10503)

SEMESTER 2 2014/2015

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSEMENT OF

PERSONAL COMPUTER

NAME MATRIX

MASNADIA BT MASHURI HD140060

MOHAMED ABDIRAHMAN IBRAHIM HD140076

MUHAMMAD ZULHILMI BIN HASHIM HD140045

SHAMY NAZREIN BIN MD YAHAYA HD140066

LECTURER’S NAME : ENCIK YUSSNI BIN HASHIM

LCA STEP

LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT

STEP 1: GOAL & SCOPE

STEP 2: INVENTORY

ANALYSIS

STEP 3: IMPACT

ASSESSMENT

STEP 4: IMPROVEMENT

ASSESSMENT

INTRODUCTION

STEP 1 GOAL & SCOPE

STEP 1 : GOAL & SCOPE

GOAL/PURPOSE :

The main purpose of this project is to investigate the life cycle

environmental impact of PCs and to determine the desirable or

feasible recycle rate of an end-of-life PC.

SCOPE :

Defined by the system boundaries, the functional unit and and

input/output product (PC).

SYSTEM BOUNDRIES

Figure 1.1: The boundaries of the system of the PC assembled, used and disposed

FUNCTIONAL UNIT

The functional unit of the PC is defined as follows:

Spatial context: a personal computer made, used, and disposed of in Korea.

Temporal context: the life span of a PC, as suggested by authorities 2, is assumed to be four years.

Technology: a desktop personal computer with Intel Pentium IV 1.7 GHz, 128MB RAM, hard disk drive (HDD), CD-ROM drive,2 GB hard disk, power supply, 3.5” floppy disk drive (FDD), modem, and keyboard manufactured in Korea in 2001.

INPUT & OUTPUT

Table 1.1 briefly describes each of the stages for a computer

product system. The inputs (e.g., resources and energy) and

outputs (e.g., product and waste within each life cycle stage,

as well as the interaction between each stage (e.g.,

transportation) are evaluated to determine the environmental

impacts.

Table 1.1: input &

output of ife cycle stage

of the PC.

STEP 2 INVENTORY ANALYSIS

STEP 2 : INVENTORY ANALYSIS

Figure 2.1: Life cycle Inventory for personal computer.

Pre-Manufacturing

Pre-Manufacturing

• raw material

• component

• part production

Main Board

• PCB

• CPU

• FAN

Packaging

• Manual

• Box

• Cushion

Cards

• Modem

• Sound

• Graphic

• Memory

Drivers

• FDD

• HDD

• CD-ROM

• Power supply

Cases

• USB ports

• FAN

• Wire

Figure 2.2 : Pre-manufacturing flow chart.

PC Manufacturing

Manufacturing

(Assembly)

~ Electricity

Electrical components

Packaging the PC

Figure 2.3 : PC manufacturing flow chart.

Transportation

Transportation

~ GasolineManufacturer Retailers

Figure 2.4: Transportation flow chart.

PC Use

PC use

~ Electricity

Home PC

operate for 10.2 hours/week

Office PC

operate for 12.9 hours/week

Figure 2.5: PC use flow chart.

Disposal or End-Of-Life PC

Disposal/

End-of-lifeLandfill Incineration

Recycling

•Refining

•Pre-manipulation

•Disassembling

•Collecting

Figure 2.6: End life PC flow chart.

ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS

When site-specific data of sub-components or parts was not available, we adopted other similar databases from SimaPro4.0 and the Korean national databases.

All data on electricity was obtained from the Korean national database.

This study did not consider yield and scraps that may have emerged from electrical parts and PC manufacturing.

Assumed that components and parts as an elementary flow, where data on the input and output of materials was inaccessible.

Assumption of current recycling rate of waste PCs was estimated based on the recent study.

All the components and parts were included in this study except a CPU (central processing unit) embedded in the main board. Material data of small electrical parts are included, however process data of parts on the printed circuit boards such as resistors and capacitors were excluded due to inaccessibility to the data.

STEP 3 IMPACT ASSESSMENT

STEP 3 : IMPACT ASSESSMENT

The impact assessment focuses on characterizing the

type and severity of environmental impact more

specifically.

Classification and characterization following ISO14042

guidelines were applied to analyze the potential

environmental impact of input and output from the LCI.

ISO 14042 IS0 (the International Organization for Standardization)

is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (IS0 member bodies).

The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through IS0 technical committees.

International organizations, governmental and non-governmental. in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.

IS0 collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

International Standard IS0 14042 was prepared by Technical Committee lSO/TC 207. Environmental management, Subcommittee SC 5, Life cycle assessment.

Impact Categories for Personal

Computer

Impact categories adopted includes:

The ecological effects of abiotic depletion (ADP)

Global warming (GWP)

Ecotoxicity (ET)

Human toxicity (HT)

Acidification (Acid)

Depletion of the stratospheric zone (ODP)

Photooxidant formation (POCP)

Eutrophication (Eut)

Environmental Impact Assessment for

Personal Computer

Figure 3.1:

Environmental

impact

assessment result

for a personal

computer

1) Pre-manufacturing Stage

This stage was found be the largest contributor to all

environmental impact categories, except for human

toxicity potential.

The manufacturing of small electric parts and several

electronic components during this stage requires a

substantial amount of materials and energy, and emits

substantial quantities of air pollution, waste water, and solid

wastes.

Figure 3.2: Pre manufacturing stage process

2) Manufacturing and Distribution

stages

Most environmental impact

categories were not greatly

influenced by processes during

these two stages.

PC manufacturing is composed

of two simple processes:

assembly and packaging.

These activities require little

electricity, and emit little air

pollutants, wastewater, or solid

waste.

3) Use Stage

From the results of the LCA, we understood the use stage to be

the greatest contributor to environmental impact after the

pre-manufacturing stage.

In this study, we considered two types of consumer behaviors:

home type and office type.

Office type PC use was found to have at least 50% more influence

on environmental impact potential than home type PC use.

4) Disposal Stage

This stage was found to be a major factor in human

toxicity potential.

This stage also greatly contributed to the ecotoxicity

potential, second only to the pre-manufacturing stage.

Life cycle stage Environmental Impact Design Guidelines

Related

Environmental

Management

Pre-Manufacturing

Many small electricity parts

PCB in the main board

Power Supply (Pb-solder, NO2,

CO emission)

ABS in plastic chassis

PVC parts (waste water)

Diminishing product size

Reducing hazardous materials

in parts and materials

Lead-free soldering PCB

Green

procurement

Production Low Impact Clean

production

Transportation Low Impact

Use

Electricity consumption (fossil

fuel)

Reducing power consumption Design for the

environment

Disposal

Collection and transportation

(fossil fuel)

Refinery (Nitric, sulfuric, and

hydrochloric acid)

Enhancing recycling Product

recovery

Design for

recycling

STEP 4 IMPROVEMENTANALYSIS

STEP 4 : IMPROVEMENT ASSESSMENT

Improvement assessment will be considering the pre-

manufacturing stage was a significant stage for all of the

environmental parameters, with the exception of human

toxicity potential. For acidification, global warming, ozone

depletion, and POCP, the environmental impacts of this stage

were about 90% of the total impact of the PC.

We can improve PC production primarily consists of

assembly and packaging processes.

Based on the results of the LCA for a personal computer, we

can improve the several methods were found to reduce the

environmental burden of PC products. Although there are

several guidelines pertaining to life cycle stages, PC

manufacturers might not, for commercial reasons, be able to

consider all the recommendations.

With these techniques and the active participation of process

technologists and designers, LCA might become an analytic

tool for eco-design supporting a continuous environmental

improvement of products.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENT

ASSESSMENT RESULT FOR A PERSONAL

COMPUTER

LCA RESULTS OF IMPROVEMENT

ASSESSMENT

The results of LCA do not represent rigorous and precise data, i.e. Difficulty in the collection of data, lack of detailed information sources, and data quality affected by uncertainty, mostly due to the lack of the knowledge about the actual value of a quantity, and by variability due to the heterogeneity of values and entailed into processes.

The results of the sensitivity analysis allow stating that every assessed eco-profile is differently influenced by the uncertainty study

CONCLUSION The findings from this research have indicated that the energy used

for powering the PC contributed significantly to the examined impact categories, followed by the manufacturing of that product.

Most of that burden is observed in three impact categories: fossil fuels, respiratory inorganics and climate change, that could be attributed to the coal, lignite and natural gas extraction and then their combustion to produce electricity.

Therefore, the energy efficiency of the PC (which depends on the manufacturer), adoption of a responsible attitude of the PC user (application of energy saving mode) and heading for more renewable sources in electricity production should be highly promoted.

REFERENCES The Korean Ministry of Environment (MOE) (2002): Life cycle

inventory of products –Water, industrial water, raw materials and chemical components: Domestic area

Korea Accreditation Board and the Korean Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (2003): Environmental National Standard Database

Korea National Statistical Office (2001): A research on the actual information condition in Korea

Korean Association of Electrical and Electronics Industry for the Environment (2001): A study on the recovery and recycling of waste of electrical and electronic equipment (in Korean)

Pre (1999): SIMAPRO 4.0. Pre Consultants B.V. Plotterweg 12, 3821 BB Amersfoort, The Netherlands