Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Low-carbon conceptual design based on product life cycle assessment

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Greenhouse gas emission becomes a recent global concern for manufacturing. As product design has a profound effect on a product’s carbon footprint in its life cycle, recent research efforts of low-carbon design provided valuable insights and contributions. Yet, most of the research is about detailed design instead of the conceptual stage. Conceptual design of a product determines over 70 % of its life cycle costs. The decisions made during the conceptual design also have extensive impacts on the environment. Therefore, it is important to estimate the carbon footprint of a product at its conceptual design stage. In this paper, we present a carbon footprint model and a low-carbon conceptual design framework where the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of a product can be assessed. In the carbon footprint model, the amount of carbon emission is estimated at the five stages of the entire product life cycle. The carbon footprint analysis is based on product life cycle assessment. Sensitivity analysis for design parameters is also performed to measure the effects of design parameters on the estimation of product carbon footprint quantitatively. The conceptual design of a cold heading machine is used to demonstrate the proposed methodology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2006) IPCC Fourth assessment report: climate change 2007; Working Group III report “Mitigation of climate change” 447–496

  2. United States Global Change Research Program (2009) Global climate change impacts in the United States. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  3. U. S. Energy Information Administration (2006) “Manufacturing Energy Consumption Survey”. http://www.eia.gov/consumption/manufacturing/

  4. United Nations (1998) Kyoto protocol to the United Nations framework on convention on climate change

  5. Wackernagel M, Rees WE (1996) Our ecological footprint: reducing human impact on the earth. Gabriola Press New Society Publishing, B.C.

  6. Choi TM (2013) Carbon footprint tax on fashion supply chain systems. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 68(1–4):835–847

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. PAS 2050 (2011) The Guide to PAS2050-2011, Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. British Standards Institution

  8. Brogaard LK, Damgaard A, Jensen MB, Barlaz M, Christensen TH (2014) Evaluation of life cycle inventory data for recycling systems. Resour Conserv Recy 87:30–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Umeda Y, Takata S, Kimura F, Tomiyama T, Sutherland JW, Kara S, Herrmann C, Duflou JR (2012) Toward integrated product and process life cycle planning—an environmental perspective. CIRP Ann–Manuf Techn 61(2):681–702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Kellens K, Dewulf W, Overcash M, Hauschild MZ, Duflou JR (2012) Methodology for systematic analysis and improvement of manufacturing unit process life cycle inventory (UPLCI) CO2PE! initiative (cooperative effort on process emissions in manufacturing). Part 1: methodology description. Int J Life Cycle Ass 17(1):69–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. ISO/TS 14067 (2013) Greenhouse gases—carbon footprint of products—requirements and guidelines for quantification and communication. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  12. ISO14040 (2006) Environmental management-life cycle assessment: principles and framework. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hauschild M, Jeswiet J, Alting L (2005) From life cycle assessment to sustainable production: status and perspectives. CIRP Ann-Manuf Techn 54(2):1–21

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Zarandi MHF, Mansour S, Hosseinijou SA, Avazbeigi M (2011) A material selection methodology and expert system for sustainable product design. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 57(9–12):885–903

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Song JS, Lee KM (2010) Development of a low-carbon product design system based on embedded GHG emissions. Resour Conserv Recycl 54(9):547–556

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kuo TC (2013) The construction of a collaborative framework in support of low carbon product design. Rob Comput Integr Manuf 29(44):174–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Jeswiet J, Hauschild M (2008) Market forces and the need to design for the environment. Int J Sust Manuf I 1(1-2):41–57

    Google Scholar 

  18. Alsaffar AJ, Haapala KR, Kim KY, Kremer GEO (2012) A process-based approach for cradle-to-gate energy and carbon footprint reduction in product design. In Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, Paper No.MSEC2012-7405, pp. 1141–1150

  19. Devanathan S, Ramanujan D, Bernstein WZ, Zhao F, Ramani K (2010) Integration of sustainability into early design through the function impact matrix. Trans ASME: J Mech Des 132(8):1–8

    Google Scholar 

  20. Li C, Tang Y, Cui L, Li P (2014) A quantitative approach to analyze carbon emissions of CNC-based machining systems. J Intell Manuf. doi:10.1007/s10845-013-0812-4

    Google Scholar 

  21. Jiao RJ, Xu Q, Du J, Zhang YG, Helander M, Khalid HM, Helo P, Ni C (2007) Analytical affective design with ambient intelligence for mass customization and personalization. Int J Flexible Manuf Syst 19(4):570–595

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Elhedhli S, Merrick R (2012) Green supply chain network design to reduce carbon emissions. Transp Res Part D 17:370–379

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Giurco D, Petrie JG (2007) Strategies for reducing the carbon footprint of copper: new technologies, more recycling or demand management. Miner Eng 20(9):842–853

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Ball PD, Evans S, Levers A, Ellison D (2009) Zero carbon manufacturing facility-towards integrating material, energy, and waste process flows. Proc IMechE Part B: J Eng Manuf 223(9):1085–1096

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. He B, Deng ZQ, Huang S, Wang J (2014) Application of unascertained number for the integration of carbon footprint in conceptual design. Proc IMechE Part B: J Eng Manuf. doi:10.1177/0954405414539495

    Google Scholar 

  26. He B, Song W, Wang YG (2013) A feature-based approach towards an integrated product model in intelligent design. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 69:15–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. He B, Feng PE (2013) Guiding conceptual design through functional space exploration. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 66:1999–2011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Reap J, Roman F, Duncan S, Bras B (2008) A survey of unresolved problems in life cycle assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 13(5):374–388

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Huijbregts M (2002) Uncertainty and variability in environmental lifecycle assessment. Int J Life Cycle Assess 7(3):173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Weissman A, Ananthanarayanan A, Gupta SK, Sriram RD (2010) A systematic methodology for accurate design-stage estimation of energy consumption for injection molded parts. In Proceedings of the ASME 2010 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference. Paper No. DETC2010-28889, pp 1–13

  31. Pahl G, Beitz W (1996) Engineering design: a systematic approach. Springer, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  32. Altshuller G (1999) The innovation algorithm, TRIZ systematic innovation and technical creativity. Technical Innovation Centre Inc., Worcester

    Google Scholar 

  33. Suh NP (2001) Axiomatic design: advances and applications. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  34. Bao H, Liu G, Wang J (2013) Optimal design of products with low-carbon based on carbon footprint analysis. J Comp-Aided Des Comp Grap 25(2):264–272

    Google Scholar 

  35. IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (2006) URL: http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/2006gl/index.html

  36. NDRC. Baseline emission factors for regional power grids in China. URL: http://cdm.ccchina.gov.cn/Detail.aspx?-newsId=41386&TId=3

  37. He C (2012) Research on low-carbon development of urban traffic in Shanghai based on LMDI model. Thesis of Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, China

  38. Lin DS, Yang YS, Cao GR, Tian Y, Ruan ZY, An GP (1998) Forging machinery and finite element analysis. Beijing University of Technology Press, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics, School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, 149 Yanchang Rd, Shanghai, 200072, China

    Bin He, Wen Tang, Jun Wang, Shan Huang & Zhongqiang Deng

  2. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

    Yan Wang

Authors
  1. Bin He
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Wen Tang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jun Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Shan Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Zhongqiang Deng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Yan Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bin He.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

He, B., Tang, W., Wang, J. et al. Low-carbon conceptual design based on product life cycle assessment. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 81, 863–874 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7253-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7253-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation