Lifecycle assessment (LCA) is used to calculate the products potential environmentalimpact and identify hotspots in the life cycle. The result can be used to apply measuresto the product system hotspots for a reduced potential environmental impact.
SCC AB specializes in the manufacture of coils, which are a sub-component in electricmotors and generators. A coil set consists of winding wire made of copper and insulating material. The purpose of this study is to present qualitative and quantitativedata on the coil set during production by– calculate the potential environmental impact from the selected coil set– identify the greatest potential to make improvements in the life cycle– report improvements to reduce the potential environmental impact in thelife cycle.
The functional unit (FU) is defined as the manufacture of generator coil set for the renovation of electrical equipment. In comparison with other coil set, it is of medium size and not themost produced coil set on SCC. It has a rated voltage (Un) of 13.8 kV and consists of 100 coilsmade of 1650 kg of copper and 230 kg of insulation material.
The result is obtained for the environmental impact categories global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP) and abiotic resource depletion potential(ADP). Global warming is mainly due to the copper smelter and the copper mine,which account for 43% and 38%, respectively, of the total contribution of 9106 kgcarbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e). It is mainly the copper smelter that contributesto acidification of 63% of the total contribution of 279 kg sulphur dioxide equivalents(SO2e). Abiotic resource depletion is largely due to the copper mine, which accountsfor 82% of the total contribution of 3330 kg of copper equivalents (CUe).
The improvement analysis is based on a material flow circularity measure (MEM),which is calculated by comparing the use of primary and secondary copper materialin the production. The analysis shows that there are secondary-produced wires on themarket thar can be used to produce the coil set.
The conclusion is that secondary produced winding wire can replace primary windingwire at an extra financial cost to apply an open loop between SCC AB and the smelter.It can contribute to a potentially reduced environmental impact and a promoted CE.