Environmental Impacts of Production of Biodiesel and Its Use in Transportation Sector

As efforts continue to incorporate environmental sustainability into product design, struggles persist to concurrently consider the environmental impacts resulting from transportation planning and supply chain network design. In fact, the transportation sector is the second largest contributor to direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States, following electricity generation. To address these concerns and consider environmental issues more holistically during the development of products, Design for X (X: manufacturing, environment, etc.) methods, such as environmentally benign manufacturing (EBM) and life cycle assessment (LCA) continue to be advanced through research. In spite of improving environmental performance through design, supply chain related impacts are not well understood and can be impacted by decisions made during product design. Thus, the aim of this research is to explore how changes to the design of a product affect manufacturing supply chain configurations and, in turn, influence product environmental sustainability. The environmental impacts for producing several three-ring binder design variations are predicted by assuming a given set of suppliers that provide materials and components to the manufacturer. Supply chain transportation impacts are also accounted for in the analysis. Transportation impacts are found to be minor compared to materials and manufacturing impacts.

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Environmental Assessment of Motorcycle using a Life-Cycle Perspective

Indonesian Journal of Life Cycle Assessment and Sustainability ◽

10.52394/ijolcas.v1i1.3 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Bertha Maya Sopha ◽

Setiowati Setiowati ◽

Sholeh Ma’mun

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Secondary Data ◽

Resource Depletion ◽

Road Transport ◽

Motor Vehicles ◽

Transportation Sector ◽

Life Cycle Perspective ◽

Function Unit

Transportation sector contributes as the second largest polluter of the air pollution in Indonesia. Of the transportation sector, road transport has generated 70% of the air pollution, 81% of which is attributable to motorcycles. The motorcycles are currently accounting for 79% of the total motor vehicles. It is predicted that the number of motorcycles will continue to grow at an annual rate of 9-26%. However, due to little attention to the motorcycle’s environmental impacts, this present study, therefore, aims to assess and report the environmental impacts of using motorcycles based on life-cycle perspective. Using a functional unit of one passenger per kilometer (pkm), resource consumption and emissions through the entire life-cycle of a motorcycle were estimated. The foreground Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) was compiled through observation, interview, and secondary data, while the background LCI was based on ecoinvent data v.2.0. Results show that the environmental impacts of the chosen function unit constitute Abiotic Resource Depletion Potential (ADP) of 0.515 g Sb-eq., Global Warming Potential (GWP) of 176 g CO2-eq, Human Toxicity Potential (HTP) of 1.1 g 1.4-DCB-eq, and Acidification Potential (AP) of 0.544 g SO2-eq, respectively. Operation (usage stage) of the motorcycle has been the most contributor to GWP and AP, while manufacturing stage has been the most contributor to HTP. Potential interventions related to the manufacturing process, fuel, and usage of the motorcycle to reduce the environmental impacts are also discussed.

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