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Life cycle assessment-based selection of a sustainable lightweight automotive engine hood design

  • LCI METHODOLOGY AND DATABASES
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

This study presents a life cycle assessment (LCA)-based sustainable and lightweight automotive engine hood design and compares the life cycle energy consumption and potential environmental impacts of a steel (baseline) automotive engine hood with three types of lightweight design: advanced high strength steel (AHSS), aluminum, and carbon fiber.

Methods

A “cradle-to-grave” LCA including the production, use, and end-of-life stages is conducted in accordance with the ISO 14040/14044 standards. Onsite data collected by Chinese automotive companies in 2015 are used in the assessment. The Cumulative Energy Demand v1.09 method is applied to evaluate cumulative energy demand (CED), and the International Panel on Climate Change 2013 100a method is used to estimate global warming potential (GWP 100a).

Results and discussion

Among the different lightweight designs for the engine hood, the aluminum design is the most sustainable and has the lowest CED and GWP (100a) from a life cycle perspective, which is based on a lifetime driving distance of approximately 150,000 km. In addition, the AHSS design is also sustainable and lightweight. The carbon fiber design results in higher CED and GWP (100a) values than the steel (baseline) design during the life cycle but results in the largest CED and GWP (100a) savings through waste material recycling. The AHSS design exhibits the best break-even distance based on CED and GWP (100a) within 150,000 km.

Conclusions

Sensitivity analysis results show that the lifetime driving distance and material recycling rate have the largest impacts on the overall CEDs and GWPs of the three lightweight designs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Automotive Technology and Research Center, Tianjin, 300300, China

    Xin Sun, Peng Zhang & Mingnan Zhao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Jingru Liu & Bin Lu

Authors
  1. Xin Sun
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  2. Jingru Liu
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  3. Bin Lu
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  4. Peng Zhang
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  5. Mingnan Zhao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jingru Liu.

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Responsible editor: Wulf-Peter Schmidt

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Sun, X., Liu, J., Lu, B. et al. Life cycle assessment-based selection of a sustainable lightweight automotive engine hood design. Int J Life Cycle Assess 22, 1373–1383 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1254-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1254-y

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