Carbon footprint of pultruded composites products used in automotive applications: case study of side panel of coach

摘要

The growing concern about the climate change is the driving force for several industries to increase their environmental awareness especially for the automotive industry. Carbon footprint (CF) is a method that could be applied to compare products based on their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These gases are the major cause of the climate change and are mostly generated by automobiles. The CO2 footprint value gives a single clear number which makes it easy to compare products.The aim of this thesis is to examine the possible and available methods to estimate carbon footprint. For further extensive use of composites, it is critical to estimate the energy consumed and CO2 footprint emitted during the life time of the composites compared to other conventional materials. This study evaluates the contribution of composite materials in weight reduction which results in energy saving and less environmental impacts. This project is funded with a grant by TUT Foundation.There is no specific universal definition of the carbon footprint. The PAS 2050 is the only standard established in the United Kingdom. There is an international standard of the CF published by the international Organization for standardization (ISO) called ISO/TS 14067.Currently, there are several CF labels available in the market. Some of these labels give the carbon footprint values and others show that the product is better than the average. The value is either in grams or kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The global warming potential (GWP) factors are used to quantify the greenhouse gases to CO2e.The CF and energy consumption are calculated for the entire life cycle of a side panel of a coach which is manufactured from composite materials and compared with other conventional materials. Different case scenarios of transportation and use phase are analyzed in order to show the potential use of the composite materials over other materials. Further implementations to improve the impacts of composite materials are suggested.