WP7 - LCA - Techincal report (36M)

The objective of the study is to evaluate the quality and services of the "Fundiciones de Roda" manufacturing process, assessing emissions and environmental impacts. The LCA analysis addresses the environmental aspects and potential environmental impacts (e.g. use of raw materials and resources and relative environmental emissions) through a product life cycle assessment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a methodological framework and it is one of the most widely used and internationally accepted methods for analyzing the environmental profile of products. In order to perform the LCA analysis it has been necessary to know, in detail, both the input and output data of the whole manufacturing process and relative environmental emissions. The input and output data of materials and resources consumed (water and electricity) have been obtained in collaboration among IMAMOTER - C.N.R. and partners of the FLEXICAST project.The meetings among the involved partners have been necessary to identify the useful data to collect in order to perform the LCA analysis of the whole manufacturing process. Then the data have been elaborated and implemented within the GaBi software. As regards the air emission values, since these data are unknown, they have been derived from literature data, taking into account manufacturing processes similar to Fundiciones de roda one. It has been necessary since the company did not have the appropriate sensors to perform these measurements. The following technical report will present a full description of the acquired data of the "Fundiciones de Roda" manufacturing process: raw materials, water and electricity consumed and emissions to air. Finally the LCA analysis will focus on assessment of the potential environmental impacts for each process unit of the whole manufacturing process.