Best practices to analyze carbon footprint on propulsion product value chain : Case: Waterjet
Pasanen, Tuomas (2021)
Pasanen, Tuomas
2021
Konetekniikan DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Mechanical Engineering
Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2021-03-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202102132073
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202102132073
Tiivistelmä
Since the industrial revolution, carbon emissions generated by human activities has been increased steadily towards critical levels. Global change, which we know better as a climate change will have tremendous impact to our planet creating challenges, which must be solved by our- and future generations. Due to a growing environmental awareness, different associations, nations, and individual companies have started to analyze and decrease their environmental impact. One of the extensively known unit is carbon footprint (CF), and moreover, it’s quantity in our atmosphere.
Carbon footprint as a term has received solid foothold on colloquial language and there are multiple ways to analyze product- and service carbon footprint. In addition, internet offers free guidelines and information packages to individuals to make similar assessments and adjust the lifestyle to more sustainable way.
Standardization associations have created multiple standards in last 15 years, which can be tailored to analyze different company activities’ carbon footprint. International Standards Organization, GHG Protocol and Publicly Available Standard are the flagship standards for Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) analyses, which are all based on the ISO-14040 Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) -standard. First steps towards LCA concept was taken already in 70’s forming to coherent standard in 1997. Where LCA is advanced and relevantly uniform framework, does not have one solid way of analyzing and is rather fragmented. Therefore, it is essential to find the most suitable ways of working on carbon footprint calculations. Both LCA and PCF analysis are informative tools, which company may utilize to pinpoint the most energy- and emission intensive processes.
This study discusses and strives to find the best practices for carbon footprint measuring on propulsion product value chain for Kongsberg Maritime Finland Oy. Propulsion products include waterjets, thrusters and propellers, which are designed and manufactured in Finland. Thesis is divided to two main sections. On the first one, LCA practices and different PCF standards are introduced and discussed. Literature review will also enter to environmental management area where different environmental measurements are explained.
On the second section, thesis conducts a case study for waterjet applying the LCA and PCF steps in practice. Data for the case study is collected in cooperation with suppliers, utilizing free online databases and existing literature. Waterjet emissions is presented in kg CO2/unit, which is suggested unit for product carbon footprint. Emission calculations are performed with OpenLCA software. At the end of the second section, case study results are discussed, and different types of scenarios are created to visualize the impact of different transportation and manufacturing decisions.
Carbon footprint as a term has received solid foothold on colloquial language and there are multiple ways to analyze product- and service carbon footprint. In addition, internet offers free guidelines and information packages to individuals to make similar assessments and adjust the lifestyle to more sustainable way.
Standardization associations have created multiple standards in last 15 years, which can be tailored to analyze different company activities’ carbon footprint. International Standards Organization, GHG Protocol and Publicly Available Standard are the flagship standards for Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) analyses, which are all based on the ISO-14040 Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) -standard. First steps towards LCA concept was taken already in 70’s forming to coherent standard in 1997. Where LCA is advanced and relevantly uniform framework, does not have one solid way of analyzing and is rather fragmented. Therefore, it is essential to find the most suitable ways of working on carbon footprint calculations. Both LCA and PCF analysis are informative tools, which company may utilize to pinpoint the most energy- and emission intensive processes.
This study discusses and strives to find the best practices for carbon footprint measuring on propulsion product value chain for Kongsberg Maritime Finland Oy. Propulsion products include waterjets, thrusters and propellers, which are designed and manufactured in Finland. Thesis is divided to two main sections. On the first one, LCA practices and different PCF standards are introduced and discussed. Literature review will also enter to environmental management area where different environmental measurements are explained.
On the second section, thesis conducts a case study for waterjet applying the LCA and PCF steps in practice. Data for the case study is collected in cooperation with suppliers, utilizing free online databases and existing literature. Waterjet emissions is presented in kg CO2/unit, which is suggested unit for product carbon footprint. Emission calculations are performed with OpenLCA software. At the end of the second section, case study results are discussed, and different types of scenarios are created to visualize the impact of different transportation and manufacturing decisions.