As one quarter of global energy use serves the production of materials, the more efficient use of these materials presents a significant opportunity for the mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With the renewed interest of policy makers in the circular economy, material efficiency (ME) strategies such as light-weighting and downsizing of and lifetime extension for products, reuse and recycling of materials, and appropriate material choice are being promoted. Yet, the emissions savings from ME remain poorly understood, owing in part to the multitude of material uses and diversity of circumstances and in part to a lack of analytical effort. We have reviewed emissions reductions from ME strategies applied to buildings, cars, and electronics. We find that there can be a systematic trade-off between material use in the production of buildings, vehicles, and appliances and energy use in their operation, requiring a careful life cycle assessment of ME strategies. We find that the largest potential emission reductions quantified in the literature result from more intensive use of and lifetime extension for buildings and the light-weighting and reduced size of vehicles. Replacing metals and concrete with timber in construction can result in significant GHG benefits, but trade-offs and limitations to the potential supply of timber need to be recognized. Repair and remanufacturing of products can also result in emission reductions, which have been quantified only on a case-by-case basis and are difficult to generalize. The recovery of steel, aluminum, and copper from building demolition waste and the end-of-life vehicles and appliances already results in the recycling of base metals, which achieves significant emission reductions. Higher collection rates, sorting efficiencies, and the alloy-specific sorting of metals to preserve the function of alloying elements while avoiding the contamination of base metals are important steps to further reduce emissions.

/pdf/material-efficiency-strategies-to-reducing-greenhouse-gas-2vu455lqku.pdf

Material efficiency strategies to reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with buildings, vehicles, and electronics—a review

The automotive lightweighting trends, being driven by sustainability, cost, and performance, that create the enormous demand for lightweight materials and design concepts, are assessed as a part of the circular economy solutions in modern mobility and transportation. The current strategies that aim beyond the basic weight reduction and cover also the structural efficiency as well as the economic and environmental impact are explained with an essence of guidelines for materials selection with an eco-friendly approach, substitution rules, and a paradigm of the multi-material design. Particular attention is paid to the metallic alloys sector and progress in global R&D activities that cover the “lightweight steel”, conventional aluminum, and magnesium alloys, together with well-established technologies of components manufacturing and future-oriented solutions, and with both adjusting to a transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. Moreover, opportunities and challenges that the lightweighting creates are discussed with strategies of achieving its goals through structural engineering, including the metal-matrix composites, laminates, sandwich structures, and bionic-inspired archetypes. The profound role of the aerospace and car-racing industries is emphasized as the key drivers of lightweighting in mainstream automotive vehicles.

Current Trends in Automotive Lightweighting Strategies and Materials

Advanced materials have offered the materials designer a wide range of options in the specification and selection of materials for various applications. Material properties are continually being improved to meet safety and operational standards in line with prevailing technological developments. Modern technological requirements, together with the consumers’ demands for systems and machines that are more energy efficient, stronger, light-weight, cost-effective, etc., dictate that the search for new and advanced materials will remain a subject of interest all the time. The difficulty in designing materials for such stringent specifications cannot be overstated, owing to the conflicting nature of these specifications. Aluminium metal matrix composites (AlMMCs) are a class of materials that have proven successful in meeting most of the rigorous specifications in applications where light-weight, high stiffness and moderate strength are the requisite properties. With a variety of reinforcement materials and flexibility in their primary processing, AlMMCs offer great potential for the development of composites with the desired properties for certain applications. In this review, the development, utilisation and future potential of AlMMCs in various industrial and commercial applications is discussed, together with the existing challenges hindering their full market penetration.

/pdf/novel-applications-of-aluminium-metal-matrix-composites-3yj7m9c0ih.pdf

Novel Applications of Aluminium Metal Matrix Composites

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a valuable tool for establishing the environmental burdens of a composite material over its lifetime. It is therefore of importance to the composites industry as a material selection tool when determining the applicability of recycled composites in the component design phase. This review paper evaluates the LCA framework and its ability to accurately determine the benefits of closed-loop composite recycling, with the aim of aiding future material selection for recycled CFRP. LCA is a powerful tool for CFRP assessment when used in combination with an economic and technical component as covered by the integrated Life Cycle Engineering approach. The broad range of values available in LCA databases may prove an issue for cross comparison between studies and provide disparate results leading to impractical conclusions. The use phase offers the greatest potential for CFRP emissions savings in the transport sector; the advent of closed-loop recycling for CFRP may provide the multiple use phases required to breakeven on the significant energy burden of production or possibly provide net environmental savings gains over traditional materials.

An evaluation of life cycle assessment and its application to the closed-loop recycling of carbon fibre reinforced polymers

A large portion of life cycle transportation impacts occur during vehicle operation, and key improvement strategies include increasing powertrain efficiency, vehicle electrification, and lightweighting vehicles by reducing their mass. The potential energy benefits of vehicle lightweighting are large, given that 29.5 EJ was used in all modes of U.S. transportation in 2016, and roughly half of the energy spent in wheeled transportation and the majority of energy spent in aircraft is used to move vehicle mass. We collect and review previous work on lightweighting, identify key parameters affecting vehicle environmental performance (e.g., vehicle mode, fuel type, material type, and recyclability), and propose a set of 10 principles, with examples, to guide environmental improvement of vehicle systems through lightweighting. These principles, based on a life cycle perspective and taken as a set, allow a wide range of stakeholders (designers, policy-makers, and vehicle manufacturers and their material and component suppliers) to evaluate the trade-offs inherent in these complex systems. This set of principles can be used to evaluate trade-offs between impact categories and to help avoid shifting of burdens to other life cycle phases in the process of improving use-phase environmental performance.

Green Principles for Vehicle Lightweighting.

1.1. Vehicle Mass Reduction
New greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for cars and light trucks are taking effect for model year 2017, progressing towards an anticipated sales-weighted average level of 173 g/mile C02 for model year 2025, and fuel economy standards increasing each year to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) target of 51.4 mpg fleet-wide by 2025 (for a projected vehicle sales mix). As a result, vehicle manufacturers are looking for solutions that can meet these goals without sacrificing marketable vehicle attributes (Nehuis et al., 2014; U.S. EPA, 2012a, 2014). Reducing mass enables vehicles to operate more efficiently during the use phase because energy demands (e.g., acceleration, rolling friction) on the powertrain are reduced. This reduction in mass can have major benefits on the total life-cycle impacts of vehicles because the current use phase accounts for 84–88% of the total life-cycle energy consumption and GFIG emissions for conventional light-duty vehicles. Comparatively, the manufacturing contributes approximately 4–7% of the energy consumption over the life of a light-duty vehicle (Keoleian and Sullivan, 2012; Mcauley, 2003; Sullivan and Cobas-Flores, 2001; Sullivan et al., 1998). Because of this dominant contribution of impacts from the use phase, mass reduction efforts and other use-phase efficiency measures provide an effective means to reduce the total life-cycle impacts. Flowever, the share of life-cycle impacts between the production and use phase for vehicles is likely to shift away from the use phase with increasing efficiency and with reduced light-duty vehicle GFIG emissions standards, as shown in the example comparison in Fig. 1






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Fig. 1.

Energy consumption for material production, manufacturing, and use for a light-duty vehicle now and trends for the future.
Total life-cycle energy use will decrease as the proportion of impacts for the material production and manufacturing phases are expected to increase and the use-phase impacts are expected to decrease. This is the expected trend with substitutions of more intensive but lighter materials such as aluminum alloys or carbon fiber replacing less intensive but heavier materials such as mild steel. Stronger, higher strength steels are also expected to displace mild steels by reducing total volumes required. Values for the current chart are a simplified breakdown based on Keoleian and Sullivan (2012), Sullivan and Cobas-Flores (2001), and Sullivan etal. (1998).

Critical factors affecting life cycle assessments of material choice for vehicle mass reduction.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency contracted with FEV North America, Inc. to conduct a whole vehicle analysis of the potential for mass reduction and related cost impacts for a future light-duty pickup truck. The goal was to evaluate the incremental costs of reducing vehicle mass on a body on frame vehicle at levels that are feasible in the 2020 to 2025 model year (MY) timeframe given the design, material, and manufacturing processes likely to be available, without sacrificing utility, performance, or safety. The holistic, vehicle-level approach and body-structure CAE modeling that were demonstrated in a previous study of a mid-sized crossover utility vehicle were used for this study. In addition, evaluations of closures performance, durability, and vehicle dynamics that are unique to pickup trucks are included. Secondary mass reduction was also analyzed on a part by part basis with consideration of vehicle performance requirements. This paper presents an overview of the study “Vehicle Mass Reduction and Cost Analysis-Light-duty Pickup Truck Model Years 2020-2025”, by FEV North America, Inc. This study indicates that when mass reduction strategies are considered using a full-vehicle approach, significant mass reduction can be achieved relative to a 2011 light-duty pickup while maintaining vehicle functional objectives. The incremental results are assembled into a curve for mass reduction costs (in $/kg), as a function of the vehicle mass reduction level. Results from the study show that relative to the baseline vehicle (2011MY), mass reduction levels below 9% can result in a cost savings (cumulative net incremental direct manufacturing costs) with cumulative costs increasing to $4.36/kg, or $2,228 per vehicle, at 21.4% (510.9 kg) mass reduction. Introduction Light-duty pickup trucks, Figure 1, have a number of characteristics that are unique from other passenger vehicles, and which influence the potential solutions for achieving vehicle mass reduction in order to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. One primary difference is the use of a body-on-frame design in which the bed and cab are separately mounted to a frame that provides the main load bearing structure for towing, hauling, and crash performance. Furthermore, the intended market usage for these vehicles imposes a unique loading on the suspension, chassis, and bed, so it is especially important to consider strength and durability performance of alternative designs. Figure 1. 2011 Light-duty Truck The two major strategies for primary mass reduction utilized in this study include 1) Material choice: substitute materials for those with lower density and adjust material volume as necessary for given Cost-Effectiveness of a Lightweight Design for 2020-2025: An Assessment of a Light-Duty Pickup Truck 2015-01-0559 Published 04/14/2015 Cheryl Caffrey and Kevin Bolon US EPA Greg Kolwich FEV North America, Inc. Robert Johnston EDAG, Inc. Timothy Shaw Munro & Associates, Inc. CITATION: Caffrey, C., Bolon, K., Kolwich, G., Johnston, R. et al., "Cost-Effectiveness of a Lightweight Design for 2020-2025: An Assessment of a Light-duty Pickup Truck," SAE Technical Paper 2015-01-0559, 2015, doi:10.4271/2015-01-0559. Downloaded from SAE International by Cheryl Caffrey, Thursday, May 07, 2015

Cost-Effectiveness of a Lightweight Design for 2020-2025: An Assessment of a Light-Duty Pickup Truck

Effect of Driving Cycles on Emissions from On-Road Motorcycles

Fuel Effects Study with Small (<19kW) Spark-Ignited Off-Road Equipment Engines

Fuel Effects Study with In-Use Two-Stroke Motorcycles and All-Terrain-Vehicles

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