LCA STUDY OF LEAD ACID BATTERY USING simaPro software

By: Amandeep singh Gaurav Gupta Nitin Panwar Vikas Ranveer Singh Mahala

Why do life-cycle assessment?

minimize the magnitude of pollution conserve non-renewable resources conserve ecological systems develop and utilize cleaner technologies maximize recycling of materials and waste apply the most appropriate pollution prevention and/or abatement techniques

What is life-cycle assessment?

simaPro Software
Short description and use

SimaPro
SimaPro is a detailed environmental analysis tool
Used for a product or process
Products and processes are called processes in this program

Quantification of the raw material, energy use, and emissions to the air, water, and soil Characterization of environmental impacts The databases contain many common products and processes.

What SimaPro Contains

Databases
Inventory of the data in SimaPro
Substances, processes, units, conversion factors, environmental impact categories, projects, libraries

Projects (what you will be working on)

The data used in a specific project

Library
Data available for use in all projects

General data
Data such as substances and units
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 This is the opening screen of SimaPro

 You will then be presented with this screen where you can select the server that you will use For the first time, there will be no servers
You will need to add the server(s) you wish to use.

1.

Click

2.

In the new window that appears click

3.

In this window enter the server name

Our server is specter

4.

Click
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5. Click

6. Make sure that Professional is highlighted as shown to the left

This is the most current version

7. Click
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8.

Wait for the database to finish loading

9.

Select a user
Select Expert, user ##, or Manager whenever possible
Expert can view and edit all expert, practioner, and visitor projects Manager and user## can view and edit all projects in the database Practioner can only open projects on that level and default tutorials, but can create projects Visitor can only open default tutorials and cannot create projects

10. The Password is the username

Ex. The password for Expert is expert
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11.The Project selection window will appear

From here you can select an existing project or create your own

12.To open and existing project click create a new project click
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To

13.When creating a new project this screen will display

Enter the name of your project
Use a concise and descriptive name like Slater LCA Tutorial

14.Click

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The top bar

The far left bar

This is a screen similar to what you should see after following the previous steps This is the main screen of SimaPro (the LCA explorer screen) where you are able to do everything SimaPro is capable of Note that this is the processes tab of the LCA explorer

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 Project Management
Create a new project Open an existing project Close the current project

Save the current item being edited Print the current item Cut the selection Copy the selection Paste the selection Find an item within SimaPro
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 Editing tools
Inserts a new line for input Deletes the currently selected input line
Used when creating a process in SimaPro

Expression tools
In SimaPro the user can input mathematical expressions instead of numbers
Displays the expressions entered and their results Updates all expressions (This is automatically done by default)

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 Analysis Shortcut tools

The analysis options are discussed in detail later
Performs a network analysis Performs a impact assessment analysis Compares the selected processes using an impact analysis

SimaPro tools
Shows the LCA explorer window This button allows you to view the data from all of the projects
This button is only available for the manager and user## users because they can view all processes It does not allow you to edit processes from other projects, only view and analyze them
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 The far left bar provides links to use for navigating the program Wizards
This provides some pre-loaded tutorials and an LCA-wizard that you can use when creating a new LCA model

Goal and Scope

Description allows you to define and view a description of the current project Libraries displays the list of libraries and allows you to select which libraries are used in the project
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 Inventory
Processes is the window that was shown earlier where you can navigate through the processes available in your project Product stages allows you to define what processes are included in the different stages of your process (assembly, life cycle, disposal, disassembly, and reuse) Waste types displays a list of the different types of waste management available in SimaPro
These are labels that tell SimaPro how to treat the waste produced by a process

Parameters allows the user to define variables, both independent and dependant, for use in the LCA model
These can be used in expressions for process inputs/outputs
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 Impact assessment
Methods displays a list of the available impact assessment methods
You can create your own methods tailored to your requirements

Calculation setups displays a list of the available calculation methods

You can create a setup to display the results that you choose in a specific format so that all repeat calculations are presented the same way
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 Interpretation
Interpretation allows the user to input an interpretation of the data Document Links provides links to the documentation that corresponds to the selected libraries

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 General Data
Literature references displays a list of the literature cited by the libraries in use Substances displays a list of the available substances Units displays a list of the units used in SimaPro Quantities displays the units sorted by what physical quantities they represent Images displays all of the images used by the selected libraries including images of processes
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The Libraries
Consist of critically reviewed data used by researchers Contains the LCI data for products and processes Our version of SimaPro does not allow users to edit these

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Click on the Libraries tab This is the Libraries tab of SimaPro The checked boxes indicate that the library is active and its contents are available for use These are all of the libraries available at Rowan Now returning to the processes tab

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Case study
LCA of LEAD ACID battery in automobiles

GOAL and SCOPE OF STUDY

The aim is to describe the most important aspects of the environmental impacts of automobile battery manufacturing. Key questions : What are the environmental impacts of automobile battery manufacturing? What is the extent of these environmental impacts? Does the new technology of automobile battery manufacturing help reduce environmental impacts? How much? What types of eco-design guidelines should be formed for automobile battery manufacturing?

Methods
The method of study for the LCA was carried out according to the steps outlined in standard sequence ISO14040

Scope and system boundary

Two types of automobile batteries were studied, i.e. a conventional battery and a calciummaintenance free battery, which has a longer lifetime than the conventional one. The boundaries of the systems studied extend to include raw materials, production, transportation (of raw materials, products and waste), utilization and disposal. Table below shows the comparison of the raw materials of a conventional battery and calciummaintenance free battery used in this study

 The main production processes of an automobile battery are divided into seven stages: grid casting, oxide mixing, pasting, curing, formation, assembly and packaging , the analytical boundaries of which can be seen in Fig shown below. The types of environmental impact to be studied can be divided into five groups: global warming (GW), acidification (AD), ozone depletion(OD), heavy metal (HM), and energy resources (ER).

Cont.

Functional unit
Here the Ah(ampere hour) has been taken as the functional unit. The conventional battery was used over a period of two years, while the calciummaintenance free battery was used over four years. The maximum Ah capacity is 80 and 90 for the conventional battery and the calcium maintenance free battery, respectively.

Life cycle inventory

The information used in the LCA can be divided into primary data derived from the manufacturing process and transportation of products manufactured during the 2008 production year. Information on the period when the product was in use can be obtained from data used in the simulation test to determine actual use of a battery. For information outside the scope of the manufacture process or which cannot be stored directly such as data on raw materials, energy, electricity, water supply and recycling, the research team used secondary data sourced from inventory databases on the environment, basic materials and energy use in Thailand

Results
Impact assessment Sensitivity analysis Means of developing and improving lead acid battery

Impact assessment
At this stage, the environmental impact of the product systems was assessed by separating the types of impact into five groups, namely; global warming, acidification, ozone depletion, heavy metal and energy resources using. When we consider the degree of each type of impact over the lifecycle of both types of batteries as presented in the bar chart in Fig. 2,

Cont

It is apparent that the impact during the stage of obtaining and use of raw materials is relatively high; accounting for approximately 50% of all the various stages of product life and the impact from acidification as a result of using raw materials such as sulfuric acid used in the formation process during manufacture.
Recycling also results in the depletion of the ozone layer and the release of metal into the environment.

Which raw material/manufacturing process has the highest environmental impact?

The two most important issues (global warming and acidification) were considered at the stages of obtaining raw materials and manufacture. Figure 4 shows the percentage of impact on global warming and acidification from materials used in the manufacturing of a conventional battery.

 Figure 5 shows the ratio of impact on global warming and acidification during the manufacturing process of a conventional battery

Sensitivity analysis
A sensitivity analysis is conducted to assess the reliability of the results gathered and is usually presented in the form of a percentage of change or an absolute deviation value. Here three possible options that may affect the results of the study by focusing on energy and raw materials, which cause acidification and global warming have been determined. The three possible options and the sensitivity analysis in the form of absolute deviation values of the results is presented in Table 3

Means of developing and improving lead acid battery

Battery can be improved by using raw materials that can be recycled, choosing types of plastic that are environmentally friendly, such as PP or PE plastic, while avoiding those that have a high environmental impact, like PVC or nylon. Reducing the quantity and types of plastic used facilitates separation of pieces of plastic and plastic that can be recycled. Increasing the charge efficiency of batteries so as to prevent selfdischarge is one way of helping to reduce impact on the environment during usage. The correct disposal of batteries is also a process that can help and one which should be promoted to develop a suitable battery collection and recycling network and prevent contaminated lead from entering the plastic recycling chain.

Conclusion
A comparison of the environmental impact resulting from use of both automobile batteries over a two year period revealed that the calcium-maintenance free battery was more beneficial to the environment than the conventional battery in all five environmental impact types due to the fact that it had a longer lifespan by more than two years. Throughout the entire lifecycle of the battery found that the calcium- maintenance free battery had approximately 28% less impact because the extent of impact during battery use was only slightly different.

Cont
The stage of obtaining raw materials had the most pronounced impact on the environment, followed by the stage of product use. In the production phase, environmental impacts are dominated by formation (40%), grid casting (30%) and oxide mixing (5%). These issues were analyzed and ways of improving the battery were proposed and separated according to the environmental issues that arose during the life cycle of the battery

references
Environment Protection Engineering, kanchanapiya premrudee, utaka jantima, annanon kittinan, lecksiwilai naruetep, kitpakonsanti kittiwan, boonyananth sudkla

SULLIVAN J. L., GAINES L., A review of battery life-cycle analysis: State of knowledge and critical needs, Argonne National Laboratory, U.S., 2010. Life Cycle Assessment LCA of Li-Ion batteries for electric vehicles, M. Gauch, R. Widmer, D. Notter, A. Stamp, H.J. Althaus, P. Wger LCAoverview tutorial

Thank you