Ice cube maker
From DDL Wiki
LCA
The Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment (EIO-LCA) website, www.eiolca.net, contains data on the most common contributors to greenhouse gases, toxic releases, and energy usage from industries and sections of those industries. Although there was not a category that specifically fit our product, our ice maker fit best in the category of “Household refrigerator and home freezer manufacturing.” The simulation pretended that an additional $1 million had been spent in this industry, then we examined the how much extra greenhouse gasses would be released into the atmosphere. If the product were typical for its sector, the following table displays how many greenhouse gasses would be emitted in to the atmosphere by spending an extra $1:
| Sector | GWP MTCO2E | CO2 MTCO2E | CH4 MTCO2E | N2O MTCO2E | CFCs MTCO2E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total for all sectors | 881. | 671. | 62.0 | 12.7 | 136. |
| Power generation and supply | 231 | 228 | 0 | 0 | 2. |
| Industrial gas manufacturing | 161. | 46.1 | 0 | 0 | 115 |
| Truck transportation | 54.3 | 53.5 | 0.083 | 0.746 | 0 |
| Household refrigerator and home freezer manufacturing | 36.3 | 36.3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Waste management and remediation services | 27.2 | 4.30 | 22.9 | 0.033 | 0 |
| Plastics material and resin manufacturing | 18.8 | 18.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oil and gas extraction | 18.1 | 3.04 | 15.1 | 0 | 0 |
In manufacturing our ice maker, about a third of the greenhouse gasses emitted come from the creating the power necessary to create it. The metal necessary to create a freezer or refrigerator explain why Iron and steel mills are the next highest sector to output greenhouse gasses. Our product, an ice maker has a very low metal content, so this does not make sense in the context of our specific product. Transportation of materials and finished product requires a significant amount of energy. The sector in which our product appears contributes a smaller amount of greenhouse gasses, but the waste from the process contributes and even smaller amount. After these sectors we find that manufacturing the plastic components contributes as well as the process of extracting oil and gas (used in both the power generation and the creation of the plastics).
The best method for reducing the ecological impact of our product is to decrease the amount of power used in the manufacturing process. Making this more efficient could potentially cut down significantly the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted. Additionally, if the transportation of parts and finished product were made more efficient this would be better for the environment.
