Nippon Oil To Ramp Up Production of Petrochemicals From Heavy Oil, Reduce Gasoline Output
Arizona Governor Issues Executive Order for Reduction of Greenhouse Gases; Focus on Transportation

UK Automakers Cut Manufacturing Energy Use, Waste and CO2 Emissions by Half in Four Years

Ukghg
Percentage contribution of different sectors to UK GHG emissions. While industrial emissions have declined since 1990, emissions from road transport usage have slowly increased.

The UK auto industry has halved its energy use, waste and CO2 emissions from vehicle manufacturing from 2001 to 2005.

Average energy use per vehicle dropped from 6.2 to 3.2 MWh, with a corresponding drop in CO2 per vehicle from 1.3 tonnes to 0.6 tones. Waste to landfill per vehicle dropped 78% from 66.4 kg to 14.5 kg, while water use almost halved from 6.2 m3 to 3.2 m3.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Limited (SMMT) provided the figures in a preview of a sustainability report due to be published on 18 September.

On the road transport accounts for approximately 21% of the total anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide in the UK (32.6 million tonnes out of a total of 153 million tonnes in 2004), according to the UK’s DEFRA.

That figure has steadily—albeit slowly—increased from 1990’s level of 19% (29.9 million tonnes out of 160.7 million tonnes total). While overall greenhouse gas emissions have dropped, transportation’s have increased—as have emissions from the residential sector. Emissions from energy industries and other industries have dropped.

Comments

Patrick

Isn't that amazing? Of a 1000 to 2000 kilogram vehicle only 66kg was being put into landfills and now less than 15kg. The automobile is the most recycled consumer product of anything we produce today...mainly because it makes economic sense to reuse steel than to mine more iron.

Nick

Only 6,200 kwhrs before, and 3,200 kwhrs now to manufacture a car? At 35 kwhrs per gallon of gasoline, that's maybe 4,000 to 2,000 miles of driving gas consumption.

So much for the silly idea that a car takes more energy to manufacture than it uses in it's 150,000 mile lifetime.

Patrick

Now we need some figures on energy cost to produce a 10kW-hr battery pack to figure in the net energy savings (or loss) of a HEV.

coal_burner

Ummm... nick. Thats megawatt hours (MWh) not kilowatt hours (KWh).

erica

6.2 MWh = 6,200 kWh
6,200 kWh / 35 kWh/gallon = 177 gallons
177 gallons * 22(ave) mpg = 3,897 miles
QED

Nick

"Now we need some figures on energy cost to produce a 10kW-hr battery pack to figure in the net energy savings (or loss) of a HEV."

Well, if the average vehicle in the UK costs $20,000, and we use the old figure of 6,200 kwrs at $.15/kwhr, we get an energy cost of $930, for 4.2%. Of course, much of that energy is probably much cheaper than electricity, but this is a start.

If we assume a much higher figure of 10% for batteries, and use Tesla's figure of $400 per kwhr, then a 10kwhr battery would need about 2,400 kwhrs ($400 divided by $.15/kwhr), which adds up to 240 discharges, or perhaps 1 years use.

Of course, this is conservative and it's probably much lower than that.

Brian

"Isn't that amazing? Of a 1000 to 2000 kilogram vehicle only 66kg was being put into landfills and now less than 15kg. The automobile is the most recycled consumer product of anything we produce today...mainly because it makes economic sense to reuse steel than to mine more iron."

No, that is 15kg put into the landfill during the MANUFACTURING process. Substantially more is put in when the car reaches the end of its life.

Bob G.

I hate to put a damper on this, but the energy utilized does not account for many (substantial) CO2 emmissions that have occured due to the vehicle being manufactured.
The reported numbers are only the energy consumed by the final manufacturer of the vehicle.
For example, it does not allow for the energy expended mining (or recycling) the steel for the motor, disc brakes, drive shafts, etc, etc?? What about the costs associated with getting raw materials to factories, for moving parts from suppliers to larger factories where components are assembled, etc?
When we look at the CO2 expended in the making of a new car, we need to understand the total picture, not just the small component the manufacturers may want us to look at.
When it comes down to it, most of the cost of (most) manufactured item can be looked at as 1) a result of the energy expended to get the raw materials into a final, usable form or: 2) profit or 3) labour. (You must get to the very root costs of these items to understand this concept).
Lets say a $30,000 vehicle is broken down to the 30% energy and 30% labour and 40% profits. The 40% profit does not suggest GM makes 30% on each car...it means the steel recycler, parts manufacturers, plastic molders,etc and GM all extracted that amount in profits from each vehicle.
ALL my numbers can be challenged, but lets look at what I am getting at just to drive home the point: If approximately 30% of the vehicle price is energy related, this means: 30% x $30,0000 / $75/MWHR = 400 MWHRs of energy is used to make that car. This equates to 400MWHRS x 0.201 Tones CO2/MWHR = 83.9 tones of CO2/vehicle.
NOW: using the info from the thread above, this equates to 11,428 gallons and (22 mpg ave) 251,428 miles.
Although you can argue somewhat with my numbers, you can see that THE ARGUMENT THAT THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS USES MORE ENERGY THAN 150,000 MILES OF DRIVING IS SUPPORTED!
By the way, you can calculate the CO2 emmissions of many consumer products this way, not just vehicles! be carefull though because some items have very low energy costs as a percentage of final sales price (for example, computer video games)

Dalvarez

The whole argument of whether or not the manufacturing
process uses more energy than the final car driving a
certain range of miles is completely off-topic. It's
like comparing apples to oranges, as burning
fuel for energy (as it's done in all combustion-type
cars regardless of mpg rating) is in every way more
harmful than using potentially perfectly clean
*electricity* during manufacturing. The key issue here
is how to get the factories to use electricity from
renewables, and *not* comparing fake quantities of
kWh or the like, because with fuels there is lots of
environmental damage that mere kWh equivalence does
not take into account, whereas with electricity you
always have the option to switch production to a clean energy source.

Dalvarez

On the bottom line: Burning *fuel* for energy
(mechanical, thermal, electric, whatever) is just
absurd. There are much better methods, and issues
like this are just ramifications of a fundamental
absurdity we need to get rid of.

Check PESwiki.org for lots of nice ideas.

The comments to this entry are closed.