Aluminium die casting is a process used to transform molten aluminium material into automotive gearbox housings, wheels and electronic components, among many other uses. It is used because it is a very efficient method of achieving near net shape with the required mechanical properties. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a technique used to determine the environmental impacts of a product or process. The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) is the initial phase of an LCA and describes which emissions will occur and which raw materials are used during the life of a product or during a process. This study has improved the LCI technique by adding in manufacturing and other costs to the ISO standardised methods. Although this is not new, the novel application and allocation methods have been developed independently. The improved technique has then been applied to Aluminium High Pressure Die Casting. In applying the improved LCI to this process, the cost in monetary terms and environmental emissions have been determined for a particular component manufactured by this process. A model has been developed in association with an industry partner so this technique can be repeatedly applied and used in the prediction of costs and emissions. This has been tested with two different products. Following this, specialised LCA software modelling of the aluminium high pressure die casting process was conducted. The variations in the process have shown that each particular component will have different costs and emissions and it is not possible to generalise the process by modelling only one component. This study has concentrated on one process within die casting but the techniques developed can be used across any variations in the die casting process.

Submitted by Alison Vanceto (alison-vanceto@hotmail.com) on 2017-05-02T13:57:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLDV.pdf: 2484486 bytes, checksum: d3e5e77576203f23208cb028dd992b41 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-05-03T13:05:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLDV.pdf: 2484486 bytes, checksum: d3e5e77576203f23208cb028dd992b41 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ronildo Prado (ronisp@ufscar.br) on 2017-05-03T13:05:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLDV.pdf: 2484486 bytes, checksum: d3e5e77576203f23208cb028dd992b41 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-03T13:17:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissLDV.pdf: 2484486 bytes, checksum: d3e5e77576203f23208cb028dd992b41 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / The construction sector is one of the sectors that most require natural resources and generate waste throughout the production chain. In this sense, given the need to preserve the environment and natural resources for future generations, the industry needs to improve the environmental performance of its operations chain. In order to achieve effective improvements by the actions developed by the sector, these actions need to be based on information about the environmental performance that are objective and verifiable. One of the methods that allow the collection of environmental information is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is one of the main tools of environmental impact assessment for the lifecycle of products and systems. The LCA allows to evaluate the impacts of raw material extraction, manufacturing process, use and disposalt. In this context, a study of the manufacturing process of structural ceramic blocks (cradle to factory gate) was conducted, aiming to analyze its main impacts and processes that contribute most to these environmental impacts. To conduct this study data collection was performed in two plants located in the State of São Paulo. Based on data collected locally and on the international database Ecoinvent®, the life cycle inventory (LCI) was drawn up with the necessary adaptations to represent the local context. Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) was carried out using the following methods: CML 2002, Edip 97, USEtox and IPCC 2013. Based on the LCIA results, it was possible to identify the processes that contributed to each of the impacy categories analyzed, with the electricity being the process that most contributed to all categories. But the fuel used in the burning of the blocks, in turn, did not generate significant environmental impacts due to factories studied using biomass. Therefore, this study allowed to evaluate the magnitude and importance of the environmental impacts generated by the manufacture of ceramic bricks and also to characterize the environmental performance of ceramic bricks based on LCA. / A construção civil é um dos setores que mais consome recursos naturais e gera resíduos na sua cadeia de produção. Neste sentido, diante da necessidade de preservar o meio ambiente e os recursos naturais para as futuras gerações, é fundamental que o setor melhore o desempenho ambiental de suas operações. Para que as ações desenvolvidas pelo setor resultem em melhorias efetivas, é necessário que elas sejam subsidiadas por informações sobre o desempenho ambiental, que sejam objetivas e verificáveis. Um dos métodos que permite a compilação de informações ambientais é a Avaliação de Ciclo de Vida (ACV), que se apresenta como um dos principais instrumentos de avaliação dos impactos ambientais gerados durante o ciclo de vida de produtos e sistemas. A ACV permite avaliar os impactos desde a extração de recursos naturais, processamento de matéria-prima, manufatura até o uso e descarte dos mesmos. Neste contexto, foi realizado um estudo do processo de fabricação de blocos cerâmicos estruturais (do berço ao portão da fábrica) com o intuito de averiguar seus principais impactos ambientais e os processos que mais contribuem para estes impactos. Para realizar este estudo, foi feita a coleta de dados em duas fábricas localizadas no Estado de São Paulo. Com base nos dados coletados in-loco e na base de dados internacional Ecoinvent®, o inventário do ciclo de vida (ICV) foi elaborado com as devidas adaptações para que representasse o contexto local. A partir do ICV, foi realizada a avaliação dos impactos do ciclo de vida (AICV) por meio dos métodos CML 2002, EDIP 97, USEtox e IPCC 2013. Com base nos resultados da AICV, foram identificados os processos que mais contribuíram para cada uma das categorias de impacto analisadas, sendo a eletricidade o processo que colaborou de forma mais significativa para todas as categorias. Já o combustível utilizado na queima dos blocos, por sua vez, não gerou impactos ambientais significativos, devido às fábricas estudadas utilizarem biomassa. Portanto, o presente estudo permitiu avaliar a magnitude e significância dos impactos ambientais gerados pela fabricação de blocos cerâmicos, bem como caracterizar o desempenho ambiental de blocos cerâmicos com base em ACV.