Remanufacturing and energy savings

Abstract

The substantial growth in industrial production, demand for materials, and population has led to an increasing need for sustainable manufacturing processes to mitigate the negative impacts on the environment and meet the needs of future generations. One proposed direction is remanufacturing, which is a process whereby used products having reached their end-of-life, are restored back to useful service-life. Remanufacturing utilizes the energy and embedded value retained in a product upon reaching end-of-life. Remanufacturing can close the loop between disposal and supply chains, extend the service lifetime of products, conserve resources, and help mitigate environmental consequences attributed to landfilling. Moreover, by preserving the geometrical architecture of cores, remanufacturing can reduce the needs for raw material processing and many manufacturing processes, hence, saving energy. A critical issue to consider when evaluating energy savings in remanufacturing is the product use phase: how well does the remanufactured device perform in the use phase compared to a similar new product from an energy standpoint? To answer this question, we utilize Life Cycle Assessments framework. Using this methodology, we quantify cumulative energy demands of a remanufactured product during its lifecycle and compare it to an equivalent new product. We conduct an analysis of lifecycle energy savings of remanufacturing for 19 different products in 8 distinct product case studies (4 product case studies discussed in detail in this thesis).

(cont.) By performing lifecycle evaluations we conclude that remanufacturing can be a net energy-saving option for products that have energy requirements dominated by the production phase. Moreover, our energy analysis sheds light on the importance of considering use phase while evaluating the energy savings potential of remanufacturing. We conclude that from a total life cycle perspective, remanufacturing may be a net energy saving as well as a net energy expending end-of-life option. We argue that in investigating energy savings of remanufacturing as an end-of-life option, one should also evaluate large-scale critical factors in order to effectively address the systems challenges associated with remanufacturing. Our retrospective approach signifies the importance of studying critical factors such as technological improvements, policy interventions, economic incentives, and business models in order to draw inferences about energy and economic savings potential of remanufacturing. In addition, we argue that the generalized claims about remanufacturing as the ultimate end-of-life option are not only subject to dynamic global changes, but also restricted by the limitations in the lifecycle environmental methodologies. Lastly, we conclude that the evaluations for product remanufacturing and energy savings are more valuable and justified if conducted on a case-by-case basis.