Title: A life cycle greenhouse gas assessment of remanufactured refrigeration and air conditioning compressors

Authors: Wahidul Biswas, Michele Rosano

Addresses: Centre of Excellence in Cleaner Production, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia. ' Centre of Excellence in Cleaner Production, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia

Abstract: Remanufacturing can importantly reduce the resource intensity and increase the eco-efficiency of product systems by utilising recovered end of life (EOL) parts. A life cycle assessment (LCA) has been carried out to determine the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of a remanufactured compressor vs. a new original equipment manufacturer (OEM) compressor. The remanufacturing consisted of five stages: disassembling, cleaning and washing (C&W), machining, reassembling, and testing. The analysis determined that remanufactured compressors produce about 89% to 93% less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than those associated with a new (OEM) compressor and also 50% cheaper than a new (OEM) compressor. The analysis also confirmed that additional reuse and less replacement of parts with new parts can further reduce the overall GHG emissions of remanufactured compressors. The research concludes that remanufacturing can be regarded as a sustainable manufacturing operation that helps attain economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainability.

Keywords: life cycle assessment; LCA; remanufacturing; remanufactured compressors; refrigeration; air conditioning; end of life; EOL products; greenhouse gases; GHG emissions; reuse; sustainable manufacturing; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSM.2011.042153

International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing, 2011 Vol.2 No.2/3, pp.222 - 236

Published online: 11 Mar 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article