Materials Selection and the Environment

Question 1

what equation do we use to reduce material consumption?

Answer 1

Question 2

what equation do we use to reduce energy consumption?

Answer 2

Question 3

What equation do we use to reduce Carbon emissions?

Answer 3

Question 4

What do we need to reduce?

Answer 4

Population (P)
Per Capita GDP
Material intensity
Energy intensity
Carbon intensity

Question 5

If usage of a material increases by r% each year and the current rate of population is P then:

Answer 5

Question 6

What happens if if r=3%?

Answer 6

If r = 3% more resources used in next 25 years than previous 300 years!

Question 7

What is the materials lifecycle (simple view)?

Answer 7

Question 8

Material lifecycle (more complex view)?

Answer 8

Question 9

When conducting a lifecycle analysis of materials what do we need to consider?

Answer 9

Raw materials, Energy usage, Transport, Environmentsl emissions (Soilds, Liquids and Gases)

Question 10

At what stages of a materials lifecycle do we conduct an analysis?

Answer 10

Material production, pPopulation manufacturing, Use, end-of-life

Question 11

What are the environmental impacts?

Answer 11

Question 12

How do we apply embodied energy to material selections?

Answer 12

Energy used in the primary production of a material or product including transport before use -> can be expressed in energy per kg of materials or energy per unit of product

Question 13

How do we apply embodied energy to material selections?

Answer 13

Energy used in the primary production of a material or product including transport before use -> can be expressed in energy per kg of materials or energy per unit of product

Question 14

How do we apply the embodied carbon footprint?

Answer 14

Question 15

What are the environmental impacts of acidification?

Answer 15

Question 16

What are the environmental impacts of acidification?

Answer 16

Question 17

what are the environmental impacts of eutrophication?

Answer 17

over enrichment of water in nutrients;
- phosphates, nitrates
- can result in, for example, algae blooms
- death and decay of algae leads to oxgen depletion

Question 18

what are the environmental impacts of resource depletion?

Answer 18

Raw materials (Quantites available)
Fuels used (you can only burn fossil fuels once)
Energy in feedstocks (particularly relevant to plastics)
Water

Question 19

how do you balance multiple impacts?

Answer 19

some approaches try to use a single eco-indicator

Question 20

what are some advantages of eco-indicators?

Answer 20

places data on commen, normilsed scale
weight different impacts to reflect their importance

Question 21

what are some disadvantages of eco-indicators?

Answer 21

how do you select weighting factors?
no physical significance
some argue that carbon footprint alone is easier to understand

Question 22

what not capture by conventional LCA?

Answer 22

social impacts (social life cycle ssessment - often only applied to limited parts of the lifecycle)
unforeseen consequences (more efficient products, cost less to use, increases usage, total energy usage goes up)

Question 23

What is the embodied energy vs usage energy?

Answer 23